Molex - Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable Plus (QSFP+) solution

Molex introduced the Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (QSFP+) interconnect solution designed for a multitude of markets and applications including switches, routers, Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), enterprise data centres, high-performance computing (HPC) and storage. Components of the system include the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shielding cage, passive cable assembly, active cable assembly, optical MTP cable assembly, optical loopback and a 38-circuit SMT iPass host connector.

“The QSFP has evolved to QSFP+ to meet 10 Gbps data rates just as SFP progressed from SFP to SFP+ for 10 Gbps rates. The original QSFP MSA now resides as INF-8438 and is no longer an appropriate designation for use, being superseded by SFF-8436 in the SFF [Small Form Factor] Committee,” said Jay Neer, advanced technical market manager, industry standards, Molex Incorporated.

“The SFF-8436 document specifies a transceiver mechanical form factor with latching mechanism, host-board electrical-edge connector and cage. The hot-pluggable transceiver integrates 4 transmit and 4 receive channels plus sideband signals. Molex's QSFP+ transceiver (cable plug) can replace up to 4 standard SFP+ transceivers, resulting in greater port density and overall system cost savings over traditional SFP+ products,” continued Neer.

QSFP+ uses a standard 38-circuit iPass SMT host connector with a proven mating interface that enables high durability. The iPass contact design, also implemented in other standards such as PCIe*, SAS, SATA, Ethernet and InfiniBand**, provides four balanced differential channels featuring class-leading isolation, and bandwidth, with durability cycling up to 250 cycles. The Molex host connector mounts to the PCB beneath a low-profile metal cage that provides latch points and is engineered to provide appropriate EMI protection for the host system port. Optional light pipes and heat sink thermal solutions can be clipped onto the cage when needed.

The QSFP+ cable assemblies are designed to accommodate stacked and ganged connector configurations in extremely high-density requirements. They support 10G Ethernet, InfiniBand, SAS and SONET/SDH standards with different data rate options.

The optical QSFP+ MTP cable assemblies and loopbacks meet the QSFP+ interface specification. Cables are constructed with 12-fiber 3.00mm round cable for data centre interconnect cable assembly applications. The round cable provides much improved cable management over the traditional flat ribbon cable. A robust 4.50mm round optical cable ensures cable integrity and improved cable routing for installations that require connections greater than 25m apart.

QSFP+ MTP-to-LC breakout cable assemblies are available for SFP+ or patch-panel installations. Loopbacks feature a compact housing compatible with module spacing and loop optical transmit ports to receive ports for testing, burn-in and field troubleshooting.