Molex zQSFP+ Interconnect System Meets Demand for High-Density Applications

“The new zQSFP+ connector system allows users to deliver high-performance connectivity while maximising real estate over traditional SFP+ products,” says Joe Dambach, new product development manager, Molex. “It’s also a highly-integrated system that provides excellent thermal performance, signal integrity (SI), electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection and the lowest optical power consumption in the industry.”
Components of the system include:

Surface Mount Through-hole (SMT) connector: Molex’s zQSFP+ SMT EDR application consists of four lanes of high-speed differential signals with proven data rates of 25 Gbps and capable data rates of 40 Gbps. The patent-pending preferential coupling design uses insert moulding to support a narrow edge-coupled blanked and formed contact geometry to optimise electrical performance. The zQSFP+ connector shares the same mating interface as the QSFP+ form factor, making it backward compatible with current connectors, cages and cable assemblies.

Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shielding cage: Molex’s zQSFP+ EMI cages are designed with an advanced heat-sink system to provide a high level of heat dissipation for next-generation system-power levels. The spring-finger design provides optimal EMI grounding and allows for more space to route high-speed traces.

Passive Copper Cable Assemblies: The next-generation copper-cable construction provides improved insertion loss (IL) performance at 12.5 and 14.0 GHz, and has been tested up to 30 GHz. The four-lane design and SI performance design on the paddle card and termination process ensures low reflection, low cross talk and controlled impedance.

Active optical cables (AOC): Molex’s low-power AOC integrated cable solution provides less expensive, reliable transport for aggregated data rates up to 100 Gbps. The single-mode fibre technology provides long reaches of up to 4km, enabling deployment in data centres and campus environments.