ETTERS, PA - Connector manufacturer FCI, in support of the MicroTCA initiative, recently demonstrated a 10-Gbit/s datastream on a MicroTCA backplane using surface-mount MicroTCA connectors, the first such successful demonstration in a laboratory environment without the use of active equalization. The 30-cm backplane link employed standard FR4 material and did not have any back-drilling. The surface-mount-technology (SMT) footprint used in the demonstration was jointly designed by FCI and Tyco Electronics (Harrisburg, PA), optimized for performance, cost, and availability.
The demonstration, which was repeated at the Euro DesignCon exhibition in Munich, proves that MicroTCA connectors can be surface-mounted, allowing for higher speed transmissions that will benefit many telecom applications, such as wireless base stations and outdoor cabinets. As the company continues to optimize the demonstrator link, with plans to demonstrate a 12.5-Gbit/s datastream on 50-cm FR4 in the near future, FCI anticipates the commercial availability of the Micro TCA connector by early 2006.
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MicroTCA is a modular open system needed for constrained applications where advanced telecom computing architecture (ATCA) is not a good fit due to size, cost, and equipment practices. It is a draft system architecture specification that gained status as a subcommittee under the PICMG organization in October 2004. The ATCA, advanced mezzanine card (AMC), and MicroTCA architectures provide an end-to-end framework that meets the requirements of a full spectrum of high-availability telecom applications, from core routers and IP gateways, radio base stations and switching centers, to converged customer-premises equipment.
The MicroTCA connector is designed to be compliant with Telcordia GR-1217-CORE uncontrolled environment (UE) specifications, and will support data rates of up to 12.5 Gbit/s while exhibiting very low crosstalk performance.
