At Embedded World today, Samtec announced mid-board optical transceivers for embedded and rugged applications, including phased array radar and medical imaging.

Samtec Halo optical transceivers
‘Mid-board’ describes optical links that replace PCB tracks for very high speed signals.

The new transceivers, branded Halo-C, are aimed at PAM4 modulated 56Gbit/s (112Gbit/s in development) per lane links with 16 channels (eight bidirectional).

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While protocol agnostic, they support protocols including 10/40/100/400/800 Gbit/s Ethernet, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, PCIe, CXL and Aurora.

samtec Halo mid board optical interconnect“The Halo system delivers bit rate errors as low as e-12 at 56Gbit/s PAM4,” according to the company. “Specifically designed to withstand high shock and vibe environments, Halo transceivers can be equipped with a variety of heat sink options to provide thermal control.”

These are 2-part connectors that are pluggable for in-field replacement. The “integrated locking latch mechanism simplifies mating and unmating of the cable assembly”, said Santec.

The soldered-down part will also accept the company’s non-optical ‘Halo Cu’ transceivers which use copper wire links instead of optical fibre.

Without a heatsink, the optical transceivers are 6.5mm high.