What is board to board floating connector?

A “Floating Connector” is an electro-mechanical interconnect that absorbs misalignments in both “X” and “Y” directions, that commonly occur when the interface is mounted on a PCB.

0.5mm Floating board to board connector

Male & Female Floating connector replace to Hirose FX23L

0.635mm Floating board to board connector

SMT male & female board to board floating connector equivalent to KEL DW11

0.8mm Floating board to board connector

Iriso alternative 0.8mm Floating board to board connector

Application of floating connector:

Floating connectors are uniquely designed and equipped with spring-like terminals. With automation being widely applied to manufacturing, floating connectors are able to absorb the alignment errors from pick-and-place machines. In addition, the spring-like terminals reduce the stress on connectors caused by vibration or shock.

Why choose floating board-to-board connectors?

Advantages of floating board-to-board connectors as below for your reference.

1.Eliminates misalignment and facilitates PCB assembly of connectors.

Connectors in the assembly of various components on the PCB, all installation positions must be accurate, and floating board-to-board connectors in the PCB assembly, can eliminate the substrate real misalignment and inlay position cheap, making it more compatible with the PCB automated assembly process. Traditional board-to-board connectors may require manual assembly, while floating connectors allow for efficient automated PCB assembly.

2. Flexible design, a single PCB can accommodate multiple board-to-board connectors.

In practice, PCB links sometimes involve multiple connection points, if the use of traditional board-to-board connectors, want to accurately align very difficult, and floating board-to-board connectors can easily eliminate the tolerance of the performance advantages of a single PCB can easily accommodate multiple board-to-board link machine, improve the freedom of layout, wiring, and increase the flexibility of the design.

3.Reducing Strain Relief and achieving reliable mating.

In conventional board-to-board connectors, external shocks and vibrations can easily lead to connector misalignment and stress, and the accumulated Strain Relief may be transferred to the PCB and other connectors and solder joints, leading to host failure. The floating board-to-board connector is equipped with an internal spring mechanism that absorbs the misalignment of the substrate and the position shift when it is embedded, and the Strain Relief generated during this period will be borne by the spring, which can reduce the stress caused by misalignment and prevent the breakage of the solder joint to achieve reliable mating.

Floating board to board connectors can replace traditional board to board connectors in Multiple Fields.

Based on the above characteristics, floating board-to-board connectors have more obvious advantages over traditional board-to-board connectors, specifically in a variety of automotive, industrial control and consumer electronics applications.

1.Industrial applications: PLC, CNC, industrial PCs, sensor units and controllers, etc.

Floating connectors are well suited for industrial equipment that operates in high vibration environments. In other words, the vibration and pressure resistance of floating board-to-board connectors can regulate and absorb the deformation or wear caused by continuous vibration. Therefore, industrial equipment has become one of the main applications for floating board-to-board connectors.

2.Automotive applications: wireless module, engine ECU, car navigation system, audio and video system, radar system and battery management system, etc.

The automotive market is currently focusing on ADAS and driverless systems, which require the installation of more high-performance on-board ECUs to ensure the safety performance of the car. More information processing is required inside such high-performance ECUs, and the need for board-to-board connectors has increased due to the use of multiple PCBs inside them.

The Vehicles in the process of driving the vibration frequency is high, floating plate to plate connectors which soft spring structure may reduce the vibration generated by the car in the process of driving, absorbing stress to prevent cracking, to ensure high reliability of the product line.

3.Consumer Electronics: LED Display

As the LED display is put together from small pieces of display, the traditional connection method can not be in place in one step, it is more difficult to meet its assembly needs, and the floating board-to-board connector can be easily aligned to adjust the gap in the LED display splicing process to ensure that the entire screen can be completely spliced.

To Meet market demand, ELETE has developed 0.5mm Pitch (replaceable with Hirose FX23L), 0.635mm (replaceable with KEL DW11 series) and 0.8mm pitch (replaceable with Iriso) floating board-to-board connectors with different number of positions.