Dec. 09, 2025
Data centers urgently need efficient and reliable storage solutions. Since everything in a data center must typically be connected, the connecting elements in the system should provide the flexibility required for installation and operation in small spaces and meet expected speed requirements without increasing heat output. Optimizing power distribution, reducing thermal energy levels, and improving the high-speed/low-latency performance of the interconnect are goals that every connected system in the data center hopes to achieve in its design.
Among these connectivity challenges, thermal optimization is undoubtedly the most important. Power consumption in high-power data centers is increasing all the time, and often the high temperatures caused by high power levels directly affect the data in the racks.Component life.Without thermal design optimization, sensitive components tend to fail faster or even collapse completely.
Typically, most data center architectures are designed based on a power budget, and each architecture has a thermal allocation budget. This budget is based on the overall constraints of the data center, and the connections must be designed to eliminate heat loss from the data system as much as possible. Compact, small and densely packed connection systems will be the first choice for high-power data centers.
Plug-inI/O connectorIt is a commonly used connector in high-power data centers. The introduction of thermally capable I/O connectors can effectively extract heat from pluggable I/O modules and combine it with some efficient cooling schemes. Traditional cooling techniques include adding gap pads or heat sinks to the connection system to improve heat transfer. However, traditional cooling technologies cannot meet the cooling needs of high-power data centers. Introducing thermal bridging technology into plug-in I/O connectors is an option to better optimize heat dissipation.
Thermal Bridge technology replaces traditional gap pads or thermal interface materials with an integrated mechanical spring that provides interface force and 1.0mm of compression travel. The thermal stack transfers heat from the I/O module to the cooling area. Compared to plug-in I/O connectors with traditional thermal technology, thermal bridge I/OconnectorHas more than twice the heat transfer capacity. Mechanically compressible gap pads provide low compression and heat resistance without performance degradation due to aging. Reduced thermal energy levels significantly extend the life of sensitive data center components.
At a macro level, the power distribution loss from when the power enters the data center to the actual point of use is 10% to 15%. More efficient power connectors and busbar connectors can effectively reduce voltage losses and provide power more efficiently. Power connectors now have very high densities, providing more compact designs.
In terms of high current performance, each terminal of the high current connector can carry more than 100A of current to meet the needs of high power data centers for higher power and higher performance. On the other hand, high current performance brings high power, which further helps the connector system save space and reduce power consumption.
Higher signal density With the current trend of modularization, signal terminals and terminal modules are integrated, and each terminal module supports more than a dozen signals, greatly improving signal density. Now, modular combinations of various forms and lengths can be expanded to support various combinations of high-power, low-power and signal terminals, greatly increasing the flexibility of connector system design. If the voltage and current requirements are higher, the pin spacing can be freely selected.
On the other hand, high efficiency of the power connection is also very important for thermal performance. The better thermal effects of the connection can better accommodate compact computer servers and high-end servers.
In order to improve the efficiency of the entire data center system, there are also the challenges that we are already familiar with with increasing data rates. Increasing data rates and reducing signal rise times are critical issues for every data center connectivity system. Whether it is increasing transmission density through differential pairs or internal cable interconnections to significantly reduce transmission losses, high-speed data transmission connectors are currently undergoing optimization and upgrades.
For high-power data center connectivity systems, connector systems have been focused on delivering higher module port density, improved thermal management capabilities and power efficiency.