Samtec Halo Optical Transceivers to Pave Way for High Performance
March 26, 2025
Story
Embedded systems are becoming ever thirstier for performance, and this is true in every segment of the industry from the far edge to the enterprise and the data center, and all the way up to the cloud.
To accomplish these goals, next generation enablement technologies will be needed, and Samtec is in development for a new line of mid-board optical transceivers, called the Halo-C, part of the planned Halo line. This next generation of transceivers is being designed for next gen embedded applications, the company said, that will demand 56/112 Gbps PAM4 performance in low profile and ruggedized form factors.
There are three products on the Halo roadmap: Halo-C, Halo-PE for copper cabling, and HLF-6 sockets.
The Halo optical systems and Halo Cu copper systems are interchangeable, Samtec said, and they use the same high-performance surface mount connector.
Halo-C optical systems will include up to 16 channels and 112 Gbps PAM4 performance per lane, are designed to be protocol agnostic and the Halo socket connector reportedly features up to 76 pins in a single row around the perimeter for vertical mating with Halo optical and Halo Cu copper systems.
They are also being prepared for use in any environment, with low profile designs for space savings, and being hardened to withstand high shock and vibration with a rugged 2-piece contact system. Each Halo transceiver will also support data center, HPC and FPGA Protocols, including 10/40/100 (400/800 optics only) Gb Ethernet, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel, PCIe, CXL, and Aurora, Samtec said.
HALO-C Features
Halo-C is being designed for whatever may come its way. It will have 56 Gbps PAM4 performance per lane, and the company says that 112 Gbps PAM4 per lane is in development, and its 16 channels are 8-way bidirectional. In form factor, it will have a small 6.35 mm profile to save space, a low center of gravity for a stable connection to the board, and a variety of heat sink options for conduction, convection, cold plates, or liquid cooling. The rugged surface mount connector will be built with an integrated locking latch mechanism to simplify mating and unmating of the cable assembly.
Halo’s small footprint design and efficient power use allows designers to place it close to the IC, saving power in the overall system.
The Halo optical transceiver has been developed to deliver high accuracy and high data speeds, specifically in mid-board applications. Mid-board connectivity can potentially fix signal integrity problems in high-performance computing applications, and the Halo line is built to manage and address the attenuation at the high data speeds of the future that can be found in today’s transmission lines on traditional printed circuit boards. Getting the signal off the board serves to eliminate this problem and improve performance, according to Samtec.
Samtec says that it’s designed these next-gen mid-board optical transceiver solutions to achieve best-in-class power consumption rates, smallest form factors, and high-performance versatility. All of these goals are going to be required for next-gen solutions, and it’s exciting to see how the industry will meet these needs.
Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers, he would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars. In previous lives, he’s been a short order cook, telemarketer, medical supply technician, mover of the bodies at a funeral home, pirate, poet, partial alliterist, parent, partner and pretender to various thrones. Most of his exploits are either exaggerated or blatantly false.
