Serial Advanced Technology Attachment commonly known as SATA is an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) standard for storage devices like optic cables, HDDs, and SSDs connected to motherboards in computers. Though the technology is much advanced with storage standards like SAS and NVMe SATA is a definite choice in many applications. These are especially beneficial for largescale uses as they offer a cost-effective solution, without compromising the quality.

 

Standard SATA Connectors

 

Amphenol offers a wide array of high-performance SATA connectors. Designed to support up to 12Gb/s, they support high speed, high capacity hard disk drive (HDD).

Standard SATA connectors extend differential signaling from 1.5Gb/s to 12Gb/s, a contact range from 7 to 22 positions and heights that are scalable from 8.15 to 34mm supporting various application requirements. They provide sequential contact mating making with staggered contact lengths and hence it an ideal option for hot-plugging applications.

 

eSATA Connectors

 

SATA connectors that connect, external hard drives to a motherboard are called external SATA or eSATA. They are typically designed for external storage applications that require a single-lane Serial ATA cable connection up to approximately two meters in length. Amphenol’s eSATA supports both Gen 1  data rate of 1.5Gb/s and Gen 2 3Gb/s data rates. We offer the standard individual eSATA connector in addition to the 2-in-1 combination connector design. The combination connectors are capable of accepting either an eSATA or a USB cable header. eSATA connectors are often chosen as a faster alternative to USB2.0 and FireWire, as they are almost five times faster than the latter.

 

Micro SATA Connectors

 

As the name suggests, these are small or “micro” connectors, especially used for compact devices. Micro SATA connectors from Amphenol enable smaller 1.8inch SATA drive form factors and are offered in both signal and power contacts. They consist of 16 contacts on 1.27mm pitch. The signal segment of the internal micro SATA connector uses the same contact configuration as a standard SATA connector and supports Gen 2 data rates of 3Gb/s.

These connectors can fit 5mm or 8mm 1.8 inch drives and are available with friction locks for cable applications. These connectors are highly durable with 500 mating cycles. These come with staggered contact lengths, which help in supporting blind-mating and hot pluggability.

 

SATA Applications

 

Standard SATA connectors are ideal for several applications including Industrial embedded computers, Audio/video storage devices, and most of the data storage devices like external storage systems, interposer cards, and processors, and storage blades. Apart from HDDs and SSDS, these are used especially in the automotive industry like smart cars with sensors linking operational and informational data to a cloud system. SSD or HDD technologies that are used in making a vehicle essentially “SMART” are driven mainly by SATA 3G and 6G connectors. The eSata connectors are generally used in computers, laptops, and USB consumer devices, and in other consumer devices like set-top boxes and external portable storage devices.

Check out on Amphenol’s wide range of storage and server connector solutions to know more.