A cross license/second-source agreement is set to give Amphenol TCS (ATCS) the right to manufacture and sell Molex’s I-Trac backplane connector system worldwide. The two companies will work jointly to deliver intermateable, interchangeable products by sharing design and manufacturing knowledge about the I-Trac, which will be promoted as an extension of the ATCS GbX product family. Chief executive officer of Molex, Martin Slark, said: The technology behind our I-Trac design offers versatility and performance. By partnering with ATCS we will be able to expand the availability of this technology throughout the industry.
The I-Trac backplane connector system features a broadside-coupled, skew equalised design capable of data rates up to 12Gbps. Benefits are said to include good impedance control, low cross-talk and high overall bandwidth, meeting the growing demands of telecommunications and data networking equipment. I-Trac connectors are available from Molex in seven, 11 and 15-row versions.