Board-to-Board Mezzanine Interconnect for Dense Stacking
The TE Connectivity 2-1658012-2 is an 80-position receptacle from the MICTOR series, built for high-density board-to-board mezzanine stacking on a 0.80mm pitch. The 0.80mm pitch is tight enough that the board routing needs careful trace-width planning — the real estate between pads is narrow, so a four-layer board with buried vias is typical for signal breakout. What sets this receptacle apart is the range of mated stacking heights it supports: 5mm, 8mm, 11mm, 14mm, 16mm, 19mm, 22mm, 25mm, and 30mm. One board-side footprint covers nine different board-spacing requirements — the mating header's post height determines the final stack. That flexibility is useful when the same base PCB is used across multiple enclosure depths. The receptacle includes an integrated board guide and a ground bus plane. The board guide steers the mating header into alignment during blind assembly — without it, the 80 fine-pitch contacts are easy to stub. The ground bus provides a low-inductance return path, which matters for signal integrity at higher data rates.
Mated Stacking Heights and Board Fit
The 2-1658012-2 sits 3.25mm above the board surface. The mating header determines the final stack height from the nine listed options. For a 5mm stack, the header post must be short — about 1.75mm above its own board. For a 30mm stack, the header post is tall, and the assembly becomes a standoff rather than a close-coupled interconnect. The ground bus plane runs the length of the receptacle, so the PCB footprint must include the corresponding ground pads. The gold contact finish at 10.0µin is standard for the MICTOR series — adequate for the mating cycle life expected in production-level mezzanine connections. The contacts are center-strip style, meaning they are arranged in a row down the middle of the connector body rather than along the edges, which keeps the footprint symmetrical.