0.156" Pitch, 2-Position IDC Receptacle for 22 AWG
The TE Connectivity MTA-156 3-640428-2 is a 2-position IDC receptacle built for discrete or ribbon cable. The 0.156" (3.96mm) pitch matches the standard MTA-156 header footprint, and the single-row layout keeps the harness narrow. It terminates 22 AWG wire through the insulation-displacement slot — no stripping, no crimp tool for the wire side, just a press into the housing with a hand or pneumatic press. The closed end blocks the wire from pushing through past the last contact, which matters when you're feeding ribbon cable into a gang-termination tool. The red color is a visual cue on the line — in a multi-wire harness, a red MTA-156 housing stands out against natural or black headers, helping a technician confirm the 22 AWG circuit at a glance without reading a label.
Tin Plating at 80 µ" — Built for IDC Duty
The female socket contacts carry a tin finish at 80.0µ" (2.03µm) thickness. That's a heavy tin layer — well above the flash plating you see on low-cycle signal connectors. For an IDC termination, the thickness matters: the insulation-displacement slot cuts through the wire's oxide layer and the tin deforms to create a gas-tight joint. At 80 µ", the contact has enough material to form that seal without cracking or cold-flowing over time. Tin is the right choice here — gold would be wasted on a connector that mates once or twice and lives inside an enclosure.
Free-Hanging Mount, No Board Required
It terminates the cable end and mates with a through-hole or right-angle MTA-156 header soldered to the board. The 2-position count is the smallest in the MTA-156 family, used for low-circuit-count interconnects like sensor leads, switch inputs, or power taps where you only need two wires. The single row keeps the connector width to the pitch spacing plus the housing walls — about 0.4" overall — so it fits in tight wire-routing channels.