DIN 41612 Connetors

DIN 41612 is a DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) standard for electrical connectors that are widely used in rack-based electrical systems. Connector standardization is a prerequisite for open systems, where the user expects that different cards from different manufacturers can work together.

DIN 41612 connectors are used in Futurebus, VMEbus, Multibus II, Pancon, STEbus, NuBus, VXI Bus, eurocard TRAM motherboards and Europe Card Bus, all of which typically use male DIN 41612 connectors on Eurocards plugged into female DIN 41612 on the backplane in a 19-inch rack chassis.

The standard describes connectors that can have one, two, or three rows of contacts, which are labeled rows a, b, and c. Two-row connectors can use rows a + b or rows a + c. The connectors can have 16 or 32 columns, which means that the possible permutations allow 16, 32, 48, 64 or 96 contacts. Rows and columns have a 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) raster or spacing. But if there is no row b, the row spacing is just double.

The insertion and extraction force is controlled and three degrees of durability are available.