Industrial Electronics

Micro terminal strips provide design flexibility, JTAG compatibility

20 August 2026

Samtec, Inc. offers highly configurable micro pitch terminal strips with immediate availability in production quantities. Designers can choose from a variety of sizes, pin configurations, plating and processing options, leading to unrivaled design flexibility. Part of the Samtec Reserve program, FTSH products are available for next-day volume delivery and are also part of Samtec’s free sample program. They are in stock at most Samtec-authorized distributors.

The FTSH series is a 1.27 mm centerline terminal strip (“header”) available in both surface-mount (SMT) and through-hole designs, and in both vertical and right-angle configurations. These high-reliability connectors are available in 2 to 50 pins per row, with selective gold/tin plating in flash or light gold. Options to improve manufacturability include shrouds, locking clips, guideposts, pick-and-place pads, ejector and keying shrouds for mating with cable assemblies, and tape-and-reel packaging. Source: Samtec, Inc.Source: Samtec, Inc.

Samtec FTSH terminal strips are commonly used as JTAG connectors. The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) is the common name for IEEE Standard 1149.1. This standard defines a specific method for testing board-level interconnects, known as Boundary Scan. In short, JTAG was created to test for common problems, but lately it has become a way to configure devices.

Common sizes are 10-pin (2 x 5), 14-pin (2 x 7), and 20-pin (2 x 10). JTAG connectors can be either through-hole or SMT, and either shrouded or unshrouded. The FFSD series is a popular low-profile ribbon cable assembly that mates with the FTSH series.

FTSH terminal strips are Samtec Severe Environment Tested qualified, RoHS compliant, and are a Samtec Extended Life Product (E.L.P.). They meet or exceed MIL-DTL-55302 testing, are available as Samtec Automotive A-Series and are lead-free solderable.

To contact the author of this article, email GlobalSpecEditors@globalspec.com


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