Molex Announces Availability of Industry-First, Space-Saving Quad-Row Board-to-Board Connectors with EMI Shields

• World's smallest connector features a metal EMI shield, a first-to-market Quad-Row solution to ensure signal integrity and reduce electromagnetic and RF interference
• Direct incorporation of shielding eliminates need for bulky external shielding parts and complex grounding, optimizing space and design flexibility while simplifying assembly 
• Two power-pin sets drive four-fold increase in power delivery to enhance performance and uptime for wearables and consumer devices

LISLE, Ill., Nov. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Molex, a global electronics leader and connectivity innovator, today announced availability of the Molex Quad-Row Shield Connector, featuring the industry's first space-saving, four-row signal pin layout with a metal electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield. Quad-Row Shield Connector achieves up to 25dB reduction in EMI compared to non-shielded Quad-Row, and is ideally suited for space-constrained applications, such as smart watches and other wearables, mobile devices, AR/VR applications, laptops, gaming devices, appliances and more.

"Without shielding, connectors can be vulnerable to external electromagnetic noise from nearby components or far-fielded devices, causing signal degradation, data errors and system malfunctions—especially in high-speed or sensitive applications," said Taekeon Park, director, Micro Connectors, Molex. "In the past, designers would build additional external shielding or complex grounding solutions into devices to mitigate the issue—compounding complexity, size and cost. Quad-Row Shield removes those design and performance hurdles by ensuring enhanced reliability and signal integrity, as well as design flexibility and space optimization."

Staggered-Circuit Layout with EMI Shield Targets EMI Challenges at 2.4-6 GHz and Beyond
First released in July 2020, Molex's game-changing, patented Quad-Row Board-to-Board connectors an industry standard for space savings, with a 30% size reduction over dual row connector designs. The new Quad-Row Shield builds on the market-proven, Quad-Row layout with the addition of an EMI shield that mitigates both electromagnetic and radio frequency (RF) interference, as well as signal integrity issues that create undue noise, achieving up to 25dB reduction in EMI over the non-shielded Quad-Row solution.  The new, built-in EMI shield is a critical value-add for device designers striving to ensure stable, error-free signal performance in space-constrained device designs.

Setting New Standards for Next-Generation Consumer Electronics
Molex's long-standing collaboration with product developers from major device and gaming manufacturers supports continued enhancements, including the development of the new EMI shielding. Together, Molex and its customer engineering teams addressed the most significant requirements related to signal interference and incremental power requirements, specifically how best to achieve 80 times the signal connections and four times the power delivery compared to a single-pin connector. The new Quad-Row Shield provides power input and output aligned to a delivery model featuring up to 80 pins within a single board-to-board connector. In addition, S-parameter input specifications may be assigned to a preferred pin layout in an 80-pin signal design.

The highly innovative Quad-Row Shield significantly reduces electromagnetic interference and meets stringent EMI/EMC standards to lower regulatory testing burdens and speed product approvals. The shielding feature also enables error-free communication while seamlessly supporting operations and maintenance requirements to boost overall system uptime.

Availability
Molex Quad-Row Shield samples are available now to support custom inquiries, and commercial availability will follow in Q2 2026.

Molex Consumer & Commercial Solutions
The Molex legacy of delivering critical connections extends across the entire consumer electronic device ecosystem with proven expertise in 5G, mmWave, RF, signal integrity, antenna, power, camera and display technologies. Precision, volume manufacturing and miniaturization enable Molex to meet dynamic market demands worldwide while providing leading device manufacturers and their suppliers with the smallest, densest and most advanced connectors available.

About Molex
Molex is a global electronics leader committed to making the world a better, more-connected place. With presence in more than 38 countries, Molex enables transformative technology innovation in consumer devices, aerospace and defense, data center, cloud, telecommunications, transportation, industrial automation and healthcare industries. Through trusted customer and industry relationships, unrivaled engineering expertise, and product quality and reliability, Molex realizes the infinite potential of Creating Connections for Life. For more information, visit www.molex.com.

SOURCE Molex Incorporated