Industrial Grade microSD Cards provide a reliable solution for small Embedded OEM Designs

Industrial Grade micro SD Cards offer a simple and straightforward way to obtain a reliable storage medium in a very small physical footprint. Industrial Grade micro SD cards are based on the more dependable and costly Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND memory.

The SLC microSD Cards can be connected electrically to an SPI, MMC or SD Interface available on many host system processors or micro controllers. From a software perspective many controllers and processors come with or have optional drivers to make the design relatively painless.

With a physical size of just 15.0 × 11.0 × 1.0mm and weighing around 0.25 gram, SLC microSD are a perfect solution for the smallest designs. The small, low mass of the device also comes with a shock and vibration rating of 50G and 15G peak-to-peak respectively.

Due to the popularity of microSD cards in Consumer electronic devices, there are a wide range of connectors available. Some connectors simply provide contacts for the pads of the microSD card.

More elaborate microSD connectors have a hinged lid that locks the microSD card in place once closed. Others provide a push-push feature which clicks into the slot on the first push and ejects on the second.

The vast majority of microSD cards are the consumer variety meant for low cost performance in consumer electronics devices. Cactus Technologies designs and manufactures Industrial Grade microSD cards in sizes of 1, 2 and 4GB for applications requiring more reliability.

The use of SLC NAND memory, a highly reliable controller and firmware along with stringent production processes make these parts ideal for embedded industrial applications running an operating system and application from the card.

The Cactus Industrial Grade SLC micro SD cards have a standard temperature rating of -25C to 85C. For environments requiring a wider temperature range, Cactus has an exhaustive screening process to guarantee parts from -45C to 90C. We also have the capabilities to screen to higher or lower temperatures if needed.

We look forward to assisting you with any questions you may have. Please talk to a Cactus Expert if you would like to discuss your design further.

Steve Larrivee has over 30 year's experience in the data storage market, including 5 years at Seagate Technology and 10 years at SanDisk. He joined Cactus Technologies Limited as an equity partner and Co-Founded Cactus USA in 2007 with partner Tom Aguillon. Learn more about Steve on LinkedIn.