I'm currently in the process of designing a product that will need to have USB type C ports on its panel, and due to physical constraints with the design it would be convenient to use the USB "type E" connector commonly used on computer motherboards for connecting a front panel cable
like this one.
However, despite extensive searching, I have been totally unable to find even a single manufacturer or supplier who actually
sells these connectors, or even a whiff of a part number I could search.
Here are some images of the connector I'm trying to find, for reference:
The closest I've been able to come are
these "IDC 20 pin to A-key 20 pin" adapter boards, so clearly
someone is making these connectors available to more than just major motherboard vendors, and there's definitely multiple different designs for such a board on the market (e.g. this
this cheaper $11 one is shorter and has different/fewer passives on it).
While a large number of online vendors that sell the front panel cables and adapter boards have taken to calling this a "USB Type E" connector, I haven't been able to find any official provenance for this terminology.
The
Official USB-IF Specification (PCMCIA Proposal 279, section 2.1.1) for this connector calls it either a "USB 3.1 Front-Panel Internal Connector" or an "Key-A 20-pin Shielded Header".
The manual for the
ROG strix B550-E "gaming" motherboard (selected at random from newegg) calls it a "USB 3.2 Gen 2 Front Panel" connector.
I was also able to find
one seller that called the cable end a "USB 3.1 type-c MINI 20 pin Front Panel Header" but this "type-c mini" terminology doesn't appear anywhere else that I've been able to find.
And with all of this, none of these terms have turned up anything remotely close to BOM-able for this connector.
Right now, the best strategy I've been able to come up with if I want to implement this connector is to just
buy a bunch of the cheapest "type E" adapter boards I can find and salvage the connectors off of them, but that's a stupid, expensive solution and I hate it.
If anyone has any information at all about this connector, which manufacturers are actually making this connector, where I can buy it, or (the holy grail) a BOM-able part number for the thing, I would be immensely grateful for whatever it is you know.