With technology costs decreasing, growing consumer interest in connected home applications, and greater reliance on the efficiency of the Cloud, solutions for home and commercial building automation become more sophisticated and accessible. Intelligent Buildings and Smart Homes The global home automation market now encompasses all controllable elements in the modern home. Connected lighting, appliances, entertainment, andRead More

Cisco’s Digital Ceiling, which aims to bring together the many networks within a building, wouldn’t work without connector and cable provider partners. The Digital Ceiling, launched earlier this year by Cisco, marries the many networks within a building, including lighting, heating, cooling, and video, to one network platform. Because both connection and cabling solutions play suchRead More

Recent approval of the IEEE 802.3bp standard offers efficiencies for reducing the weight and cost of interconnections to support communication among an ever-growing roster of automotive subsystems. While advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and infotainment systems have been touted to automotive consumers for quite some time, automotive electronic engineers have been saddled with adapting olderRead More

By connecting an Italian line of frozen-treat machines via the Internet of Things, the equipment maker prevents unnecessary ice cream downtime. The maker of large-scale gelato, ice cream, and frozen-dessert equipment, Carpigiani of Bologna, Italy, re-upped its agreement with connected-business solution provider Telenor Connexion earlier this summer with hopes that 4,000 gelato-making machines will soon joinRead More

Certain strains of bacteria are disrupting standard safety protocol in industries from agriculture and food preparation to medical equipment manufacturing and healthcare. The healthcare industry must reevaluate everything from patient care procedures down to the materials used in medical devices. Advancement and evolution are usually considered in a positive light – unless they occur inRead More

Reducing the footprint of components enhances functionality in smaller spaces. To meet this demand in the medical industry, device manufacturers are using pressure-sensitive adhesives for interconnects, grounding, and shielding applications.   Advancements in electronics technology are enabling medical electronic equipment designed for faster diagnosis, improved patient quality of life, and new drug-based therapies. Patient monitoring,Read More

The Internet of Things has achieved cost-effective mass-market implementation in consumer applications more quickly than in custom solutions for industrial automation, but now the playing field is being leveled by wireless machine-to-machine connectivity.   Technology concepts often burst onto the scene with a big splash of possibilities followed by the sobering reality of implementation. TheRead More

The US DOT is investing heavily in projects like the South Carolina Connected Vehicle Testbed to realize projections of dramatic safety increases that come with a connected infrastructure combined with autonomous car technology.   In 2015, the National Science Foundation (NSF) noted that by the end of the decade, it is likely that the USRead More

The need to transmit more data at higher speeds is changing system design. New strategies include developing connectors specifically for high-speed operations, maintaining signal integrity at high speeds, and using new protocols. Today, interconnect technology has morphed to meet the need for speed.   The continuous growth in IP services and access speeds has ledRead More

The IEEE 200G/400G standard is well on its way to publication; so where will it be implemented?   This is the first time in the development cycle of Ethernet standards that there have been so many different standards projects in the pipeline. Ranging from EPON over Coax (EPoC) to 200Gb/s and 400Gb/s Ethernet, these effortsRead More

Systems designers must keep up with ever-evolving next-generation device standards, as well as with standards not yet set.   Systems design engineers need to keep several considerations in mind when designing to meet codes and standards. But what about when design or product standards don’t yet exist, are in flux, or when technology convergence blursRead More

$1.2 billion of electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) are already selling each year, and they are becoming increasingly common to replace solders in a variety of functions, applications, and industries.   Materials are needed to replace the estimated 50,000 metric tons of tin-lead solder currently used each year, but there are no “drop-in” replacements for eutecticRead More