Featured Articles
  • A Five-Layer Clad Solution for High-Performance Battery Interconnects

    Battery connector design gets super-charged in a case study that demonstrates the power of materials science to solve new connectivity challenges. Article Contributed by Alyssa Koch, Materion Corporation Battery interconnect materials must satisfy a demanding combination of electrical, mechanical, joining, and environmental requirements, properties that are difficult to achieve with a single metal. When nickelRead More

  • USB-C Serves Industrial Design with Rugged Variants 

    The USB-C connector has quickly moved from consumer applications into harsh environments. With 20 Gb/s data rates and IP-rated sealed variants, this connector can handle industrial conditions and serve in controllers, robotics, and peripherals for the factory floor. A new class of rugged USB-Cs and cables elevates this ubiquitous interface. It’s been nearly two years sinceRead More

New Technologies

Route Vehicles: Designing for High Voltages and High Temperatures

Route or fleet vehicles operate near continuously under harsh environment conditions. As electrification expands in this market, it’s critical that connectors can endure the influence of high voltages as well as the rigors of the road. Commercial vehicles operate in uncontrolled environments, subject to heat, moisture, vibration, and dust. For fleet or route vehicles, suchRead More

New Urgency Spurs Development of Renewable Energy Technologies

As droughts, fires, extreme weather events, and rising seas become harder to ignore, researchers are accelerating the development of more powerful technologies to harvest energy from renewable energy sources. Interconnects will play a key role. Renewable Energy There are still a few skeptics who deny global climate change, but over the past year the discussionRead More

Rise of the Connector as Modern Day Digital Influencer

Connectors are making inroads into every corner of our lives as digital influencers. We exist in a connected world of products, services, communication tools, and transportation networks that are designed to increase our standard of living, make us smarter, and bring us closer to the people and places we care about. Fundamental to this isRead More

How the Events of 2021 Will Shape Technology Trends in 2022 and Beyond

The 2020s will be a decade of transformation in every aspect of life. In 2022, we’ll see technology continue to play a role in solving humanity’s challenges. We entered 2021 with the expectation that the COVID-19 pandemic would recede and the world’s people and economies would be on the road to normalcy. Multiple highly effective vaccines became availableRead More

Lidar Systems Give Vision to Vehicles

Every lidar application requires connectivity. Choosing the right connectors starts with understanding the environment that the technology will operate in. Lidar technology has grown into a highly competitive and rapidly evolving industry. Its use in vehicle applications has enabled systems like ADAS, autonomous transportation systems, and  diverse applications ranging from traffic management and pedestrian monitoringRead More

Robots Enabled with Artificial Intelligence are Learning to Take Over

Connected, smart robots are doing, learning, and even teaching more tasks and processes than ever, with less programming than ever, thanks to AI. At a time when one must lament the dearth of human intelligence being applied to some of the most existential challenges humans have ever faced, artificial intelligence is beginning to have anRead More

Three Trends to Watch in Cobot Development

Cobots require high levels of functional safety, high load-bearing capacity with increased arm speed, and a lightweight design. Specialized connector solutions make it so. The industrial robotics space is changing fast. The latest generation of robots is taking on more complex tasks than ever before — and increasingly working alongside humans. Collaborative robots, or cobots,Read More

New Connector Design Addresses Significant SMP Shortcomings

The SMP connector came on the scene as a smaller alternative to SMA connectors. Now a new generation of LMP connectors are available for high-reliability, high-vibration, and high-power applications. By Times Microwave Systems The RF industry has been using sub-miniature push-on connectors (SMPs) for decades. Originally marketed by Gilbert (now part of Corning) in the lateRead More

Formula-E Racing Takes Another Spin Despite Delay of New Car

The pandemic delayed the release of the Gen3 racing car, but a souped up Gen2 car is ready for the races. In 2022, electric car technologies will make a dramatic impact as automakers introduce the largest ever field of new EVs. But leading the way are the high performance race cars in the ABB FIA FormulaRead More

Miniaturized and User-Friendly Connectors Empower Advanced Medical Wearables

New medical wearable device innovations count on miniaturized connectors that can perform reliability under the stresses of use and cleaning processes. Miniaturized Connectors In today’s fast-growing medical wearable markets, designers must create safe devices that provide effective performance in astoundingly small form factors. Ultra-miniaturized interconnect solutions support these products’ power and signal requirements. However, theRead More

Connected Technologies Help Advance Forest Management

From seed to harvest, a range of digitalized heavy equipment and small electronic technologies are changing the way forests are managed. Around 15 billion trees are cut down each year to meet humanity’s need for lumber, fuel, and paper products, as well as to clear forests for new construction and agriculture. Meanwhile, 1.8 billion newRead More

Beyond the Bulb: Industrial Lighting Trends Expand Innovation in Key Markets

The possibilities that connected LED lighting offer go far beyond illuminating spaces. Smart, programmable lighting is bringing creativity and efficiency to the built environment. An ongoing evolution in lighting technologies is bringing new creativity and functionality to buildings, industrial sites, and urban infrastructure for industrial lighting. This evolution is largely driven by LED technology. TheRead More

Analysis of the World’s Top 100 Electronic Connector Manufacturers
x