November 2021 Connector Industry News II
Connectors are on the move on the Mars Perseverance Rover and a Guinness World Records recognized electric car. Plus Raspberry Pi-enabled audio, awards, acquisitions, personnel moves, and more.
November 2021 Connector Industry News II
November 2021 Connector Industry News II > Award News
Smiths Interconnect’s cPCI, launched on NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover’, has been awarded in the “Interconnection product of the year” category at the Electronics Industry Awards ceremony held in London on October 21. Smiths Interconnect provided the Mars Perseverance Rover with high performance ruggedized cPCI 2mm connectors addressing NASA’s need for a high reliability connector solution to meet the rover’s mechanical, electrical, and environmental performance requirements. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory performed rigorous testing for extreme environmental conditions, including thermal excursions, corrosive atmospheres, excessive shock and vibration, contact engagement/separation cycling, and other key NASA requirements.
Harwin announced the recipients of this year’s 5 Star Awards, given annually to high performers within Harwin’s sales channel. The individuals that will each be receiving an award this year are: Jose Ramon Blazquez, Avnet Abacus – who has played a key role in a variety of markets, including the electric vehicle sector; Dieter Kuhn, Avnet Abacus – for his involvement in a series of high-profile customer projects and for the technical support he has contributed; Jeri Hull, Mouser Electronics – who launched the latest Harwin NPIs; John Islam, TTI EMEA – for his proactive support of business development, plus his extensive industry experience; Debbie Johnson, TTI USA – for her management of emerging customer accounts and her support of customer cable assembly requirements; Jijo John, iConnexion – for his involvement with embedded industrial connectors in a series of large customer projects across Asia. TTI USA’s John Sandy, winner of two previous 5 Star Awards, received an outstanding achievement award in recognition of once again going the extra mile in growing Harwin’s market share throughout the North American region.
GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS announced that the HARTING-sponsored ID.4 tour team was awarded the title for the longest continuous journey by electric vehicle (non-solar) in a single country, more than doubling the previous record for driven mileage. Through its support of this tour, HARTING underlined its commitment to sustainability and reducing CO2 emissions. The company develops robust, reliable, and user friendly EV charging cables and plugs to support the shift to electric vehicles, which are becoming more important for combating climate change. Long-distance driver Rainer Zietlow and photographer Derek Collins concluded their record setting cross-country road trip in the Volkswagen ID.4 EV with their final stop at Volkswagen Group of America headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. Their journey has been chronicled at vwid4-usatour.com, where visitors can view images and a map of the tour.
HARTING’s innovative har-modular series took gold in the category of “Machines & Components” in the annual IDEA! Awards presented by Machine Design and Hydraulics & Pneumatics. Winners were selected by engineers from all over the world who voted on the product innovations released in the last year that they felt best fulfilled the promise of greater operational effectiveness. HARTING’s har-modular series offers a unique and flexible solution for the connection of PCBs. This modular concept, based on the time-tested and reliable DIN 41 612 connector family, allows engineers to develop custom connectors using off-the-shelf components. Customization can be achieved without long lead times and development costs. Over a billion combinations for data, signal, and power are possible with this PCB connector system. It is configurable online and can be ordered in quantities of one. Get technical information and drawings here. Configure a har-modular connector here.
November 2021 Connector Industry News II > Partnership, Personnel, & Acquisitions News
Southwest Microwave Inc. announced the appointment of Don Bradfield as president by the company’s board of directors, effective immediately. Based at the company’s Tempe, Arizona, headquarters, Bradfield will oversee domestic and international operations of the Security Systems and Microwave Products Divisions, including Southwest Microwave Ltd., located in Worcestershire, United Kingdom. In his previous role as general manager of the company’s Microwave Products Division, Bradfield expanded the manufacturing operation, introduced a range of new high-frequency connectors for specialized aerospace and military applications, and oversaw NIST and ITAR compliance initiatives. He joined Southwest Microwave in January 2014 and has more than 30 years of design engineering and operations management experience in the RF, microwave, and mmWave products industry.
TTI Inc. announced that Geoff Imlach will be joining the TTI Family of Specialists as the regional vice president of the Northeast region. Imlach spent 15 years with KEMET, a Yageo company. During this time, he took on roles of increasing responsibility in sales and product management across the Northeast, Central, and West Coast regions. Through his association with KEMET, Imlach became a long-time friend to TTI and its customers. He will have responsibility for the Connecticut, Massachusetts, Montreal, New York, and Toronto branches. Imlach will report to John Drabik, SVP Sales and Product, TTI Americas.
TTI Inc. has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire SMD Inc., a privately held electronic component distributor headquartered in Irvine, California. Upon completion of the transaction, SMD President/Owner Rich Unruh will continue to lead the company, reporting to Don Akery, President, TTI Americas. SMD Inc. is a specialty, authorized distributor of electronic and electrical components, services, and logistic solutions in North America. The acquisition is subject to the applicable waiting period and customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close by January 1, 2022.
November 2021 Connector Industry News II > New Technical Resources
element14 released a new eBook exploring the potential of Raspberry Pi for HD audio development and music creation. Audio engineers typically rely on expensive systems to provide the best sound quality. With new add-on boards and fidelity software, Raspberry Pi is becoming a great option for HD audio enthusiasts. Raspberry Pi is known for being a great tool for those learning to code and work with electronic hardware. New add-on boards are now available for the Pi 4 that offer top-of-the-line digital/analog converters (DACs) and amplifiers. Raspberry Pi has always had the hardware to produce high end audio and with these new HATs (hardware attached on top), the popular development board is now an excellent choice for audio editing and development on a budget. Some of the new HATs highlighted in the eBook and available from Newark to strengthen Raspberry Pi’s audio capabilities include JustBoom’s JBM-001 DAC/Amp HAT, Infineon’s MERUS audio amplifier HAT, and Micro Nova’s AmpliPi multi-room/zone audio controller. The eBook also highlights several software tools to make Raspberry Pi HD audio a reality, including the Sonic Pi, a live coding environment based in Ruby that allows users to create new sounds, work in a variety of musical styles, loop their audio, switch synths, and more. Other free software tools that work well with the Raspberry Pi platform include MilkyTracker and Tracktion Software’s Waveform DAW.
November 2021 Connector Industry News II > Distribution News
Newark, an Avnet Company, has signed a new global franchise agreement with Torex Semiconductor Ltd. Newark now stocks Torex’s full range of high-performance analogue PMIC solutions which offer ultra-low power consumption and high reliability. These innovative devices have a proven track record in applications such as industrial, medical, entertainment, and automotive products. Some of the key Torex products now in stock at Newark are the XC9276 Series of 150mA step-down synchronous rectification DC/DC converters; the XC9281/82 Series, the world’s smallest 600mA step-down DC/DC converters; the XCL230/31 Series 3.0 to 36V input, 600mA compact step-down Micro DC/DC converters; the XC6193/94 Push Button Load Switch with Storage Mode intelligent load switches.
Yamaichi Electronics opened its first sales office in the Middle East, located in Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv. Manager Amit Lampert is available to customers and interested parties of Yamaichi Electronics as a direct local contact. Yamaichi Electronics Germany now also distributes its product portfolio in the Middle East. In addition to the sales headquarters in Aschheim-Dornach near Munich, Yamaichi Electronics has sales offices in Great Britain and Italy. Lampert has more than 20 years of industry knowledge and has already gained many years of expertise in sales.
November 2021 Connector Industry News II > Associations, Standards, & Certifications News
The 369 shielded connector from TE Connectivity is now an industry standard under the ARINC 800 Part Two classification, one of the most demanding avionics industry specifications and independent endorsements of the connector’s quality and performance. The 369 shielded connector is the latest extension of TE’s widely used and highly regarded 369 connector series, a small form factor connector known for being a lightweight and reliable solution suited for aerospace and other harsh environment applications. The 369 shielded connector is composed of a lightweight composite base material and RoHS-compliant nickel metal plating, as well as an integrated backshell which enables termination of cable shields, drain-wires, and harness overbraid. The shielding effectiveness is more than 60 dB at low frequencies (<150Mhz) and greater than 40 dB at high frequencies (<1GHz). When part of a cable harness, the connectors are also designed to withstand an indirect lightning strike of 3.6 kA. The connector also features a coupling button lock-out feature to allow for one-handed coupling and uncoupling, especially important when used in awkward access or blind-mate areas. The connector has benefits for lighting and seat wiring in commercial aircraft cabin interiors and electric drive trains in military land and aerospace markets, according to Clint Schlosser, product manager in TE’s Aerospace, Defense & Marine Division. “It offers both space and weight-savings compared to traditional metallic circular connectors,” he said.
Hirose, an associate member of the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO), helped create the Multi-Mode Waveguide Interconnect System (MWIS) Working Group to increase bandwidth and reduce power consumption for printed circuit board interconnect systems. The Consortium for On-Board Optics is a member-driven standards-setting organization developing specifications for interchangeable and interoperable optical modules that can be mounted onto printed circuit boards. Led by Joshua Kihong Kim, principal engineer at Hirose Electric, COBO’s new MWIS Working Group focuses specifically on the replacement of copper traces with multi-mode waveguides and adding an extra thin interface for Electrical/Optical and Optical/Electrical conversion within proximity to the electrical component. “Although embedded optical waveguides in printed circuit boards have been researched for decades, now is the time for the industry to work together to address the imminent bandwidth and power issues associated with copper interfaces,” said Kihong Kim. “In the development of on-board optical systems, this is one of the missing pieces of the puzzle, and COBO is stepping up to develop specifications to enable an industry eco-system.”
Silverstone (UK) Nicab Ltd, specialists in cable and wire harness assembly, announced its certification under UL Accreditation. The UL Traceability Accreditation is a globally recognized standard for traceability of wiring harnesses assembly and applies the highest standards of quality control. Every company that is UL Approved is audited four times a year and authorized to issue UL Certification Labels on product packaging. This guarantees that each manufactured cable and wire harness has been fully certified under accreditation number E524704. This is one part of Nicab’s investment in continuous improvement, along with ISO9001:2015 & IPC Certification for reliable quality of production.
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