Space and weight constraints, environmental regulations, and increasingly complex system requirements are inspiring new wire harness products and versatile interconnect alternatives. Automotive wire harnesses come in thousands of varieties. Some modern vehicles contain close to 40 different harnesses, with up to 700 connectors and more than 3,000 wires. Additional variation is required for wire harnessesRead More

Meet the Connector: MPO Fiber Optic Connectors MPO (Multi-fiber Push-On) connectors evolved from mechanical transfer (MT) technology developed by Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Corp. (NTT) in 1986. NTT developed the first MPO connector as a compact, physical contact (PC) solution that offered a simple push/pull operation for connecting and disconnecting a plug and adapter. PriorRead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights wire and cable assemblies from leading suppliers. Wire & Cable Assemblies The Trexon Engineered Products Division (EP) brands offer a variety of discrete cable and wire harness capabilities that include Cicoil extruded flat cable and cable assemblies, and standard and custom assemblies; EZ Form Cable RF coaxial cable and cableRead More

Consumers treat USBs roughly — there’s no way around it in the constant cycle of plugging and unplugging, so these ubiquitous connectors are up to the challenge. But as USBs move into even more rugged environments (and into the hands of ever-younger consumers), tough new versions are ready. The Universal Serial Bus (USB) is theRead More

Space constraints within small devices create challenges for component placement on the boards. Innovations in ZIF-style flex connectors offer designers a possible solution.   By Jeff Combs, Director of Sales, CE Segment at Hirose Electric USA  Hardware designs for IoT, consumer, modular, and other complex applications often leave limited space for the mating and assembly ofRead More

The next generation of electronics professionals learn about components and robotic systems while having fun in competition. The innovation that drives technology is itself driven, at least in part, by the new ideas and perspectives that come with fresh eyes and open minds. Attracting students to the industry from an early age, therefore, is vitalRead More

New-to-market connectivity products, including interconnects, wire, cable, and cable assemblies, sensors, antennas, materials, accessories, tools, and development kits. May 2022 New Connectivity Products I  May 2022 New Connectivity Products > Interconnects, etc. Harwin has introduced horizontal backshells for its Gecko-Screw-Lok (Gecko-SL) series of lightweight, high-reliability connectors. These backshells ensure a fully EMI/RFI shielded connection for horizontal 1.25 mm pitch board-to-cable connections. Previously Gecko EMI/RFIRead More

Connector companies demonstrated high-speed, high-performance systems, co-packaged optics, over-the-board cable solutions, and next-generation interconnects at an industry gathering that was nearly normal — except for its April dates.  The 27th edition of DesignCon proved to be the latest example of hope that the world is nearing a new normal post-Covid era. The masks mostly cameRead More

The COBO MWIS Working Group aims to advance the increase of bandwidth and reduce power consumption for printed circuit board interconnect systems.     As streaming video, IoT technologies, industrialized automation, and the rapid addition of billions of new connected devices push data center workloads to exponentially higher levels, the need to move activity fromRead More

Meet the Connector: Mezzanine Connectors As electronic equipment became more complex in the 2000s, mezzanine connectors were developed in response to the increasing demand for space on PCBs. These high-speed, board-to-board connectors connect two parallel PCBs in a stacking configuration. Many of these are defined in an industry standard such as the PCI Mezzanine CardRead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights edge card connectors from leading suppliers. Edge Card Connectors   Smiths Interconnect’s Eclipta connector series incorporates an innovative, double-ended, edge card contact system featuring a PCB as the contact on the disposable connector side. This eliminates the cost of the contact system on that side. In addition, its plug-and-play design providesRead More

Automated manufacturing processes are integrating industrial lasers for precision processing, inspecting, and testing of materials. Fiber optic connectors help make these systems possible.  Fiber optic technology is enabling a new generation of high power, ultrafast industrial lasers. These precision beams of light are used in testing, inspection, and processing, making the production of components andRead More