Featured Articles
  • Optics Outpace Copper at OFC 2024

    Bob Hult shares the phenomenal advances in high-speed optical communications showcased at OFC 2024, including interconnects for 200G per lane optical transmission, liquid cooling, co-packaged optics, PAM6, and other technologies that take us far beyond the reach of copper. The 2024 Optical Networking and Communication Conference and Exposition March 24-April 3 in San Diego nearlyRead More

  • ODVA Standards for Industrial Automation

    ODVA standards help ensure interoperability, safety, and security in facilities that that are integrating advanced information and communication technologies into industrial automation. From materials sourcing to the production of goods to final-mile logistics,  multiple levels of connectivity have become an essential part of the manufacturing world. Facilitating seamless communications between a wide range of devicesRead More

Technology

Smart Patches Offer Next-Level Wireless Health Monitoring

A new generation of wearable sensors are making cardiatrics, diabetes management, biometric monitoring, and medication delivery more comfortable and effective. Wireless health monitoring has been transformed by the possibilities afforded by miniaturized electronics. The first mass market of wearable medical devices took the form of fitness trackers and smartwatches embedded with biometrics sensors that monitorRead More

Design Considerations for Space-Deployed Satellite Hardware

From tiny CubeSats to SpaceVPX satellites, the night sky is full of new constellations. Selecting components that can handle launch stressors, radiation, extreme temperatures, and other space challenges is essential to the mission. In the past three years alone, so many thousands of satellites have been launched into orbit that it’s difficult to gaze intoRead More

Vertical Farms Control the Weather with IoT Technologies

As outdoor agriculture becomes less predictable, vertical farms are bringing the farm inside, where sealed interconnects, sensor systems, smart LEDs, and connected technologies optimize every aspect of the growing cycle. The summer of 2023 brought extreme challenges to farmers around the world. Storms, droughts, wildfires, and record-breaking temperatures wiped out many crop yields. Up toRead More

Vertical Farming and Smart Agriculture Technologies Boost Food Production

As growing conditions become less stable and predictable, Agriculture 4.0 is coming indoors and boosting agricultural productivity through connected technologies. Vertical farming, also known as smart agriculture and Agriculture 4.0, uses technology to enhance crop production by automatically tracking critical parameters such as soil nutrition, temperature, and moisture levels for planting, fertilization, irrigation, and harvesting.Read More

New Socket Solution Optimizes Production Testing of QFN-packaged ICs

Advances in semiconductor functionality, density, and chip-level integration are generating new challenges in testing. A test socket solution overcomes the challenges posed by traditional vertical spring probes and cantilever scrubbing contact designs, providing a new level of performance and reliability. Integrated circuit (IC) designers are increasingly migrating to quad flat no-lead (QFN) packages to meetRead More

The Case for Custom RF Connectors

To meet the needs of high-frequency and high-performance applications as well as those with smaller, lighter, and more dense packaging, it is often necessary to modify existing connector designs or design completely new connectors. As RF/microwave technologies find increasing use in high-speed digital data exchange applications, the mix of connector and cable technologies included inRead More

Cables, Connectors, Waveguides, and Hybrid Products for up to THz at IMS 2023

IMS 2023, the premier worldwide RF microwave symposium, revealed exponential gains in next-generation interconnects for wireless communications technologies. Take a tour of the highlights with RF expert Dave Shaff. This year’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS) reestablished the event as the premier world level expo for RF through THz technology, engineering, and products. IMS 2023, heldRead More

Micro-Ds Keep High-Tech Drilling Tools Connected

Few harsh environments are as harsh as oil & gas wells. Connectors and cable assemblies must be tough enough to maintain reliable connections despite extreme high temperatures, severe shock and vibration, fluid corrosion, and more. Micro-Ds and other rugged interconnects play a huge role in today’s oil & gas industry. Since 1859, when Edwin DrakeRead More

In New Product Development, Timing is Everything

Introducing a new product that satisfies a significant emerging need is the ultimate goal of every market manager. Finding that sweet spot with a product that works, and can be manufactured and sold at a profit, keeps design engineers up at night. Managers are imbued with a business school postulate that a product with aRead More

Unique RF Interconnect Solutions for Mobile 5G Networks Aid in Disaster Recovery

RF interconnect solutions are critical in mobile 5G communications networks. New solutions help seamlessly power these essential communications networks when traditional networks are disrupted by disaster. 5G technologies deliver high data speeds, ultra-low latency, enhanced reliability, enormous network capacity, and increased availability. Mobile connectivity solutions make it possible to provide essential communications in disaster situationsRead More

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