Four finalists were announced on Friday for the inaugural LEAP Awards’ Connectivity Category, comprising a variety of interconnect, cable and harness technologies. The competition was scored by a panel of independent technical/engineering-oriented judges. Responsible for the Connectivity category were these four judges:
Plamen Doynov
Research Professor
University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Doynov became a research professor in physics last year, after a long and storied career that included stints as the Principal Engineer at MRIGlobal, a Biomedical Engineer at Flint Hill Scientific, and VP of Electrical Engineering at Aviation Simulation. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from The Catholic University of America.
Doynov has been active in and a local board member of the IEEE and has won numerous honors and awards from the MRIGlobal Council of Principal Sciences, Boeing and the Bulgarian Society for Biochemistry and Biophysics. He has experience in electronics, electrical and biomedical engineering, as well as research and development of specialized scientific systems.
Kristin Morris
Lead Electrical Engineer
Pacific Diabetes Technologies
Morris is the Lead Electrical Engineer at Pacific Diabetes Technologies, a Portland-based startup developing an integrated solution for glucose sensing and insulin delivery. She is involved in every level of design, from the low-level PCB and firmware, to mobile applications and data processing.
Morris holds a Master’s of Engineering Degree in Computer Engineering from Portland State University. During her studies, she also received valuable work experience via internships at large corporate companies such as Intel, Mentor Graphics and Electro Scientific Industries (ESI). She then kicked her career off by continuing on at ESI full time, before making the leap into the startup world in 2013, where challenges, inspiration, failures and successes awaited.
Bill Schweber
Engineer, Author, Editor
Jaffa Engineering
Schweber is an electronics engineer who has written three textbooks on electronic communications systems, as well as hundreds of technical articles, opinion columns, and product features.
At Analog Devices Inc., he was in marketing communications, so has been on both sides of the technical PR function, presenting company products, stories, and messages to the media and also as a recipient of these.
Prior to Analog, Schweber was associate editor of the company’s respected technical journal, and also worked in their product marketing and applications engineering groups. Before those roles, he was at Instron Corp., doing hands-on analog- and power-circuit design and systems integration for materials-testing machine controls.
He has an MSEE from the University of Massachusetts and a BSEE from Columbia University.
He is a Registered Professional Engineer and holds an Advanced Class amateur radio license. Schweber has also planned, written, and presented online courses on a variety of engineering topics, including MOSFET basics, ADC selection, and driving LEDs.
Michael Torres
Chief Avionics Support Equipment Engineer
Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Div. Point Mugu
Michael Torres’ technical expertise is in the design, development, and testing of advanced avionics (flyable electronics) that meet speed, size, weight, and power requirements of these systems. He focuses on the development of software mathematical algorithms to facilitate design solutions that meet these requirements.
Torres has developed and patented automated test systems for avionic systems and their test equipment. He holds nine Navy patents and is an expert in the development of manufacturing fixtures that simply the manufacturing of components, reducing the manpower requirements and producing better and more repeatable results.
Torres holds a Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering specializing in Electronic Warfare from the Naval Post Graduate School, a Master’s of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from UCLA.
Below are descriptions of the four finalists. The overall winner of the Connectivity category will be announced at an awards dinner on December 11th in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Cicoil
Micro IDC Ribbon Cable
Unlike stiff PVC and Teflon versions, the new ultra-flexible Micro IDC Ribbon Cable from Cicoil is a space-saving, 0.025-in. pitch version that has been designed for tight routing applications that require dependable signal density, reduced cable width and exposure to harsh environments, mechanical stress and excessive temperatures (-65° to 260°C).
Cicoil’s patented extrusion process allows individually encased, finely stranded bare copper wires to be placed in a very small flat profile, precisely controlling the spacing of each component and the overall cable shape. Approximately half the size of standard 28 AWG IDC Ribbon Cables, the new 30 AWG Flexx-Sil rubber jacketed cables are available with up to 64 conductors and fully terminated assemblies are offered in 3, 6 and 12 ft lengths. In addition, the cables are completely compatible with any Insulation Displacement Connectors (IDC).
The Micro IDC Ribbon Cables are rated for 3000 Vdc and are resistant to water, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, humidity, UV light, radiation, flames, aging, autoclave, ozone, sunlight, fungus, vibration and many chemicals. When a non-adhering jacket surface is desired, Cicoil offers its SlideRite and GlideRite low friction coating options by request.
Fischer Connectors
LP360 Freedom connector
The Fischer LP360 connector is the first product of the brand-new Plug & Use Fischer Freedom series launched in June 2018. It is a breakthrough signal and power connector with easy mating and easy cleaning that maximizes usability, efficiency and performance. No key code for 360° mating freedom optimizes cable management.
Membrane-sealed contacts ensure a fully cleanable plug and receptacle. Low profile allows for easy integration.
The three innovations that made this connector happen are:
– Mating: no key code allows for 360° mating “freedom”
– Locking: ball-locking mechanism with sealing and variable pre-defined force (patent pending)
– Materials: specially designed pins on the plug are IP68 sealed with a membrane (patent pending)
The new product line makes end users’ lives easier by reducing cognitive, weight and reliability burdens thanks to:
- Easy mating: Mating the Fischer LP360 becomes as intuitive as buttoning up a vest – without compromising on the high-performance reliability required in harsh environments.
- Easy cleaning: The new connector is fully cleanable (both plug and receptacle), and is easy to use and maintain with a faster set up and improved durability.
- Easy Integration: Thanks to its compact and low-profile design, the Fischer LP360 is easy to integrate into clothing with devices and subsystems; via the panel-mounted plug interface, cables can even be removed completely, and the connector can be directly integrated into the housing of devices like a camera, a sensor, a light, or GPS. In certain applications, the need for cable can be eliminated completely.
I-PEX Connectors
MHF I LK Micro RF coaxial connector
Designers concerned about RF connectors that disengage from the PCB on high shock and vibration applications can rely on a new connector with a built-in locking feature. The new MHF I LK Micro RF coaxial connector and wire harness from I-PEX Connectors is designed with a built-in lock that keeps the connector in place on the PCB. Designers no longer have to adhere their RF connectors with messy epoxy or adhesive. This new locking mechanism keeps the connector in place on the board, increasing productivity and reliability. This connector has the same features as the tiny MHF I Connector, which is used to connect antennas to radios and for testing radios while maximizing performance within minimal space. Because of the tiny size of the connector, engineers have greater flexibility in designing their PCBs.
This connector supports many of the new transmission standards, including Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, Bluetooth, GPS, M2M, IoT. SigFox, WiSUN, NB-IoT and LoRa. They are ideal for high shock and vibration applications, particularly in the automotive, airline and drone industries.
The MHF I LK Connectors are available in a variety of cable sizes and lengths: O.D. 0.81, 1.13, 1.32, 1.37, and 1.80 mm.
Silicon Labs
EFR32xG13 Wireless Gecko system-on-chip (SoC)
The EFR32xG13 Wireless Gecko system-on-chip (SoC) portfolio is the industry’s most versatile, feature-rich wireless IoT platform, providing best-in-class multiprotocol connectivity and design flexibility and supporting leading wireless standards and proprietary protocols. Introduced in 2016 and continuously expanded and enhanced, the portfolio is designed to simplify the development of IoT end-node applications and deliver high performance and secure connectivity while enabling long battery life.
Wireless Gecko SoCs address the needs of real-world IoT applications by supporting an array of leading wireless protocols, such as Thread and Zigbee for mesh networks, Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth mesh, and a wide range of proprietary stacks in the sub-GHz band, as well as multiprotocol combinations of these wireless options.
The EFR32xG1x SoCs offer the highest output power (up to +19 dBm) in the multiprotocol SoC market, reducing cost and complexity by eliminating the need for an external power amplifier. Based on a low-power ARM Cortex-M4 processor core, the SoCs provide well-architected energy modes with ultra-fast wake-up and sleep transitions, a Peripheral Reflex System enabling autonomous operation of peripherals while the MCU sleeps, and scalable memory. Larger memory options (up to 1 MB flash for some EFR32 devices) make it easier to develop feature-rich IoT applications supporting multiple protocol stacks, an RTOS such as Micrium OS, backup images for devices, and over-the-air (OTA) updates for field upgrades to extend IoT product life. An on-chip security accelerator provides a hardware cryptography block and runs the latest security algorithms with higher performance and lower power than conventional software.
The post LEAP Awards announces finalists in connectivity category appeared first on EE World Online | A network of resources for engineers.