With smaller products, more features and the need for increased ruggedness to survive the operating environment, both connectors and cables need to conform to the overall product's design objectives.
Perhaps the most common trend in this section is the overlapping of many trends in areas that include:
Automotive
Small/Miniature
Rugged
Industrial
PC Board
Power
Security
Cables
Many requirements for smaller, miniature connectors are driven by consumer applications. Automotive and industrial applications are by nature more rugged than consumer electronics and they certainly could be classified as rugged. However, the most obvious area for demonstrating multiple trends is PC boards. Since they are present in automotive, miniature, industrial, security and rugged applications, there is bound to be an overlap. While a serious attempt was made to put connector products into the right classification, it is quite likely some examples could have been used in establishing the other trends, as well.
Since covering every connector and cable trend would be a daunting task, some important areas had to be excluded. These areas include: ribbon and flex, milo-areo, fiber-optics and various specialty areas.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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