Design World presents the 2023 LEAP Awards Winners: Connectivity

Now in its sixth year, Design World’s LEAP Awards continue to showcase the best engineering innovations across several design categories. It’s a large undertaking that wouldn’t be possible without the commitment and support of the engineering community.

Each year, the editorial team assembles OEM design engineers and academics to create an independent judging panel. Below is their selection for this year’s LEAP Awards winners in the Connectivity category.

Congratulations to the winners of the LEAP Awards for Connectivity profiled here.

Gold

LEMO
M Series LM.232

The LM.232 coaxial configuration connectors offer up to 12x coaxial contacts, making it ideal for applications that require exceptional high-frequency performance in harsh environments, such as telecommunications, aerospace, and defense. One of the standout features of this new insert configuration is its ability to integrate 12x coaxial contacts type 0R (50 Ohm). This allows for a frequency range of up to 26.5 GHz, ensuring reliable and efficient signal transmission. Not only does this configuration deliver superior performance, but it also maintains a low Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR), further enhancing its suitability for high-frequency applications.

Because of its crimp contact and holding clip, the coaxial contact is very easy to mount. It is designed to be terminated with flexible low-loss communication cable LMR-100A or MULTIFLEX 86. This streamlined design not only ensures efficient installation but also guarantees a secure and reliable connection.

The LEMO LM.232 combines 12 individual connectors, which are typically a large form factor such as BNC, into a single lightweight, easy-to-use connector. This new insert configuration integrates 12x coaxial contacts type 0R (50 Ohm), allowing a frequency of up to 26.5 GHz with a low Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR).

The product was originally developed for a specific customer need in the military. There is an increasing trend in developing military and avionics electronic systems with wider frequency ranges to enhance functionality and accommodate smaller spaces. However, achieving reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) system goals presents challenges for high-frequency RF/microwave cables and connectors. These components must meet complex electrical, mechanical, and environmental specifications while also allowing for easy access to subsystem modules for maintenance and troubleshooting.

Silver

Astera Labs
Leo Memory Connectivity Platform

Astera Labs’ Leo Memory Connectivity Platform for CXL removes performance bottlenecks with an industry-first CXL controller for memory expansion and pooling. The solution is purpose-built for AI workloads in cloud servers. Key features include: expanded memory bandwidth and capacity up to 2TB per CXL link; reducing TCO and improving performance with optimized data flow and memory utilization; accelerating deployment with cloud-scale fleet management and diagnostics; protecting mission-critical and sensitive user data with end-to-end security features.

The Leo Memory Connectivity Platform is offered in several product solutions:

Leo E-Series CXL Memory Controller SoC supporting memory expansion
Leo P-Series CXL Memory Controller SoC supporting memory expansion, memory pooling, and sharing
Aurora A-Series CXL Memory Hardware Solutions for plug-and-play deployment

Leo Smart Memory Controllers offer comprehensive features that hyperscale data centers require for cloud-scale deployment of compute-intensive workloads, such as AI and ML. Leo provides server-grade customizable Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) capabilities to enable data center operators to tailor their solutions so factors such as memory errors, material degradation, environmental impacts, or manufacturing defects do not impact application performance, uptime, and user experience.

Leo’s extensive telemetry features and software APIs for fleet management make it easy to manage, debug, and deploy at scale on cloud-based platforms. Unlike other memory expansion solutions, Leo supports end-to-end datapath security, offering the highest capacity and bandwidth by supporting up to 2TB of memory per Leo Controller and up to 5600MT/s per memory channel, the minimum speed required to fully utilize the bandwidth of the CXL 1.1 and 2.0 interface.

Bronze

EMP Shield
Guardian Data Series EMP Shield

The Guardian Series by EMP Shield Inc. is designed to protect critical equipment and infrastructure, for which interruption of power or signal must be kept to a minimum and for which operations must be aware of the problem or interruption. The technology provides protection against high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP), coronal mass ejection (CME), lightning, and power surges.

Most commonly available Ethernet SPD are single channel, have an RJ45 input and an RJ45 output, which connects to the input port of the protected device using a short CAT cable. In addition, most of the time, the two RJ45s are the same configuration, which requires the traces of the SPD board to be crossed, which results in an impedance mismatch and signal reflections. The additive combination of insertion loss (multiple connectors, an additional cable) and impedance mismatch results in a degradation of the channel bandwidth and respective transmission rate.

Guardian Data Series products include power over the ethernet (POE) protection @ 75 V and have a GigE throughput. The Guardian Data Series protects from induced transients without degradation of maximum network traffic and has several configurations for the most used network switches.

Applications include any Ethernet communication channel using twisted copper wire pair with or without power over Ethernet (PoE). The need for protection from transient EMI is continuously increasing due to the increased deployment of wireless communications, RF devices, IoT mass deployment, etc. The utilization of higher frequencies for 5G and 6G networks further complicates the shielding of critical infrastructure related to communications or any utility given the dependence on IT and networks.