Multiple industries are transitioning towards a more energy-efficient future, fueled by the need for increased data across trends such as the smart home, vehicle electrification and the growth of data centers. In this article, discover how Molex is providing solutions for increasing energy demand across trending areas, supported by decades of high-quality connectivity and engineering expertise.
Keeping power under control in electric vehicles
Power is vital to the automotive market with the high level of interest in electric vehicles (EV). Consumers around the world are seeking alternatives to conventional fossil fuels, and there has been a rapid growth in demand for electric and hybrid vehicles. The advances in battery technology, along with the latest battery management systems, mean that electric power is now a practical alternative to conventional motors.
The battery management system (BMS) plays a key role in ensuring the safety and reliability of electric vehicle batteries, as it monitors the health and charging state of the battery cells. The BMS relies on sensors distributed throughout the battery that monitor current output, temperature, and other factors. As a result, interconnects play a vital role in ensuring that nothing occurs to disrupt this relationship.
Automotive manufacturers are creating electric vehicles (EVs) that rival conventional vehicles in both range and performance. Fast charging technology has made EVs a practical choice for family cars, and manufacturers are creating networks of dedicated stations. Designed to carry hundreds of Amps at high voltages, reliable connectors will need to deliver high performance and safe operation for road users.
The thermal challenge in data centers
The future of data communication lies within data centers. The internet is a huge consumer of power, and demand will continue to grow. Some studies are predicting that by the end of the decade a fifth of all the energy generated in the world will be used within the IT sector. With cloud-based services increasing, particularly via mobile devices and billions of IoT nodes, the reliance upon data centers is further increased.
Data center functionality has rapidly progressed past just the storing of data – today’s operations are required to support high-demand applications and capabilities such as voice assistants and video streaming. With these new data demands comes a growing list of essential attributes for the modern data center – flexibility, scalability and reliability are all rising to the top, but the common theme across them all is the unwavering need for efficiency. As the energy consumed by data centers inevitably rises, efficiency in data centers has become not just desirable but critical. While efficiency improvements ensure that energy usage does not rise in exact proportion to data, clearly it is obvious that energy consumption by data centers is on the increase.
Power connectivity solutions
Connector designers are now being forced to come up with creative solutions to manage heat and current, with power efficiency becoming critical in today’s power-intensive applications, including data centers, charging stations, battery management, inverters and more. Molex offers a growing range of interconnects that can accommodate significant amounts of power, designed specifically to support high-current applications with optimal power densities across multiple configurations.
EXTreme power products
The Molex EXTreme Power range of products are specifically designed to support high-current applications with optimal power densities and exceptional thermal management capabilities. They feature mixed contact types that combine signal and power in the same connector housing, simplifying both PCB layout design and assembly operations.
Sentrality high-current pin and socket interconnect system
Molex's Sentrality high-current interconnect system delivers up to 350.0 A of current through four diameter sizes and offers a wide range of configurations, connecting PCBs and busbars. Providing up to 1.0 mm of radial float in all four sizes, the diversity of this product range serves to assure ease of mating and also prevents potential damage to the socket contact beams.
PowerWize connectors
Energized equipment, such as a server or a power supply array, needs to be safe to handle if a new device is being installed or a defective device is being removed and replaced. PowerWize headers and receptacles are designed to comply with industry-standard touch-safe requirements.
See related product
See related product
