Non-Metallic Connectors, Inc.

Edson Nascimento (Pele) once said, "Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing." That especially is true when doing a startup, because you are bound to make mistakes and get discouraged. In these times it is important to understand that you are only a "failure" if you choose to give up, and as Bill Gates put it, "it's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." Today, we celebrate a victory as a result of learning from the many lessons of failure. We are honored that our CEO was recognized by the Central PA Business Journal with a Forty Under 40 Award!

Over the years, we have received many questions about our technology and how it works. Specifically, we commonly get asked how we address the issues and challenges of applying WPT methods to applications with small form factors like electrical connectors. In our most recent journal publication, we explore these common questions and offer the industry a roadmap for surmounting common challenges in applying wireless power to connector applications. Electrical connectors have been commonplace for more than 130 years for the purpose of connecting two electrical devices together with a separable interface, which may make some electrical engineers wonder as to the need for novel connectors. In Section II, this paper identifies several well-known failure modes associated with electrical contacts, their mitigation requiring tremendous ongoing efforts, especially to accommodate emerging technologies. The paper demonstrates that the best way to eliminate the problems associated with electrical contacts is to eliminate electrical contacts altogether. The non-metallic connector (NMC) concept aims exactly in that direction using WPT methods. The paper identifies the three main technical areas that has prevented the NMC concept to be technically infeasible until now with a brief historical overview of the evolution of wireless power transfer provided in Section III. In Sections IV and V, the authors clearly show the difference between high-speed signal transfer and power transfer NMCs and the physics behind both. Section IV went into detail on the different ways high-speed NMCs could be realized showing original efforts of using capacitive and inductive coupling modalities and the superior performance of EHF relative to other communication protocols such as UWB. Based on the physical design limitations of connector applications, NMCs were shown to fall into both near-zone and far-zone technologies in the WPT hierarchy thereby demonstrating the novelty of the NMC concept. The concept of μWPT for NMC applications was introduced to modify the currently accepted WPT hierarchy so that the unique requirements of NMCs can be accommodated therein. Section V outlined the current state of NMC development for power transfer and provided a comparison of four different circuit topologies. With future operational requirements in mind, three major design challenges to the technical feasibility of NMCs were identified. A design process for characterizing NMCs was introduced followed by five methods on how to surmount the three major design challenges. A procedure to characterize NMCs for power transfer was provided, keeping three diverse costs in the foreground. The future of the NMC concept hinges on the development of new materials besides copper for inductor coils. These new materials need to allow higher power density and possess far better thermal properties so that μWPT systems can operate at greater power levels and perform well.