Many leading connector exhibitors have arrived at the Munich Shanghai Electronics Show, ready for their annual event!

The recent concentrated delivery of next-generation ultra-large-scale AI computing clusters has made 224G high-speed copper connections and liquid-cooled blind-mating interconnects the focus of the entire industry, even triggering a severe shortage of high-end connector production capacity. Meanwhile, at the recently concluded major international auto shows, OEMs released a very clear signal: 800V and even kilovolt-level high-voltage platforms have been fully deployed to mainstream models, and intelligent architectures centered on regional control have officially entered the mass production phase.

Driven by both extreme computing power and full electrification, connectors are no longer simply "plugs" or "sockets," but have evolved into highly complex system-level engineering. Today's R&D engineers not only need to solve traditional physical connection problems, but also cope with ultra-high frequency signal transmission, extreme thermal management in confined spaces, and operational safety under complex and harsh conditions. Connector manufacturers are actively responding to these challenges. The upcoming 2026 Munich Shanghai Electronics Fair will become a core platform for showcasing the world's leading connector technologies and facilitating technological dialogue. Many leading companies in various industries are no longer simply providing standard products, but are instead offering system-level interconnect and thermal management solutions for OEMs, server manufacturers, and automation equipment integrators through fundamental innovations in materials science and deep customization of structural design.

Facing the Physical Limits of High Heat Density and Ultra-Fast Transmission in AI

In the field of AI servers and supercomputing data centers, the power density of a single rack has exceeded 100kW due to the geometrical increase in the throughput of GPU clusters and switching chips. This extreme heat density renders traditional air-cooled systems completely ineffective, forcing the industry to fully transition to cold-plate liquid cooling and immersion liquid cooling architectures. However, the introduction of liquid cooling architecture brings new challenges: First, space is limited; the rack is filled with liquid cooling pipes, leaving very little space for data interfaces and cables. Second, there is the issue of medium variation; in immersion liquid cooling, the dielectric constant of the coolant is completely different from that of air; how to rationally route cabling in dense equipment and maintain signal stability in a special cooling medium is a key breakthrough point for current data center interconnect technology.

Addressing the complex thermal management structures within AI servers, TE Connectivity offers a liquid-cooled I/O interconnect solution and an ultra-thin PCIe Gen 7 connector system for high-performance computing devices. This system delivers the high-speed data transfer promised by PCIe Gen 7, achieving speeds up to 128 GT/s PAM4 when using the PCIe protocol. With a height of less than 9 mm, this product can be installed in previously inaccessible confined spaces, such as next to CEM connector slots, under heatsinks, or near chips. A centrally located side strip enables PCIe transmission, ensuring optimal signal integrity and performance. Furthermore, this is a versatile platform product covering major PCIe use cases, including X4/X8/X16 configurations and various applications such as right-angle, straight-line, and lateral connections.

To address the challenges of high-frequency transmission in immersion liquid-cooled environments, Amphenol has launched the specially engineered EXAMAX2® ARK series of high-speed connectors. Traditional exposed contacts, when immersed in cooling media such as fluorinated liquids or synthetic oils, experience an increase in parasitic capacitance due to the altered media environment, thus disrupting the eye diagram opening of high-frequency signals such as 112G PAM4. The EXAMAX2® ARK system, by improving the sealing structure of the terminal contact interface and employing a highly compatible, corrosion-resistant coating and special insulating plastic materials, successfully minimizes the interference of coolant on transmission impedance. This technical solution ensures that computing equipment can stably maintain data throughput rates of 112Gb/s to 224Gb/s even in a fully immersion cooling environment, solving the data channel attenuation problem caused by changes in underlying hardware cooling methods.

With the large-scale upgrade of data center network equipment, the interfaces on switch panels are becoming increasingly dense, leading to a surge in heat dissipation pressure. Yihua Technology's new generation of QSFP-DD and OSFP high-speed interface components, to cope with signal interference caused by ultra-high bandwidth, have optimized their internal shielding structure, significantly improving their anti-electromagnetic interference capabilities and ensuring that signals between adjacent interfaces do not interfere with each other. More importantly, Yihua Technology has directly integrated a customized high-efficiency heat sink into the connector, which can quickly dissipate the enormous heat generated during device operation, effectively preventing network slowdowns or system crashes due to overheating.

Balancing 800V High-Voltage Safety with Massive Vehicle Data Concurrency

Currently, the electronic architecture of new energy vehicles is rapidly evolving along two main lines. The first is "high voltage." To achieve ultra-fast charging, the entire vehicle platform is upgrading to 800V or even higher voltages. This requires connectors not only to withstand large currents but also to possess extremely high insulation and heat resistance capabilities, while preventing electromagnetic interference. The second is "intelligentization." With the popularization of autonomous driving technology, in-vehicle cameras, radar, and other sensors generate massive amounts of data daily. This requires the in-vehicle network to transmit this information quickly and without delay. Therefore, connectors must maintain stable high-speed signal transmission in the complex environment of continuous vehicle vibration and drastic temperature changes, and be as lightweight and compact as possible in structure. In the high-voltage architecture design of new energy vehicles, traditional copper busbars and heavy-duty high-voltage cables not only occupy a large amount of chassis space, but their weight also directly reduces the vehicle's driving range. AVIC Optoelectronics' EVH6 next-generation surface-mount high-current connector is specifically developed for vehicle lightweighting and high-voltage interconnection. This product adopts a new multi-point contact topology in its internal contacts, effectively reducing contact resistance and controlling Joule heating during high-current transmission at its source. Thanks to deep optimization of structural components and materials, the EVH6 system achieves up to 20% weight reduction while maintaining the same current-carrying capacity and mechanical shock resistance, providing a more engineering-feasible lightweight interconnection solution for high-density integration between the battery pack (PACK) and the high-voltage distribution unit (PDU).

Focusing on the safety of high-voltage energy distribution and system-level redundancy in vehicles, Aptiv offers an 800V bidirectional on-board charger (OBC) high-voltage interconnection system supporting V2X functionality, as well as a portfolio of high-current low-voltage power distribution products. On the high-voltage side, its connectors employ a high-precision shielding and high-voltage interlocking loop (HVIL) design, effectively isolating high-frequency radiation during silicon carbide power module operation. On the low-voltage side, for L3 and above autonomous driving systems' "fail-operational" standards, its 60A to 300A high-current low-voltage power distribution scheme can achieve millisecond-level dynamic balance adjustment between dual independent power rails. This architecture solves the catastrophic engineering risk of instantaneous power loss for critical safety loads such as drive-by-wire steering, braking, and intelligent driving domain controllers in the event of a short circuit or open circuit fault in a single circuit.

The large-scale application of battery swapping in commercial vehicles and certain passenger vehicle markets poses extreme challenges to the mechanical lifespan and floating tolerance of connectors. Reco showcased its full range of high-voltage, high-current, and battery swapping connectors for new energy vehicles, specifically designed for high-frequency, high-tolerance mating conditions. The product features a built-in multi-dimensional floating structure that absorbs physical deviations in the X/Y/Z axes generated during the docking process between vehicle-side and station-side equipment. This significantly reduces fretting wear on the contact terminals caused by forced insertion and removal, ensuring stable contact impedance even after tens of thousands of insertion and removal cycles. Furthermore, for autonomous driving data transmission, its automotive-grade HSD and FAKRA multi-gigabit Ethernet connector series, through precise characteristic impedance control, solve the crosstalk and attenuation problems of massive sensor data transmission in vehicle backbone networks. For battery swapping in new energy vehicles, Reco's 12-pin battery swapping series of high-current connectors increases charging/discharging current and application power, further enhancing current carrying capacity to meet market demands while retaining the original commercial battery swapping national standard interface. This product is a high-current upgrade in the 12-pin battery swapping connector series, significantly improving current carrying capacity. It meets the national standard interface for battery swapping connectors and is interchangeable with all national standard 12-pin series. It features shielding and enhanced protection, and offers multi-angle cable exits for compatibility, meeting the needs of higher charging and discharging power applications and higher voltage application platforms. It also covers various wire specifications, providing customers with a comprehensive user experience.

With the explosive growth in the number of in-vehicle sensors, physical space has become the primary factor limiting wiring. Eleclink Technology, deeply focused on automotive RF and high-speed communication, showcased its automotive-grade Mini-FAKRA connector system. Compared to traditional FAKRA standard connectors, Mini-FAKRA reduces size by nearly 80% while ensuring the same RF performance and electromagnetic interference immunity. This product supports transmission frequencies up to 20GHz and is designed for direct transmission of uncompressed ultra-high-definition camera data and radar signals. Its extremely small package size and compact port spacing solve the physical layout limitations of automotive computing platforms that require dozens of high-frequency signal channels on a limited PCB area. Breaking Through Space Limitations and Harsh Industrial Environments: Reshaping Interconnectivity

In the deeper waters of Industry 4.0, miniaturization, modularization, and comprehensive data acquisition are becoming mainstream trends. Edge sensors in factories are shrinking, making traditional bulky cables insufficient for wiring. The industry urgently needs miniaturized connectivity solutions that can transmit power and data simultaneously with a single cable. On the other hand, outdoor photovoltaic and energy storage power stations typically face extremely harsh construction environments. To accommodate more batteries, the wiring space inside energy storage cabinets is drastically compressed. Under high voltage conditions up to 1500V, workers struggle to perform complex operations in confined spaces. Therefore, connectors that can be quickly installed without special tools, support blind mating, and feature strong protection against electric shock are becoming standard equipment for equipment integrators.

To address the extremely congested wiring space inside photovoltaic power stations and energy storage equipment, Molex has launched the SideWize series of high-voltage, high-current connectors. Traditional high-voltage thick cables are too rigid, requiring significant bending space during wiring, wasting cabinet capacity and easily causing mutual compression. The SideWize series supports voltages up to 1500V and currents up to 80A. It also features an innovative "side-entry/exit" design, eliminating the space required for cable bending. Furthermore, the product comes standard with robust protection against electric shock and mis-insertion, allowing energy storage cabinets to accommodate more equipment while ensuring the safety of on-site installation and maintenance personnel.

To facilitate easier networking of industrial equipment, Phoenix Contact's ONEPAIR series of single-pair Ethernet connectors breaks the limitation of traditional network cables requiring multiple cores. Using only two thin copper wires, it can simultaneously transmit network data and power over distances of up to kilometers. This completely solves the pain point of difficult cabling for small devices such as miniature sensors and industrial cameras due to thick network cables.

In densely packed automated production lines, rail transportation, and inside robot joints, engineers often face the challenge of limited operating visibility and wrench movement space. HARTING has launched the M12 PushPull series of rubber-coated circular connectors. This solution eliminates the reliance on torque control in traditional threaded connections, allowing operators to reliably lock the connection simply by pushing and pulling. Its structural design provides clear mechanical damping sound feedback when the connection is complete, resolving the potential for equipment disconnection caused by limited visibility preventing operators from accurately determining whether the connection is fully established. In applications requiring the transmission of massive amounts of power, HARTING's Han® 34HPR VarioShell high-current housing system offers a highly flexible single-core error-proofing solution, addressing the contact impedance fluctuation problem of heavy-duty cables transmitting extremely high currents under continuous high-frequency vibration conditions, such as in high-speed trains.