CALCE’s Pecht is Co-Editor of New Book on Electrical Connectors

electrical connectors

Michael Pecht, director of the University of Maryland’s (UMD) Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), is co-editor of a new book, Electrical Connectors: Design, Manufacture, Test, and Selection.

Published by Wiley, the volume aims to provide a go-to source for students, practicing engineers, connector manufacturers, and others with an interest in understanding how connectors work and how they are manufactured, the materials that are used, and the factors that affect their performance, such as the quality of the contacts and their reaction to changes in temperature.

“We’ve set out to produce a resource that will be useful to a broad audience,” Pecht said. “For students, we offer an overview of the basics. For those with more advanced knowledge—and especially those who use electrical connectors in their projects—the book serves as a guide to best practices and offers advice on how to select, test, and evaluate connectors for specific purposes.”

“Not only that, but the book can provide insights to consumers seeking to better understand the reliability of the products and systems they use,” he said.

Pecht is George E. Dieter Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UMD an also holds a faculty appointment at Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation. An IEEE, ASME, SAE, and IMAPS Fellow, his research interests include competitive product development, product characterization and qualification, supply chain creation and management, prognostics and health management, product reliability, risk assessment and mitigation. He has authored more than 40 books and more than 900 technical articles, and holds 10 patents. CALCE, founded by Pecht in 1985, is funded by over 150 of the world’s leading electronics companies, with an annual budget of more than $6 million.

The book’s co-editor, San Kyeong, is an engineer at the R&D headquarters of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Company, and was a visiting research scientist at CALCE in 2020.

Published February 4, 2021