It’s been an incredibly exciting year to lead the Precision Devices division and support our talented employees as they innovate on and push the boundaries of the specialty components these markets require. 

At Knowles Precision Devices (KPD), we handle the specialty components that go in the systems that can’t quit. We have the extensive resources and subject matter knowledge to innovate around the technical and environmental challenges facing high-impact industries including military, aerospace, and beyond.

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption for both consumer and commercial purposes rapidly grows, so does the need for a more widespread, and faster, charging infrastructure. While we’ve seen vast improvements in charging technology in the last few years, as additional regulations on combustion vehicles are implemented and reliance on EVs increases, further EV charging innovations are needed. Currently, wireless charging is the newest EV charging technology evolving. 

At the end of each year, I find it energizing to reflect on all the accomplishments of the prior year and to also think about how we will tackle new challenges in the year ahead. Looking back at 2022, I am first and foremost filled with gratitude and pride in our team. Since we remained focused on our commitments to our customers, despite significant market, geopolitical, and COVID-driven turbulence, 2022 was another exciting year of growth for Knowles Precision Devices. And, because we never lost sight of our core values during this time, we are also well prepared to take on new challenges and support the industries that need our specialty components the most in 2023 and beyond.

In 2022, our engineering experts worked hard to provide their insights into the latest industry trends and challenges as well as teach the basics of the technology and engineering powering your most important applications. We hope you found our insights valuable and thank you for turning to us to learn about the industry. Here are the top five blog posts of the year.

Innovating essential high technology systems with demanding specifications is always challenging; making any sort of difference requires extensive resources and deep subject matter knowledge.

But that’s what keeps it interesting.

With the challenges of today’s global supply chain, we understand that improving the efficiency of your development process is critical to delivering quality products on time. When evaluating components for use in your product, you don’t have time to wait 2–3 weeks for a product sample. And you certainly don’t have the time to wait another 2–3 weeks if you discover that the sample you ordered isn’t right for your design. That’s why Knowles Precision Devices is now offering all-in-one Single Layer Capacitor (SLC) Design Kits for design engineers.

If you’re a long-time reader of our blog, you know that we typically dedicate our blog content to sharing our engineering team’s in-depth expertise and insights on the trends and technologies impacting the industries and applications we serve. We tend to be so focused on the exciting things we are working on to drive innovation in capacitor and RF filtering applications that we don’t share much about how we got to where we are now. But, as you can imagine, getting to the point we are at now with our world-class engineering and manufacturing teams, did not happen by accident.

In recent years, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) have emerged as an excellent capacitor option for the high-power electrical systems needed in electric vehicle (EVs) due to their small physical size, low inductance, and ability to operate at higher temperatures. However, EV engineers are facing two big challenges with using MLCCs including DC bias that can cause capacitance loses of 80 to 90 percent of their quoted value and self-heating issues from AC ripple that can lead to inefficiencies in circuits as well as increased cooling demands. 

This year, Knowles Precision Devices acquired Integrated Microwave Corporation (IMC), a leader in the design and manufacture of custom precision RF microwave filters and multiplexers for the aerospace, defense, and communications industries. This acquisition was particularly exciting as our two companies share deep expertise in engineering high-performance ceramics for RF and microwave applications. And, like Knowles Precision Devices, IMC also has a long heritage of supplying highly reliable components for mission critical space devices that includes applications such as the MARS Orbiters, MARS Landers, and MARS Rovers.