Robert Black, America's Sales Manager, Essegi Automation S.r.l.

Over the last year, the world has gone from data-driven to data overdriven. What was already accelerated data generation, transmission and storage requirements moved to new levels as everything from business meetings to school classrooms transformed to accommodate virtual models alongside previously established usage. The need for greater bandwidth, faster data rates and increased storage capacity – though already well recognized – was punctuated with the pandemic response.

Both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 implementation is accelerating, allowing efficient, intelligent and more agile networks to deploy targeted bandwidth where it is needed; the Citizens Broadcast Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum is offering enterprises alternatives for wireless performance, security and flexibility; and datacenters continue to add capacity and speed.

The higher system processing and power density increases resulting from all of these advances require more capable electronics materials to ensure reliability -- from optical networks to mobile access points. With advanced optical fiber adhesives for transceivers and switches to next-generation thermal interface materials for high-density PCBs and power devices, Henkel continues to innovate in the data and telecom space.

During 2020, our teams developed micro-thermal interface materials to significantly reduce 400 GbE optical transceiver heat, thermal gels with high gap stability for vertical positioning within challenging environments, and active alignment adhesives for optical lens and component alignment, to name a few initiatives.

We see accelerated growth in this sector over the next few years and are actively engineering next-generation materials to meet increasingly demanding reliability requirements.