Where reliability meets flexibility
An exclusive interview with a technical leader
By Larry Maloney -- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2010 2:00:00 AM
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Q: How has high-speed data transmission shaped the development of cable test assemblies at Gore?
A: Our customers really demand unique value from their suppliers and partners. They want faster test times and increased confidence in their test results, particularly when it comes to accuracy and repeatability. From our point of view, driving for the leading edge in frequency performance helps us create a rounded portfolio of products, including cable test assemblies and connectors designed for high data rates and frequencies up to 110 GHz. We really focus on using our material sets and product and market knowledge to provide phase and amplitude stable products to meet customer needs.
Q: What types of applications have you targeted for the 110-GHz test assemblies?
A: They're used primarily in R&D environments in such areas as passive millimeter-wave imaging, high-data-rate communications, intelligent vehicle systems, and wireless HDMI (high-definition multimedia interfaces).
Q: What would you consider to be your premier test assembly product?
A: The Gore VNA Microwave Test Assemblies, which we believe offer electrical engineers superior performance, durability, and repeatability. Key features include phase and amplitude stability under flexure, which means that you can hold your calibrations for a lot longer and focus more of your time on testing. The cables, which are compatible with OEM test equipment, also offer extremely high crush and torque resistance, as well as excellent flexibility without spring-back.
Q: What technical advances are driving improved performance in your cable products?
A: We don't believe in just putting together cables, connectors and other components; we want to understand the customer's end products and applications. That's why we have expanded our material choices and closely control the supply chain for our components.
We've used the economic downturn as an opportunity to listen closely to our customers' needs and to explore with engineers in our core technology group innovative ways to use expanded PTFE and our other fluoropolymers to take advantage of some of the new opportunities out there. Under development for 2010, for example, are products that offer both lighter weight and higher performance.
Q: For the 12th consecutive year in 2009, Fortune magazine named Gore one of the country's 100 best companies to work for. How does the company's culture contribute to product innovation?
A: Gore is one of only a handful of companies that has been included in that Fortune list since it was first introduced. The company culture values small teams and encourages collaborative problem solving and innovation. Since the company started in 1958, it has practiced a lattice style of management where associates work together, rather than the indirect communication that you often see in companies with a chain-of-command setup. We believe that we are all in the same boat and therefore share the same goals as a team. And we provide our associates with the freedom to organize around a project or opportunity and come up with innovative ways to service customers in many diverse markets, including electronics, consumer, industrial, medical, and fabrics.
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