Superior Modular Products (SMP; Cleveland, OH; www.superiormod.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Preformed Line Products, turns 15 this year.
"After 15 years, SMP is prepared more than ever to meet the rising demands of the telecommunication industry," says General Manager Bill Reynolds. "Our commitments to excellence, American made products, and our strong intellectual property base has us poised to meet more customer needs and develop better innovative solutions for the next 15 years and beyond."
For the past 15 years, the company has developed and manufactured high-speed crossconnect products for communications networks. The company's patents include the invention of the low-crosstalk, electrical connector system. This system forms the basis for crosstalk reduction of Category 5, 5e and 6 patch panels and is still required in the emerging categories of high-speed connectors.
The company's next major engineering breakthrough came with the development of the impedance matched, reduced-crosstalk, electrical connector system. Impedance matching is now recognized as one of the more critical needs in the industry. With the emergence of Gigabit Ethernet, issues of return loss and impedance have been propelled to the forefront of connector design.
One of the company's more recent patented innovations is a modular plug design suitable for Category 6 applications that lets manufacturers simultaneously increase yields and lower the costs of Category 6-compliant patch cords.
SMP has also played a role in TIA committee efforts to establish patch cord test standards and to identify the problems associated with high-frequency performance connectors.