Part 2: 2024 Electronics Industry Trends: New Innovations & Buyer Benefits

Welcome to Part 2 of our insightful Q&A with Mark Patrick, Director of Technical Content EMEA at Mouser Electronics. In case you missed it, in Part 1 we asked "What are the current hottest and emerging trends in the electronic component industry, and what are your projections for the rest of this year?”. You can read the article by clicking here. 

In this instalment, we explore the question, 'What new products or innovations are on the horizon, and how can they benefit buyers?'.

Mark's insights provide a detailed roadmap for buyers and engineers aiming to stay ahead in the permanently evolving electronic components industry. From the latest in AI and IoT technologies to significant advancements in security and power components, this discussion offers valuable perspectives to inform your strategic decisions for 2024 and beyond.

Mark says: "Buyers will need to understand the significance of new products entering the market and ensure a robust supply chain through a trusted source like Mouser Electronics". Examples of these new products and innovations include…

Hardware that enables AI and Edge AI solutions.

These continue to increase in popularity and are undergoing much innovation. The potential impact of AI on the industry and designs is a topic of great interest for engineers, who are actively exploring it through development kits like the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Orin™ 32GB Developer Kit from Seeed Studio. AI, especially at the edge, is helping to deliver a level of distributed intelligence and decision-making that has not been possible before, and it is enhancing a wide range of applications. Whether this is image recognition and collision avoidance in industrial applications, or smart voice recognition and home automation in consumer electronics, the potential impact of AI is undeniable, and going forward, the industry will only see more diverse implementations. In 2024, the industry should see more AI-enhanced products hitting the market as the technology continues to mature.

The ongoing advancement in the intelligence of electronic applications is fuelling the need for enhanced perception.

Image sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, radar, and various other sensor types are currently experiencing both strong sales and strong innovation. Given their vital role in systems like robotics and AI-driven automation, such as providing essential information for safe and accurate operation, any improvement in perception performance can potentially enhance operational effectiveness.

The rise of the IoT and IIoT markets has generated a significant need for advanced communication modules.

The latest connection standards, which include BLE, Wi-Fi 6E, Matter, and 5G, address a variety of longstanding issues and provide a performance improvement, making them an attractive proposition for many designers. The industry will see even more combination solutions, like Murata’s highly integrated LBEE5PL2DL Multiprotocol Module, as these provide low-powered or battery-based IoT and IIoT products with the low-energy but high-performance wireless communication required. For buying teams, combined solutions also help to manage (BOM) component count, easing inventory management and lowering costs in comparison to using separate chips to manage each protocol.

The Critical Role of Location Systems in Modern Applications

Location systems are also playing a vital role in many modern consumer and industrial applications as automation increases and solutions need to track their movement more closely. New and higher precision location modules such as the NEO-F9P GNSS Module from u-blox, offer the centimetre level accuracy required in applications such as automated guided vehicles in warehouses to delivery robots in cities. Growth in demand will also come from increased automation and the requirement for elevated perception. In some cases, the effort for buyers will be reduced as the stock and BOM component count that they manage can be consolidated by replacing several single-band location modules with a multi-band option like the NEO-F9P.

The significance of hardware-based, component-level security technology, which is growing among engineers.

The driving force behind this is rooted in companies' recognition of the substantial harm that can result from security breaches, prompting them to actively seek ways to address any possible vulnerabilities. Emerging standards like IoT Secure and manufacturer solutions, such as NXP Semiconductor’s EdgeLock SE050 Plug & Trust Secure Element Family, are furthering awareness. Increasing security will be a key initiative for many in 2024, and hardware solutions that provide a primary function and enhance security will be a requirement buyers need to be aware of.

The Demand for High-Performance Power Components

This could include products like the M3S EliteSiC MOSFETs from onsemi, which facilitates advances in EV charging infrastructure and solar inverter performance. In general, products that can create new applications, increase performance, or reduce costs and component count are always going to be popular among engineers and buyers.

About Mark Patrick

As Mouser Electronics’ Director of Technical Content for EMEA, Mark is responsible for creating and circulating technical content within the region – content that is key to Mouser’s strategy to support, inform, and inspire its engineering audience. 

Before leading Technical Content, Mark was part of Mouser’s EMEA Supplier Marketing team and played a vital role in establishing and developing relationships with key manufacturing partners. Mark’s previous experience encompasses hands-on engineering roles, technical support, semiconductor technical sales, and various marketing positions.

A “hands-on” engineer at heart, Mark holds a first-class Honors Degree in Electronics Engineering from Coventry University. He is passionate about vintage synthesizers and British motorcycles and thinks nothing of servicing or repairing either.

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