Molex MiniMix Puts Power and Ethernet Through a 5.65 mm Joint
Molex is sampling MiniMix, a hybrid power-and-signal connector aimed at humanoid joints. The 5 August 2026 PR from Lisle, Illinois, and a 6 August write-up in Electronics Weekly agree on the numbers: 15.0 A plus 1 Gbps 1000BASE-T1 Ethernet in a 5.65 mm routing profile.
That is a wiring part, not a robot. It exists because wrists and ankles are running out of hole.
The bottleneck they are selling against
The PR says multi-axis joints (wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, neck) have to carry both actuator power and high-speed control through “extremely tight channels.” Separate power and signal plugs are too fat, so builders hand-thread bare wire and solder at final assembly.
MiniMix is meant to replace that with a pre-terminated assembly that slides through those channels. Molex claims up to 50% less routing area than “alternative options.” Vertical and right-angle mates are listed. The PR calls the mechanics vibration-resistant for continuous flex.
Brian Hauge, Molex president and SVP, Consumer and Commercial Solutions:
“MiniMix replaces tedious manual assembly with an integrated solution for power and signal transmission, freeing robotics designers to build sleeker, lighter and more responsive autonomous systems at scale.”
When you can buy it
Samples and evaluation assemblies are available now. Commercial production is slated for late 2026, according to both the PR and Electronics Weekly.
Molex also points at the rest of its robot catalog: Mirror Mezz for NVIDIA Jetson Thor-class compute, Quad-Row board-to-board, High-Speed FAKRA-Mini for cameras and LiDAR, plus Mega-Fit and EXTreme Ten60 for higher current. The PR cites a 2026 McKinsey supply-chain note (via Molex) that joint actuators can be 40% to 60% of a humanoid bill of materials, and talks about “approximately 50” articulated joint actuators per robot. Treat those as Molex’s framing, not a number I independently checked.
A Human’s Take
If your humanoid still needs a tech to solder a wrist harness, you do not have a factory. You have a prototype line. MiniMix is a boring part, which is why I trust it more than another backflip. I want a flex-cycle rating and a price break at 10,000 pieces before I call the joint problem solved.