How Pickering Is Redefining High-Density Reed Relay Design

Welcome to another episode of The Electropages Podcast, hosted by Robin Mitchell. Today's guest is Robert King, Technical Sales and Product Manager at Pickering Electronics. In this episode, Robert takes us inside the engineering behind Pickering's latest generation of ultra-compact reed relays, including the new 5x5 mm Series 125 devices. He explains how these relays achieve mechanical switching speeds up to 250 hertz, support billions of cold-switch operations, and deliver impressive power handling in an incredibly small footprint. The conversation explores why density matters for modern semiconductor test systems, how Pickering maintains isolation and low leakage in high-frequency environments, and what makes reed relays uniquely suited to RF, medical, and instrumentation applications. Robert also reveals the clever magnetic design that enables normally closed reed relays, how the team engineered two-pole configurations inside a 5x5 mm package, and why advanced shielding and integrated diodes are critical for today's high-density switching matrices. Watch to learn how Pickering is pushing the limits of relay design and enabling more compact, capable, and scalable automated test systems for the next generation of semiconductor and RF technologies.