Introducing SMTA’s 2020 Additive Electronics TechXchange, Part 2

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The 2020 Additive Conference, hosted by SMTA as an on-site event, will be held this year as a virtual event on October 15, 2020. Concurrent with the change in format, this year’s event has been renamed the Additive Electronics TechXchange.

I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson spoke with Tech Exchange organizers, Tara Dunn, President of OmniPCB, and Lenora Clark, Director of Autonomous Driving and Safety at ESI Automotive, about this year’s version of the event.

In this second installment, Dunn and Clark discuss the target audience for the Additive TechXchange: What sort of businesses and roles should be in attendance and why?

I-Connect007 continues to deliver original reporting and coverage of the electronics design, electronics manufacturing, and contract manufacturing industries, including up-to-date information from the companies, associations, and supply chains globally. Find the latest news and information at I-Connect007.com.

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Audio Transcript:

Nolan Johnson: Hi, Nolan Johnson, here for I-Connect007. I’m back with Tara Dunn and Lenora Clark. Tara is the President for Omni PCB, and Lenora is the Director of Autonomous Driving and Safety at ESI Automotive. And we’re talking about the Additive Electronics TechXchange—not the Additive Conference, but the Additive Electronics TechXchange. We established that in our last conversation. Welcome.

Tara Dunn: Thanks, Nolan, for having us.

Johnson: This conversation topic is your target audience for the Additive Electronics TechXchange. Who should be there?

Dunn: All aspects of the electronic supply chain should be there. That would be my hope. Our presenters this year are going to be focused as end-users. They’re going to be presenting on what their needs are for electronics in this space or this sub-3-mil line in space, as well as what their hurdles are in finding this technology throughout the industry. Anybody who has a need for sub-3-mil line in space thinks they may have a need for it in the future, or who’s just simply curious about what the benefits may be if you’re moving into that segment of the market would all learn a lot from these presentations.

Others that should attend should be PCB fabricators that may be supplying this technology. There are ramifications for materials and chemistry, and EMS companies are going to need to assemble designs that are down in this new area. Nearly anybody from the supply chain could benefit from the conference.

Lenora Clark: I agree. And as Tara said, we’ve set this up so that the end-users are the presenters. We specifically did that this year to get their perspective on, as she said, needs and challenges. But at the end of the conference, we’ve set up a session that we call “Your Voice Will Be Heard.” And this is an opportunity for those within the supply chain to say, “We have a material that might be successful or people might be interested in it because it does this, this, and this.” But it’s also an opportunity to ask more detailed questions. It will be open to the entire audience, both speakers and listeners, to vet out not only the promise but the shortcomings and to get a better understanding.

And we all know that when the details are out on the table, development is so much easier. When you have a clear understanding of performance requirements, but also current set challenges associated to it, it’s just so much more valuable for development. And if we can create this collaborative environment, which is what Tara and I expect to do, we anticipate that it will shorten the development process by getting people to work together.

Johnson: Your speakers list would be a great place to get some market data.

Clark: This year, we have a nice cross-section of consumer, Department of Defense, and telecommunications perspectives in there. It should be a good cross-section. Our keynote speaker is from Prismark, and he will hopefully give us a nice understanding of where this technology stands today.

Dunn: I agree completely with Lenora. With the lineup that we have, we’re going to see a great cross-section of user needs across all different markets.

Johnson: We have other conversations to have with you over the next few days, including a deeper dive into the speakers list and who will be there. Thanks for the teaser there on Prismark. With that, I just want to thank you for talking with us here today.

Clark: Thanks again.

Dunn: Thanks, Nolan.

Johnson: For I-Connect007, I’m Nolan Johnson and thanks for listening.