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Nolan’s Notes:What’s Driving Europe?

It’s not breaking news that Europe is central to much of the automotive electronics development in the world economy, but what are the actual numbers?

The global consumer electronics market was estimated at $838.85 billion in 2020, according to Grand View Research¹. With an estimated global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $84.54 trillion, consumer electronics makes up roughly 1% of the entire global economy.

If we zoom into some key regions using 2020 data, we see:

Now, this data is a bit “apples to oranges” in that, by deadline, I hadn’t yet found any data for automotive across the EU, so while I show the EU’s GDP—and with apologies to France, the UK, Italy, and all other non-German auto companies—the automotive specific statistics are just for Germany. Even still, the European numbers give one pause: Germany alone has more gross product from automotive than either the U.S. or China. Whatever the numbers are for the rest of the EU, it’s clear that automotive is a major industrial and electronics driver in Europe.

Europe is a big market with a great deal of innovation underway in PCB fabrication and assembly. For example, Europe has a leadership role in Industry 4.0 development. It is widely seen as a driving force in sustainability and environmental stewardship. Inside the printed circuit industry, Europe continues to be a ripe incubator for new processes, materials, equipment, and automation solutions. For that reason, we chose to start the new year by focusing on the European market.

Our goal with this issue was to highlight the innovative research, development, and manufacturing efforts currently underway in the wider European region. We wanted to learn about important new technologies and solutions coming out of Europe and identify any challenges Europe is trying to overcome with its technologies. What are the hurdles? What new technologies have been adopted that have made a significant impact in the European market? Part of this may include discussion of the application markets Europe is targeting.

Some readers may already be familiar with the EIPC, a European-based, independent organization for PCB technologists to share their ideas, discuss their research, and move the industry forward collaboratively. We contacted the EIPC for this issue and spoke extensively with EIPC technical director Tarja Rapala-Virtanen. The EIPC traditionally has hosted quarterly

two-day, in-person conferences. During the sporadic COVID lockdown phases, EIPC began hosting instead a monthly online “Technical Snapshot Webinar” series, with four to five presenters sharing their most recent R&D, market research, etc.

In my interview, Rapala-Virtanen said, “I would say it’s a time of innovation. The requirements are becoming harder, but engineers are clever. There are some very interesting new technologies coming.” When I asked her about the influence of automotive on the entire industry, she said, “For me, the telecom side, like 5G and automotive, are moving toward similar types of products. The new autonomous vehicles are like a small base station because they need to communicate with the network.” Her point was clear: The innovation available to us, thanks to 5G, will require further improved telecom services, which will be the ether hosting the data mesh that keeps the smart vehicles running safely. They all are developing independently, but within the automotive application, they all come together. This confluence is the inspiration for so much of the research and development underway in Europe.

With this issue, we endeavored to bring you some sage industry perspective. The result is interviews with NCAB’s Anders Forsen, CCI Eurolam’s Alain Kahn, and Tarja Rapala-Virtanen from EIPC. Karl-Heinz Fritz at Cicor shares his perspective as a fabricator, while Dr. John Mitchell, IPC president, turns his attention to Europe in his column this month.

To capture some of the R&D work underway, we contacted EIPC Technical Snapshot presenters from the Q4 2021 webinars to talk about their recent presentations. Not everyone was comfortable sharing their work quite yet, but we bring you a peek into the work of the EIPC. The argument can be made that the information shared within the EIPC is valuable but often overlooked by U.S. manufacturers.

Finally, we turned to Israel for an interview with Ralph Birnbaum at ioTech to learn about how this company is innovating additive technologies. All in all, the work coming out of Europe is very interesting.

Of course, our columnists deliver, as ever, with dispatches from Mike Carano, Happy Holden, Steve Williams, and a new column from the PCBAA launches this month.

References

1. “Global Consumer Electronics Market Worth $838.85 Billion by 2020,” Grand View Research, September 2015.

This column originally appears in the January 2022 issue of PCB007 Magazine.