Dan's Biz Bookshelf: 'Revenge of the Tipping Point'
Marcy's Musings: Engineering Economics
Punching Out: Should You Sell Your Company to a Private Equity Firm?
The Data Brings Us Together
May 22, 2024 | Nolan Johnson, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 1 minute
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 wrapped up after a week of immersion in printed circuits and electronics manufacturing, so why did I keep thinking about wood joinery as I flew home rather than fabrication and assembly?
Dovetail joints are an elegant and effective way to create a corner joint between two pieces of wood. Done well, dovetail joints don’t require any fasteners, often get by without any glue, and the joint can withstand loads in nearly all directions. The dovetail interface itself seems simultaneously simple and complex.
While in Anaheim, I kept looking for the one key theme at the center of innovation in electronics manufacturing, but I came up empty. From my perspective, IPC APEX EXPO showcased five major areas more or less equally, with these trends dovetailing together to create a greater, stronger whole.
Trend No. 1: Accessibility
Process interoperability and automation—spurred on by big data developments—have chipped away at any previous “walled garden” data models. All that process data isn’t considered vendor-proprietary any longer, and that shift changes things. At the association level, this kind of accessibility is being reflected in the industry. Cases in point are the iNEMI/IPC collaborations on strategic market reports and the latest version of the iNEMI technology roadmap (reconfigured for easy research and made available to the public at no charge). The IPC/WHMA partnership continues to blossom as well, creating a more seamless flow between wire harnesses and assembly.
Trend No. 2: Increased collaboration
This increased accessibility can be traced to increased collaboration throughout. At IPC APEX EXPO four years ago, I asked CFX leaders, “Now that CFX is creating all this data, how do we make it useful?” At that time, the responses were visionary and a look to the future. Now, companies from a variety of sectors are working together to move that data up the stack from sensor to data to analytics to action.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the 2024 issue of Show & Tell Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Keysight, Instrumentix Partner to Launch Complete Trade Monitoring Solution for Financial Markets
11/21/2024 | Keysight TechnologiesKeysight Technologies, Inc. expanded its financial capital markets portfolio through a partnership with Instrumentix to introduce a cutting-edge trade solution.
Gartner Forecasts MENA IT Spending to Grow 7.4% in 2025
11/20/2024 | Gartner, Inc.IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is projected to total $230.7 billion in 2025, an increase of 7.4% from 2024, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
ASMPT: Highly Flexible Die and Flip-chip Bonder for Co-packaged Optics Production
11/20/2024 | ASMPTThe high-precision AMICRA NANO die and flip-chip bonder has been specially developed for the production of co-packaged optics where which optical and electronic components are integrated in a common housing. With its exceptional process stability and a placement accuracy of ±0.2 μm @ 3 σ, this innovative bonding system is ideally equipped for the communication technology of the future.
New Ultrafast Memory Boosts Intel Data Center Chips
11/19/2024 | IntelWhile Intel’s primary product focus is on the processors, or brains, that make computers work, system memory (that’s DRAM) is a critical component for performance. This is especially true in servers, where the multiplication of processing cores has outpaced the rise in memory bandwidth (in other words, the memory bandwidth available per core has fallen).
Sluggish Telecom Market Growth Prompts Operators to Become Full-Stack Technology Suppliers
11/18/2024 | IDCWorldwide spending on telecommunications and pay TV services will reach $1,544 billion in 2024, representing an increase of 2.4% year-on-year, according to the Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker published by International Data Corporation (IDC).