Hillsboro, Oregon is home to the largest Intel campus in the United States as the base of operations for most of Intel’s CPU development. Hillsboro boasts experts and teams in IC and PCB physical layout, packaging, and R&D. Intel and satellite companies in its orbit deliver PCB fabrication and PCB assembly as well. So it's no surprise that SMTA Oregon’s annual meeting takes place practically in the shadows of Intel’s Hillsboro campus.
Making its debut at the Wingspan Event Center just south of the Hillsboro Airport on June 20, 2024, the day’s agenda consisted of an expo and a series of speakers and panels. Wingspan is a much larger venue than SMTA Oregon has used previously, allowing it to expand its growth potential.
The keynote, “6G Opportunities and Challenges,” presented by Keysight’s Julie Silk, kicked off the technical program. Silk enumerated the design and manufacturing challenges that 6G technologies will present, along with the opportunities to make things “better.” Perhaps not unsurprisingly, most of the challenges seemed to be in managing the signal speed, power, and thermal challenges in design and manufacturing. As for opportunities, those lie mostly in the new types of applications where 6G hardware will be enabled.
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