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ECWC13:

First held in London, UK, in 1978, and triennially since then, the 13th Electronic Circuits World Convention came to Nuremberg, Germany, running in parallel with the SMT Hybrid Packaging Exhibition.

Alun Morgan, chairman of EIPC and also of the ECWC13 Committee, welcomed an enthusiastic international audience to a superbly organised and managed event that offered a programme of 123 papers in 26 sessions, presented by leading experts from industry and academia keen to share their knowledge and experience in printed circuit technology and market trends. His welcome was echoed by David Lai, WECC secretary general, who acknowledged the support and cooperation of WECC members CPCA, EIPC, HKPCA, IPC, IPCA, JPCA, KPCA, and TPCA, and extended his gratitude to Mesago for their efforts in coordinating the event, and to Isola, Ventec and Somacis for their sponsorship. Dr. Stefan Mengel added his welcome on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, emphasising the importance and significance of cross-border collaborative research and European cooperation.

Representatives of all of the WECC members assembled for a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony, with stirring musical accompaniment from a traditional oom-pa band.

"Where would we be without the PCB?" The opening keynote presentation was delivered by Dr. Marc Schweizer, CEO of Schweizer Electronics. He described how innovative PCBs would form an integral part of customised solutions to enable the future technological, environmental and cost-efficiency demands of the automotive industry to be met. The automotive industry contributed 190 billion euros to the German export market; electronics represented 25% of its manufactured cost and supported 800,000 jobs in Germany. And it was electronics that was driving innovation in automotive development, taking over from mechanical engineering as the dominant force. Future automotive electronics would make major contributions to safety, autonomy and connectivity, and the value of automotive electronics was forecast to increase to 430 billion euros by 2025, largely as a consequence of major developments in alternative drive systems.

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Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of The PCB Magazine.