“This latest roadmap represents more than six man-years of work by people who are ‘in the trenches’ of electronics manufacturing,” said the CEO Bill Bader. “We have also continued to increase the number of participants outside of North America for a truly global view of this international industry.”
Two topics are 3D packaging and component traceability, both of which have broad-reaching effects. Increased momentum in the move toward 3D packaging creates issues up and down the supply chain, affecting assembly processes and equipment, design and simulation tools, reliability methodologies, thermal management strategies and cooling technologies, and test and inspection strategies. There is a growing need for product traceability and product data reporting. which is driven by increased concerns about, and occurrence of, counterfeit parts; legislation to prevent trade in “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; expanding environmental legislation banning “materials of concern,” which compels companies to require detailed product data attributes; plus requirements for medical OEMs to maintain traceability of critical bill of material components as well as the final product.
