Photovoltaics’ new destination on the roadmap
15 June 2008
The iNEMI roadmap is the closest thing the industry has to an overview of coming trends in coming years. I was lucky enough to catch up with Jim McElroy, iNEMI’s CEO, to discuss what is taking centre stage in the 2009 roadmap.
iNEMI (International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative) release a roadmap every two years, the next one due to be published in March 2009. The 2009 roadmap has now been drafted and is currently being dragged around the provinces for input and feedback. Last month it was North America, tomorrow (18 June) it is Europe (Belgium) and next month the final workshop will be in Asia (Shanghai on 28 July).
Unfortunately there is a clash in timings that prevents me from going over to Belgium for the workshop (here in the UK we have the inaugural National Electronics Week exhibition in London – the main event for the UK industry in 2008), but Jim McElroy did guide me through some of the more interesting departures for the Roadmap.
The most obvious indication of ‘what’s hot’ is that three main sections have been added: Photovoltaics, RFID item-level tag, and Solid State illumination. These three have been added to the 19 existing working groups, each of which is led by its own committee. For example, in 2007 the main new group to be launched was nanotechnology and two major projects within this have looked at PB-free solders and ‘nano-attach’; both of which have made good progress over the last year. The nano-attach project is interesting – it is essentially looking to lower the process temperatures of soldering by employing a nano ‘hook-and-loop’ (like Velcro) only on a nano scale, with the object of removing the need for high process temperatures typically used for Pb-free solders.
Until the roadmap has been finalised and the committees put in place, the exact projects that each will cover will not be put in place, but it is clear in the case of Photovoltaics and Solid State Lighting that the efforts need to be establishing technology that can be manufactured cost-effectively, while I imagine that the RFID team will be looking more at how to expand the scope of the technology to encapsulate further applications.
However, looking at what the iNEMI projects achieve individually is probably secondary to the overall impact of having effectively an overview for the entire industry and the consequent benefits of being able to identify where more research can realistically be done collaboratively (I think it fair to assume that the more commercially beneficial projects will already be underway in the labs of individual electronics companies), and who these collaborations may be between. I also think that iNEMI has gradually eroded away its image of a North American only concern (which is where its roots lie) and this adds further credence to its roadmapping activities.
As a final thought, good luck to the organising team behind National Electronics Week in London this week. It’s been a brave move and sometimes a difficult journey for them, so I hope it proves to be a good event for everyone involved. If it goes well it would be good news for the UK electronics manufacturing industry and a healthy indicator for other countries in Western Europe – so good luck Claire, Rob and the rest of the team.
Feel free to come and visit us in the WiFi zone which is being sponsored by EMTWorldWide – all the team will be up during the week and would be delighted to see you.
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