The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI, Herndon, VA), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, has published a research priorities document intended to serve as a resource to all who are tasked with directing R&D (both funding and execution) for the electronics manufacturing industry.

"It is only through effective prioritization of limited R&D programs that the North American electronics industry will maintain the technology leadership that it has enjoyed for the past 50 years," said Robert C. Pfahl Jr., vice president of operations for NEMI. "The 2003 NEMI Research Priorities document has been prepared to aid in this process, facilitating more focused investments and an improved rate of return. With a steady stream of research results to harvest, the electronics industry can continue to enjoy growth and prosperity driven by our society's adoption of breakthrough products that increase productivity and improve lifestyles."

The 2003 NEMI Research Priorities, completed at the end of 2003, presents the consensus on R&D needs identified in the 2002 NEMI Roadmap. This document is part of a planning methodology NEMI has established to ensure that its members focus on high-impact areas where they can make a difference in the marketplace. This process involves five basic steps: 

1. Create industry roadmaps by drawing on the expertise of a broad cross section of individuals from industry, academia and government.
2. Identify the major areas on which NEMI will focus, based on need, participation and ability to make a business impact.
3. Conduct gap analyses on the areas identified to determine where industry needs fall short of capabilities and also to identify those areas where meaningful opportunities exist for industry.
4. Create the five-year NEMI technical plan, which identifies the projects and activities necessary to close the identified gaps. (These plans become the basis for the formation of NEMI projects.)
5. Prioritize research needs identified by the NEMI roadmap and gap analysis activities, creating the NEMI research priorities document, which is distributed to members and key funding agencies, universities and industry.

"In the past, we have developed a technical plan for our own organization, and we have informally shared information with universities and funding agencies about key areas identified for R&D work," said Pfahl. "This is the first time we have formalized the process and documented research priorities for universities and funding agencies."

The document organizes the R&D needs identified by the roadmap into five categories: 1) manufacturing processes; 2) systems integration; 3) energy; 4) materials and 5) design. Highlights of top priorities identified for each of these areas are as follow:

• Manufacturing processes: more cost-effective electrical test methods; more flexible assembly equipment for low-volume, high-mix, high yield board products, including data-driven solder deposition methods.
• Systems integration: Interoperability standards for matching of vendor/supplier hardware for increased competition; improved data transport standards to support data protocols.
• Energy: Lower voltage components and assemblies; higher energy density/specific energy power supplies, batteries and fuel cells.
• Materials: Substrate materials with improved dimensional stability, planarity, low moisture absorption and warpage; improved interfacial adhesion and strength between copper/low k and wire bonds, bumps and underfill.
• Design: Improved design tools for optoelectronics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and other emerging technologies; integrated design and simulation tools needed for mixed mode wireless chips and modules.

A final section on disruptive technologies examines how newly discovered phenomena may be exploited to provide innovative technology solutions for identified needs. In particular, this section describes possible future areas for exploiting nanotechnology to create innovative new products.

The document may be downloaded at www.nemi.org.

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Milara Inc. (Medfield, MA), a vendor of fully and semiautomatic stencil printers for surface-mount technology and wafer applications, has introduced STW-1, a wafer printer system.

Milara takes its combined system technology practice one step further with the development of the new SemiTouch Wafer Printer system. The system is capable of both wafer stencil printing and bumping within a single system. It is molded after Milara's standard printer but by pressing a single button, the system converts itself from a wafer bumper to stencil printer in seconds.

Milara has incorporated a new vision system with accuracies of 12 µm that yields capabilities of ultra-fine-pitch printing. Using patented vibration squeegee technology, which has proven viability in wafer bumping, the system uses the same technology to accomplish ultra-fine pitch-printing (down to 70 µm) with printing reliability (no missed apertures on wafers with excess of 25,000 per print) and solder brick geometry.

www.milarasmt.com

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

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On Feb. 3, 2004, the SMART Group (Bucks, UK) held its 6th annual Lead-Free Seminar at Wycombe Football Club Conference Centre. Delegate numbers were finally cut-off at 173 a week before the event (another 50 engineers wanted to attend). According to the group, the exhibition area could have sold out four times over.

The Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) announced at the event that it would shortly be embarking on a whistle stop trip to the U.S. spreading the WEEE/RoHS status. Steven Andrews and Mark Downs will be speaking at four U.S. seminars, in addition to company visits and meetings and evening discussions. The two will arrive in New Jersey on Feb. 18, then move on to California, Seattle and Chicago.

The visit will complete the DTI coverage of the major markets and suppliers for electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) who have most interest in WEEE/RoHS. DTI approached American Electronics Association (AeA) to get involved with U.S. seminars, after similar initiatives were undertaken in China and Japan.

According to a survey conducted during the conference, most delegates are still conducting investigations on lead free; few had actually built demo or test boards, or selected the lead-free alloy, although most expect it to be tin/silver/copper. Help and advice is still needed, including a a help desk, hands-on experience and regular lead-free forums. When attendees were asked what was needed to get industry moving, the only positive response was for the government to give some financial help, by way of tax benefits, especially in the first year of the changeover from processing with lead solders to lead-free solders.

SMART Group is associated with LEADOUT, a European-funded scheme that will expand the SMART Group PPM Monitoring Project in a lead-free environment. In cooperation with over 20 organisations across Europe, LEADOUT will examine reliability, process change and the training needs of small and medium volume organisations.

www.smartgroup.org

Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.

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