SMART Group. European Conference – a sold-out success

SMART Group

The SMART Group European Conference – a sold-out success

Keyword: SMART Group

Introduction

The 4th biennial SMART Group European Conference attracted 200 delegates to The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton (21-23 November 2000), completely taking over the hotel. A packed programme of events was very well received.

Keynote address

SMART were delighted and honoured to welcome, from the USA, Dieter Bergman(Plate 2), Director of Technology Transfer at IPC, Institute of Printed Circuits, to present the keynote address "The electronics industry ... into the future".

This was an in-depth overview of our industry, where we've been and where we are going. From the early stages, when the introduction of PWBs became a reality, with reference to inventors as early as 1903 (Albert Hanson –conductive metal), 1913 (Arthur Berry – metal etched heaters). Dieter paid particular tribute to Paul Eisler, referring to him as an "industry leader"with his work on early powder and ink experiments, seeing the need to connect components, conceive metal foil as best solution, entire dielectric surface covered with metal photographically exposed and etched (1940). The main goals of military vs. commercial use saw Eisler's patents challenged. After a period of companies being sued and counter-sued, it led to a new era of cooperation in the USA known as "The Chicago meeting" in 1957.

 Plate 2 Dieter Bergman, IPC, keynote speaker at the SMART Group European Conference

With industry struggling to identify itself and needing to develop standards,the Institute of Printed Circuits was formed. During the 1960s, the standards committee was formed; by 1965 125 companies had joined. At this time a sister organisation in Europe, EIPC, was also formed.

From 1978 World meetings took place; the first keynote speaker, in London,was Sir Harold Wilson.

The 1980s saw multilayer dominating the US market and world-wide the market was regionalised into the "Four Tigers".

Today, it's the growing strength of the EMS Electronics Manufacturing Services which dominates production and they support their customers wherever they are located, offering a real global service.

The component drivers are; tubes to Analogue Circuits, from Analogue to Digital Technology, from transistor to Medium Scale integration-LSI/VLSI/ULSI,from Low to High Speed Circuits, from DIPS to BGA and MicroBGA.

In summing up, Dieter stated that materials, equipment, etc. technology advances at Web speed; implementation of new process is slow; customer demand for commercial product high; cost is still the main driver; B2B transactions continue to evolve; the future looks bright.

Open sessions

Bergman's address was followed by "EUROPRACTICE High Density Packaging",a workshop presented by Nick Chandler, Advanced Technology Centre, BAE Systems. He explained EP-HDP, an EU project aimed to improve the take-up of advanced subsystem integration technologies (especially HDP) and "the time to market"for new products. Nick presented some of the detail from the Technology Roadmap work carried out by the participants of the project.

Both the keynote address and the roadmap workshop were attended by all delegates. A choice of two meetings followed.

Developing a sub-contract partnership

Lawrence Faulkner of Prism Electronics covered in detail the rapidly growing EMS business and the ground rules for a successful partnership. Also to answer the question "Why are more and more companies choosing to contract out their manufacturing?"

The alternative session was:

Marketing and knowledge transfer in the electronics industry

 Plate 3 Marketing and knowledge transfer in the electronics industry - speakers, left to right: Donald McDonald, Publisher AMT; Cathy Turner, managing editor, MCB University Press; Trevor Galbraith, Associate Editor, MCB University Press;Keith Murray, Advertising Manager, Electronics Manufacture & Test; Liam McCauley, Publisher, Electronics Manufacturing Products

The writer chaired the marketing session; the distinguished panel (Plate 3)included:

• Cathy Turner, a managing editor, of MCB University Press, who raised issues concerned with electronic means of information dissemination.

• Trevor Galbraith, Associate Editor of Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, suggested ways to improve writing and submitting technical articles, and how they can form part of a company's marketing strategy.

• Liam McCauley, Electronics Manufacturing Products, discussed the importance and the power of quality images for use in magazines.

• Donald McDonald, publisher of Advanced Manufacturing Technology,offered words of wisdom about the "marketing mix" and also how to market products in Ireland.

• Keith Murray, Electronics Manufacture & Test, spoke about the power of advertising and the rules to follow.

A range of workshops

A total of 12 half-day workshops were then on offer, each delegate choosing three of these. They covered a range of technologies challenging our industry:

• 1.

  Troubleshooting the SMT soldering process.

• 2.

  Design for manufacture of complex circuit boards.

• 3.

  X-ray inspection of surface mount solder joints.

• 4.

  Solder paste evaluation, fine pitch and BGA stencil printing.

• 5.

  BGA and CSP rework.

• 6.

  VOC-free soldering ... can you solder with water?

• 7.

  Solder joint reliability.

• 8.

  Pin-in-hole reflow.

• 9.

  Lead-free assembly and soldering.

• 10.

  Design for manufacture, design for assembly.

• 11.

  Simultaneous double-sided reflow soldering.

• 12.

  Flip-chip assembly and underfill.

All presentations are available on CD-ROM from The SMART Group.

Gala dinner

At the Gala dinner, where additional guests were invited, Alan Jones, The SMART Group Chairman, announced the following SMART Fellows for 2000:

Alan Whitcroft – Nortel NetworksGerry Andrews – MarconiChris May – PearpointLiam McCauley – Electronics Manufacturing ProductsPhilip O'Rourke – Beta ElectronicsDr Wally Rubin– ConsultantAngus Westwater – Rohm ElectronicsMarion Duff– The SMART Group Scotland

During the evening over £1,000 was donated to the charity "Children in Need" (Plate 4).

 Plate 4 Dieter Bergman, IPC and SMART Group's Jayne Griffiths with "Children in Need"cheque

Proceedings are available from The SMART Group on CD-ROM. Details from www.smartgroup.org