Newsroom
NEMI Plans Several Industry Meetings at APEX
Project Reports, Discussions of New Initiatives
and Roadmap Meetings are on the Agenda
Download meeting schedule (PDF)
HERNDON, Va. - February 4, 2004 - The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI), an industry-led consortium focused on strengthening the global electronics manufacturing supply chain, is planning several meetings at IPC SMEMA Council's APEX conference (February 23-26, Anaheim, Calif.). Several projects will be reporting on activities in conference sessions; the recently formed RoHS Transition initiatives will hold meetings to discuss areas of focus, objectives and activities; and several of the roadmap Technology Working Groups (TWGs) will begin discussions for the 2004 NEMI Roadmap.
"APEX is an excellent venue for us," said Jim McElroy, executive director and CEO of NEMI. "We are able to meet with most of our members here as well as a good cross-section of industry. Now that APEX has combined with Printed Circuits Expo and the IPC Designers Summit, it gives us an even broader audience. NEMI serves the electronics manufacturing industry, and the opportunity to hold face-to-face meetings with the people representing our many 'constituents' is important for keeping our consortium focused on relevant activities."
NEMI's DPMO (Defects per Million Opportunities) Project will be featured as one of the APEX free forums (Wednesday, February 25, 10-11 a.m.). This project is nearing completion of its investigation into package-level DPMO rates throughout the electronics assembly industry. Such DPMO data can be used to quantify the expected fault spectrum on particular PCB assemblies, enabling manufacturers to more accurately assess the cost of assembly, test, repair and scrap and also to estimate shipped product quality levels. In this APEX forum, the NEMI DPMO Project team will present findings from their study, briefly review methodology, share lessons learned, and discuss their vision for follow-on DPMO efforts in the industry.
Several of NEMI's optoelectronics projects will be discussed in conference sessions. Reports from the Fiber Optic Splice Improvement Project and the Optoelectronic Substrate Cost/Performance Analysis Project are featured in a panel on optoelectronics as part of the APEX technical conference (Thursday, February 26, 9:30-11:30 a.m.). A third optoelectronic project - the Fiber Optical Signal Performance team - has a paper session scheduled on the show floor to discuss their paper, "Degradation of Optical Performance of Fiber Optic Connectors in a Manufacturing Environment" (Thursday, February 26, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., booth 1880).
Several of the roadmap TWGs are taking advantage of the APEX venue to hold their initial organizational meetings. The TWGs are responsible for development of roadmap chapters on specific topics, and are actively recruiting industry participants. Board Assembly, Environmentally Conscious Electronics and Interconnect Substrates-Organic are all scheduled to meet at APEX.
The RoHS Transition Task Group and four initiatives organized under this group (Assembly Process Standards, Component & Board Marking, Component Supply Chain Readiness and Materials Declarations) will also hold meetings that are open to non-members. These efforts were organized in late 2003 in response to findings of the 2002 NEMI Roadmap, which highlighted the need for standards for collection, documentation and transmittal of material content data of components, assemblies and systems to meet the requirements of pending regulations. Working with industry to define needs, NEMI formed the RoHS Transition Task Group to address supply chain issues surrounding the transition of the electronics industry to lead-free assembly. The Task Group meeting (Thursday, Februrary 26, 9 a.m.-noon) will provide an overview of group activities and include presentations from all of the working projects as well as a panel discussion with a question and answer session. In addition, each of the individual projects organized under the Task Group will hold meetings at APEX.
NEMI's Board Assembly & Substrates Technology Integration Groups (TIGs) have scheduled a joint "call for participation" meeting (Tuesday, February 24, 9:00 a.m.-noon) to launch two new collaborative efforts:
- Materials and processes for high-frequency products
- Substrate surface finishes for lead-free assembly
The meeting will develop a statement of requirements that defines industry needs in these two areas and outline activities to meet those needs, and will also gauge level of interest in participation. A NEMI-sponsored optoelectronics workshop (Thursday, February 26, 1:00-4:00 p.m.) will review proposed areas of collaboration for 2004. Potential projects to be considered and discussed include: splice loss estimator comparison and accuracy metric; reliability requirements for datacom/last mile/FTTHOE packaging standards; lead-free compatibility for Level 2 optoelectronic modules, including attachment and rework; and issue relating to the IPC-0400 standard.
About NEMI
The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's mission is to assure leadership of the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. Based in Herndon, Va., the industry-led consortium is made up more than 60 manufacturers, suppliers, industry associations and consortia, government agencies and universities. NEMI roadmaps the needs of the electronics industry, identifies gaps in the technology infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps (both business and technical), and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new technologies. The consortium also works with government, universities and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives. For additional information about NEMI, visit www.nemi.org.
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For further information:
Cynthia Williams
Director of Communications
+1 207-871-1260
cynthiaw@maine.rr.com