New technology drives new apps. Embedding components gives American manufacturing another chance to shine.
The electronics landscape is changing in ways unforeseen even a few years ago, and the interconnect, or printed circuit board (to use the old definition), is at the forefront of those changes. The underlying technology is changing in ways that few in the West now understand. With huge cost pressures and the shift of basic electronics manufacturing to Asia, these new manufacturing processes have fundamentally altered the topography in ways that present significant opportunities to designers and systems engineers, managers and marketers. These changes are also significant challenges to the relevance of the manufacturing and technology base in North America and Europe.
Consider the iPhone. Every day, new applications that go far beyond the original concept are being introduced. These include:
- Translation software – in over 25 languages – phonetically.
- Networking and situational awareness software.
- Personal identification software with network uplinks.
- Remote control software.
The iPhone has been on the market for just over 3-½ years. It is often forgotten that the software is driven by the capabilities of the hardware. In short, the new technology drives new apps.
Virtually all the components of the iPhone, however, are made outside the US, and the units are assembled in China and Taiwan. Apple has excellent designers and systems integrators whose expertise in the requirements for the technology is unsurpassed. But what actually makes it work – the underlying technology – is no longer understood in North America, except for a relatively few engineers. If we were called for any reason to manufacture these types of products in this country, we could not do so. We no longer have the manufacturing infrastructure.
Several key technologies make handheld and portable devices such powerful tools. The user interfaces are deeply intuitive. The massive miniature hard drives now hold up to 160 GB. The CPU board is a marvel of the most advanced circuit board and processor technology, and the circuit boards themselves are changing on a fundamental level.
High-density interconnect printed circuit boards are at the heart of today’s high-end technology. Signal paths are shortened; power consumption is reduced, and the package can be miniaturized. This technology was invented in the West, but today almost all the advances come from Japan. HDI is critical to miniaturization, ruggedization and high-level reliability, all nonnegotiable requirements for military electronics, as one example. Commercial and industrial applications are even greater. Unfortunately, HDI is hardly on the radar of the American manufacturing infrastructure.
Over $150 billion per year in finished products containing HDI, such as notebook computers, cellphones, GPS devices, consumer electronics, etc., are imported into North America every year. Annual demand for HDI substrates from assemblers in North America is well over $2 billion. The Japanese HDI industry is now producing $10 billion to $12 billion/year in revenue – roughly what the US and Japan each produced from all substrate types in 2000.1 Regrettably, the available capacity from US manufacturers is less than $200 million/year, including military and black box applications. This is a 50 to 60 times discrepancy. HDI has become an enabling technology. Once the three-dimensional topography of HDI becomes a focus, other things start happening.
Surface mount technology (SMT) began replacing plated through-hole technology in the early 1990s, and is now standard, even on most military and aerospace products. Improved product reliability and reduced costs contributed to mass conversion of most devices to SMT. While there are residual through-hole products on many printed circuit assemblies today, SMT constitutes over 90% of the market. SMT is now being gradually challenged by HDI-enabled embedded technology, in which both active and passive components are mounted inside the PCB.2,3,4 This is another game-changing technology. Very little if any work is being done on this in North America.
Embedded technology has several key advantages. First, the package can be made even smaller than it is today. In addition, because the package itself is rigid, reliability can be significantly enhanced in certain applications.4 To date, system-in-package (SiP) devices, including ASICs and memory, have been embedded successfully in commercial-grade substrates, making the interconnect an active device.
The security applications of this breakthrough technology alone should be of interest to the telecommunications, wireless, Internet and military communities. By embedding code and processors in the interconnect, the difficulty of decryption or of reverse-engineering can be enhanced exponentially. Signal paths are further reduced and signal integrity significantly enhanced. RF shielding can further enhance product security. In an age when commercial manufacturers typically have a six-month jump on the competition, embedded technology has the ability to provide significantly higher levels of technology security.
Within this milieu is another new technology that is rapidly changing the electronics landscape: MEMS (micro-electromechanical structures) and next, MESO-MEMS. Presently, these devices are used for gyroscopes and tracking systems in GPS devices; lab-on-a-chip applications; motion and distance detection systems in automotive applications, and even the Nintendo WII dance and exercise handsets.5 Again, very little of this technology is being manufactured in the West, and there is virtually no manufacturing exposure to the opportunities offered.
Optoelectronic circuit board technology is yet another field where the primary advances are now being made overseas. This will have significant ramifications in high-speed signal transmission, security, and many other applications.
The interconnect is changing from a passive to an active component. It is shrinking and becoming both more reliable and complex. It has become the nexus of the next-generation of electronic devices. While software development in North America is unparalleled, it must be matched with a deep and intimate understanding of the hardware and its capabilities and limitations.
The common thread running through all this is that the North American scientific, engineering and manufacturing base has lost touch with these fundamental electronics advances and the ability to develop, commercialize and utilize them successfully. This has profound ramifications for our industrial base. Where do the new products come from? Where do the startups that later become industrial giants obtain their technology?
A number of years ago, with the outsourcing/offshoring phenomenon, the desire to simplify and commodify acquisition processes, reduce costs and use commercially available, off-the-shelf technology, the US government and first-tier manufacturers deemphasized their involvement in the underlying technologies, setting manufacturing standards and even R&D. Today, we are faced with the results of those decisions.
The US’s infrastructure and economy are faced with many challenges of the post-recession and post-industrial economies. Our national welfare, defense and technology leadership are being challenged not by opposing powers or growing foreign economies, but rather by our inattention to the details.
References
1. IPC World PCB Market Report and Laminate Market Report for the Year 2000, February 2002.
2. Jim D. Raby, “Embedded Active Components for High-Reliability Products,” CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, February 2008.
3. Tuomas Waris, Tanja Karila, Arni Kujala and Pekka Hildén, “Embedded Discrete Passive Components in PCBs using IMB Technology,” CARTS Europe, October 2008.
4. Noboru Fujimaki, Kiyoshi Koike, Kazuhiro Takami, Sigeyuki Ogata and Hiroshi Iinaga, “Development of Printed Circuit Board Technology Embedding Active and Passive Devices for e-Function Module,” Oki Technical Review, issue 216, vol. 77, no. 1, April 2010.
5. Arnaud Grivo, “Industrial PCB Development Using Embedded Passive and Active Discrete Chips Focused on Process and DfR,” IPC Apex, April 2010.
Matthew Holzmann is president of Christopher Associates (christopherweb.net); This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
