2020 has been an unusual and challenging year, although many of us can be thankful for the resilience of high-tech industries. Indeed, activity has surged in some sectors, and generally the outlook is relatively buoyant.
In my other role as president of the EIPC (European Institute for the PCB Community), I moderated the Institute’s Technical Snapshot webinar last November, at which Dr. Shiuh-Kao Chiang of Prismark described how various sectors have fared. While 5G infrastructure rollouts slowed and handset shipments fell about 10%, the PC market has been buoyed by the increase in work-from-home, and certain consumer markets such as wearables and smart appliances have also done well. Overall, he noted a surprising robustness across the electronics, semiconductor and substrate markets.
The automotive sector has been among the hardest hit, along with conventional commercial aerospace. Rebuilding after the damage to sales caused by the pandemic is just one of the challenges facing vehicle manufacturers right now. They are also contending with the push toward higher levels of driving automation, mandatory smart systems such as autonomous emergency braking, and real-time V2X capabilities, which are expensive to develop. At the same time, governments are signaling their intentions to accelerate electrification, which will require all manufacturers to move their entire product ranges to hybrid-electric or pure battery-EV platforms. The UK government has brought its intended start date forward to 2030. There is no doubt about the urgency, although I am sure at least hybrid-EVs will prove a steppingstone to the kinds of vehicles we use in the future.
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Read more: Today’s Best Technologies are the Roadmap to an Even Better Future
Affordable and accessible technologies are the key to global progress.
My smartphone does everything so well I hardly use my tablet or laptop at all. It contains all the apps I need to use every day, is always with me and always connected, and the clarity of the screen makes it a pleasure to handle the majority of computing tasks on this device. I am convinced improvements in display technologies have helped the smartphone become the go-to device for a vast number of daily activities.
To support the best possible experiences in video, photography and gaming, new display technologies continue to emerge to provide seamless, immersive viewing. OLED displays are dominating the smartphone and flat-panel television markets, bringing attributes such as conformability and optical performance, including high contrast ratio with the ability to render true black, which conventional LCDs cannot manage.
But we humans are insatiable by nature. If the color is good, the viewing angle could be a little wider. If the angle is okay, the contrast could be higher. Now, another change is in progress with the arrival of mini-LED backlit LCDs. Containing many thousands of individual mini-LED emitters less than 0.2mm in size, the backlight has many dimmable zones and permits deep black levels, high contrast ratio and high luminance.
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Read more: The 5G Rollout Should be Flying High – Literally
Embrace Industry 4.0 for cleaner, healthier lives.
Industrial electronics is a stealthy but enormously valuable business. Approaching one-quarter of all PCBs manufactured worldwide are for industrial applications, including not only equipment for use in factories but activities such as construction and power generation. In Europe, about 40% of electronic production is destined for industrial applications.
Though cost-conscious, industrial companies appreciate the importance of investing in advanced technology to secure their market position and take advantage of new opportunities. While investing is critical for survival, early adopters can gain a significant competitive edge. This is increasingly the case as the fourth industrial revolution – Industry 4.0 – continues to transform activities.
It’s good news for product innovators. Although development can be expensive and the pace fast, the value of cutting-edge industrial electronics tends to be high, and differentiating features that deliver extra value for customers can attract a premium.
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Read more: How Previous Industrial Revolutions Can Help Us Approach This One
Advanced prosthetics highlight the value of pure research, with or without a business case.
I have said this before, but I am a huge fan of technology’s potential to help humanity, and particularly the opportunities to improve quality of life and restore impaired physical capabilities.
In my last column, I enthused about using augmented and virtual reality to create experiences and environments that help people interact and enhance their well-being. Physical augmentation, with technologies such as powered exoskeletons, have industrial and therapeutic applications and could also be used to help people with mobility problems get outdoors to tackle activities such as hill walking. Lack of mobility can have negative effects on the state of mind, as well as physical condition, so an assistive technology that tackles both these challenges could help us establish healthy approaches to aging and help us all keep engaged with the world around us for longer.
A prime application for exoskeletons is to help people suffering from disability or limb loss reacquire important capabilities such as walking. Remarkable as these technologies are, there is enormous scope for improvement to make them easier to use and more affordable and therefore accessible to more people worldwide.
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Read more: Human-Augmentation Technologies are Worth the Risks
