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40 FLEX007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2019 tree is civilization in space." I don't know what the timing will be, but the opportunity is mas- sive. Shaughnessy: Dan, is there anything else you want to mention? Gamota: I truly believe we are in a situa- tion where we will see significant growth in elec-tronics manufacturing innovation. Pres- ently, it's being slightly tempered because of the shortened timelines that we are given for transitioning ideas to product realization. We may see an increase in the diversity of avail- able substrates and the functionality that those materials give us to realize some of the prod- ucts, but it's all going to have to wait until we can accelerate the industrialization process and leverage digital building blocks such as digital twin tools. Things are good, but they could be better, and they're only going to get better if we have the appropriate digital tools with accurate data sets for us to build models and simulations in a vir - tual environment before investing in the proto- typing and manufacturing of physical products. I have a question for you both. Do you feel that electronics manufacturing has deviated from encouraging only revolutionary technolo- gies to accepting evolutionary technologies? Shaughnessy: It does seem that way, and some analysts are saying it's about time for a quan- tum leap like we saw with EDA tools for SMT— something game-changing. Gamota: You said the magic word—SMT! Two months ago, I met with an executive at an SMT equipment supplier, and we had a simi- lar conversation about SMT. For 20+ years in SMT, components and devices for pick & place assembly have gotten bigger and smaller, but the fundamental process has not changed. Is SMT ready for a disruption? The executive stated that it appears that no one is thinking about it. He remembers a time when verti- cally integrated companies like Motorola and IBM had the bandwidth and assets to drive manufacturing innovation in search of what's next. They had teams of engineers seeking novel assembly processes. He felt that once those companies stopped having dedicated advanced manufacturing technology groups that designed and built equipment to support internal manufacturing of products, manufac- turing innovation kind of stopped. Perhaps it is time to revisit existing manufac- turing technologies such as SMT. How would you go about bringing together the appropriate people to start the dialogue? It doesn't have to be a major disruption in SMT manufacturing. However, at some point, you should see a jog in the SMT road. That is the kind of dialogue we should have at IPC APEX EXPO and Happy Holden is the type of person with the experience to lead the conversation. He is known as an expert on manufacturing innovation. Happy is cred - ited with introducing several broad indus- try adopted revolutionary manufacturing technologies. He could facilitate the discus- sion for why we continue to use established manufacturing processes with little interest in change. Shaughnessy: Dan, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. Goldman: This is thought-provoking informa- tion. Maybe we can continue this conversation at IPC APEX EXPO 2019. Gamota: That would be great. Thank you. FLEX007 Do you feel that electronics manufacturing has deviated from encouraging only revolutionary technologies to accepting evolutionary technologies?