Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1166358
10 PCB007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2019 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team The I-Connect007 team spoke with COO Mark Goodwin and Technology Ambassador Alun Morgan from Ventec International Group about standards. They describe how they feel current standards do not sufficiently recognize the needs of end customers today with new processes and materials being shoehorned in- to old standards based on dated ideas of clas- sifications, and how this makes choosing the right material challenging for designers. They suggest implementing a simpler system that is based on performance. Barry Matties: Mark, please start with what you see as issues around the standards. Mark Goodwin: There are two particular areas: one is very product-specific, and the other is standard-specific. I'll start with the product- specific one. We have an increasing global market for thermal management products, in- sulated metal substrates, thermally conductive laminates, and prepregs, and we have no in- dustry standards for comparing test methods to allow an end user to adequately compare the thermal performance of those materials. It's the Wild West out there on those products. The other area for me is IPC-4101—the slash sheets—where there is a hang-up on resin chemistry rather than functionality; there's a whole history to that. And the world has moved so far forward, the specification has not kept up, and it needs an industry effort to re- configure and realign that specification. Those are the starting points for me. Alun Morgan: We consider standards from two perspectives. One is a mandatory side, so that means both fire and electrical safety, which are pretty clear and there's very little compromise. The other is performance standards or clas- sification standards, which Mark alluded to, such as IPC-4101 or IEC series, where the in- tention is to define a standard or specification that gives designers a choice within a range of performance for materials; that's somewhat broken now. The problem with these stan- dards is that you have a different hierarchy of standards. You have the top end with interna- tional bodies, such as IEC and ISO, and at the lower end, industry associations sitting under