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12 SMT Magazine • February 2016 by Dr. Jennie S. Hwang H-TEcHNologiES group Five words should capture the essence of elec- tronics hardware going forward: smartness, mo- bility, connectivity, wearability and innovation. Thanks to all the innovators! In 2016, elec- tronics will move to a higher level of wearabil- ity, connectivity and mobility for IoT applica- tions. This thrust will offer "cooler" products to consumers as well as high-efficiency to busi- nesses, propelling "mobility" to "wearable mo- bility with connectivity and intelligence." The level of coolness has a lot to do with the ease and convenience of wearability (e.g., the wear- able time before recharging the battery). The ability to synchronize the battery technology with the usefulness of electronics will "move and shake" the industry. The growth and volume of electronics hard- ware will be driven by mobile devices. High- reliability and high-performance electronics demand new material innovation and better process deployment. Advanced materials that offer unique prop- erties, be it a polymer, metal or ceramic, to de- liver revolutionary performance using layer-by- layer assembly as a versatile bottom-up nano- fabrication technique will move forward. This advancement of tuning the materials at the atomic scale in conjunction with multi-scale modeling enables the design of the target ma- terial properties, opening breakthrough prob- ability and rewarding application and business opportunities. Manufacturing, aiming at productivity, will adopt higher levels of lean and modular design, agility, and intelligent automation. Advanced manufacturing including 3D printing will not go unnoticed. In this regard, further technol- ogy development will materialize. In addition, increasing number of products/components/ parts manufactured by using 3D printing will be rolling out across the industry sectors. In New Year outlook: electronics Hardware 12 SMT Magazine • February 2016 Featu re sHort