Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1085192
26 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 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 situation where we will see significant growth in elec- tronics manufacturing innovation. Present- ly, it's being slightly tempered because of the shortened timelines that we are given for tran- sitioning ideas to product realization. We may see an increase in the diversity of available substrates and the functionality that those ma- terials give us to realize some of the products, but it's all going to have to wait until we can accelerate the industrialization process and le- verage 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 virtual environment before investing in the prototyping and manufacturing of physi - cal products. I have a question for you both. Do you feel that electronics manufacturing has deviated from encouraging only revolutionary tech- nologies to accepting evolutionary technolo- gies? 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 similar con- versation about SMT. For 20+ years in SMT, components and devices for pick & place as- sembly 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 vertically inte- grated companies like Motorola and IBM had the bandwidth and assets to drive manufactur- ing innovation in search of what's next. They had teams of engineers seeking novel assem- bly processes. He felt that once those compa- nies stopped having dedicated advanced man- ufacturing technology groups that designed and built equipment to support internal manu- facturing of products, manufacturing innova- tion 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 with Happy Holden as he is the type of per- son with the experience to lead the conver- sation. He is known as an expert on manu- facturing innovation. Happy is credited with introducing several broad industry adopted revolutionary manufacturing technologies. He could facilitate the discussion for why we continue to use established manufacturing processes with little interest in change. Shaughnessy: Dan, I really appreciate you tak- ing the time to talk to us today. Goldman: This is thought-provoking informa- tion. Thank you. Gamota: Thank you. DESIGN007 Do you feel that electronics manufacturing has deviated from encouraging only revolutionary technologies to accepting evolutionary technologies?