Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1166358
SEPTEMBER 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 17 make the supply chain work from one end to the other efficiently in terms of logistics, cost, and performance. Matties: It sounds like a good approach, but that question or call to action is getting the in- dustry to adopt a new methodology. Morgan: The market needs to be more efficient. They should have a list of stuff they could choose from, that they know all of which would work because it's been standardized and specified that way. Even as manufacturers, we love to have people specify our products, but that is not efficient. There should at least be another choice. Goodwin: There's a huge contradiction in this as well from a supply chain perspective. When you get involved with the big OEMs, and they start talking to you about risk manage- ment, continuity of supply, etc., you get down to some that are specifying one product from one treater in one factory, there is no risk manage- ment in that at all. Shaughnessy: I wonder if there's a role for designers in setting these standards. They're not going to know about chemical composition and all of that, but it seems like designers should be involved since they're the ones who have to make sense of it all. Goodwin: They should be involved somewhere, particularly with elements of electrical perfor- mance and physical properties that influence product performance. Everybody has a part to play, but the focus should be on performance, not the composition of the products. Matties: Thank you for joining us today. It's greatly appreciated. Goodwin: No problem, Barry. Morgan: Thank you. PCB007 want to buy a new cellphone." You don't say, "Would you like a Qualcomm or an ARM chip in there?" They'd say, "I don't care about that." Matties: When you do make a recommenda- tion for an application-specific material, do the designers go back and then compare it to some standard, or what's their course of action? Goodwin: Increasingly, in high-end applications like high-speed digital, RF, or even thermal management, people are specifying vendor- specific material solutions now. Matties: That's the trend, not even application- specific, because they know that vendor ser- vices that application. Goodwin: They know it meets some of the char- acteristics they require. Again, if we get into thermal management—even to some degree Dk and Df—there are so many different test methods out there for these things that you can't compare datasheet values readily any- way. Morgan: The reason they choose the product is because they know it worked on a similar de- sign last time. It's as simple as that. Matties: If we had a simple in- dex, then they would be able to make some smarter choices on an application-specific cat- egory as well pricing, supply chain, etc. be- cause those become competitive factors. Goodwin: The classic example you tend to see for someone who's involved in managing sup- ply chains is you're working with a PCB com- pany, and someone says, "My drawing says I need this product from company X in the U.K." Now, company X has no supply chain into the U.K., so what do they do? This is coming at it from the other angle. There's no easy solu- tion without having performance-based stan- dards to meet everybody's requirements and