Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1185676
52 PCB007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2019 Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 I spoke with Jonathan Rowntree from Rogers Corporation about the impact of 5G on tech- nology, materials, and more. Nolan Johnson: Jonathan, thanks for your time. What's your background? Jonathan Rowntree: After graduating in the U.K. as a chemical engineer, I have been very fortunate to have a career spanning several in- dustries, and I spent the last 21 years based in the U.S. in the electronic materials industry. During that time, I worked in both the semi- conductor packaging and electronics assembly markets with roles of increasing responsibil- ity across engineering, operations, technolo- gy development, sales, and marketing. Before joining Rogers five months ago, I held several business leadership roles for a thermal materi- als and adhesives, sealants, and coatings busi- ness serving telecom, industrial, and automo- tive electronics end markets. In my new role as general manager of Rogers Corporation's Ad- vanced Connectivity Solutions (ACS) business, I am still learning a lot about the low-loss RF CCL products and applications, but the indus- try and customers are very familiar. Johnson: What's the most significant change you've seen in the past few years? Rowntree: One significant change has been the swift commercialization of 5G wireless commu- nication. Three years ago, there were no 5G stan- dards; many people were asking, "Why do we need 5G?" and questioning the necessity of 5G and validity of 5G use cases. Many people also doubted the technology readiness of 5G, from access network technology to 5G devices. For example, mmWave 5G was perceived by many people as "mission impossible." Fast forward to October 2019, 62 operators have deployed 3GPP- compliant (Third Generation Partnership Project consortium) 5G technology in their networks. And 71 vendors have announced 172 3GPP- compliant 5G devices, at least 38 of which are already commercially available. South Korea has more than three million 5G subscribers, while China has activated 86,000 5G base sta- tions and has 10 million pre-ordered 5G smart- phones. Johnson: Those are big numbers; the scale of this is huge. What challenges are you and your customers facing? Chasing Down Materials for 5G and Beyond Jonathan Rowntree