IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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58 North America By Brian Knier, Vice President, Marketing, Member Success and Sales Gnomeapalooza Hosts IPC A-Teams for Standards Development Activities Gnomeapalooza, held at IPC headquarters in October 2022, welcomed A-Team committee members to collaborate as they edited and re- vised many of the vital standards that support the electronics manufacturing industry. IPC A-Teams are comprised of small, dedicated groups of volun- teers within IPC working groups who take on a sig- nificant amount of work on behalf of those groups. The event is named for IPC's fictional TechNet gnomes, Clumpy and Kloumpios, who bring a bit of comic relief to a very long and detailed process. The gnomes can be found on Instagram (@clumpy- andkloumpios). In the spirit of fun, the names of the A-Teams are creative and playful. Here are just a few examples: • Bottoms-Up: A-Team reviewed the document and identified chapters that need to be updat- ed or improved. Also assigned a member to each chapter or subchapter. • Pillow Fighters: Reviewed all open action items and content provided by team members. Iden- tified areas needing additional improvement or expert involvement. • Champagne: Drafted a new white paper about champagne voids. • Inkpendables: Completed a first pass-through of new working drafts for printed electronics for rigid application standards. • Traceblazers: Completed first pass-through of a new standard for printed electronics e-textiles reliability. • Wire Nutz: Started a new revision (Rev F)! Looked at deferred comments, created a few new A-Teams to address, and started work. Considering this group met the same day that the typeset 620E was approved to be published, it was a memorable day. CHIPS Act Implementation Requires Strong Focus on Advanced Packaging The recently enacted U.S. CHIPS and Science Act authorizes at least $2.5 billion in Fiscal 2022 alone for a newly established National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing program. Leaders of top semiconductor, microelectronic, IC-substrate, PCB, EMS, and OSAT companies along with the U.S. government and European Commission, gath- ered in Washington, D.C., in October at the inaugu- ral IPC Advanced Packaging Symposium. The goal: Building the IC-substrate and package assembly ecosystem to discuss expanding advanced pack- aging capacities and capabilities to go along with expanding production of semiconductor chips. REGIONAL UPDATES IPC is a global organization with offices around the world. Here are some updates from each of IPC's regional directors.