Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/623116
10 The PCB Magazine • January 2016 patty's perspective Patricia Goldman is a 30+ year veteran of the pcB industry, with experience in a variety of areas, including r&D of imaging tech- nologies, wet process engineering, and sales and marketing of pWB chemistry. she has worked actively with ipc since 1981 and served as taec chairman, and is also the co-author of numerous technical papers. to contact goldman, click here. So let's talk about this issue. Jason Marsh of Insulectro starts us out with a comprehensive overview of today's market for this ever-broad- ening category called medical electronics. He di- vides it into segments like medical equipment, wearables and sensors, monitoring devices, im- plantables…the applications do indeed seem to be endless. Columnist Tara Dunn of Omni PCB, in her regular column Flex Talk, details some interest- ing applications for flex circuits in the burgeon- ing medical electronics field and then explains the need for gold-plated circuitry for biocom- patibility. Next, I-Connect007's Pete Starkey reviews Atotech Marketing and Sales Manager Robin Taylor's recent presentation at productronica. After discussing the coming decade in light of current trends and developments in electron- ics, Robin sat for a conversation afterward with Starkey, where he made five projections, includ- ing computers reaching the processing speed of a human brain, the coming rapid advances in healthcare innovations, the impending "dema- terialisation, demonetisation and democratisa- tion" of business systems, and significant ad- vances in artificial intelligence that are on the horizon. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to envision the three major areas of mobile, medi- cal/wearables and the Internet of Things merg- ing into a single entity. Dave Becker of All Flex Flexible Circuits de- tails the many medical applications for flexible circuits and then goes on to explain the most important reasons why flex circuits are ideal for the medical industry. It seems flex circuitry is truly coming into its own with these burgeon- ing applications. Following this, we get back to earth with IPC's VP of Government Relations John Hasselman, who gives us a comprehensive review of IPC's ef- forts across the world with government policies and issues. He presents his team's New Year's reso- lutions to help IPC's member companies and the global electronics industry "survive and thrive." Bringing us further back into day-to-day re- ality is Gardien's "Testing Todd" Kolmodin, with a serious discussion on fab drawings as they per- tain to electrical test. He stresses the importance of ET reviewing the entire documentation pack- age to determine such things as performance class, proprietary specifications, and stamp re- quirements. I'm pleased to announce that Happy Holden has returned. Happy is working on a new book, "Essential Skills for Engineers." His contribution this month serves as an introduction, in which he lists the proposed chapters and a synopsis of each. Over the next 18 months or so, watch for Happy's chapters as regular columns in the I-Connect007 Daily Newsletter. (If you are not a subscriber, click here.) Wrapping up this month's lineup is Karl Di - etz with his Tech Talk column, discussing high- performance laminates. As always, Karl has pro- vided an in-depth review, which doubles as a great reference document for anyone using or thinking of using these materials—no doubt nearly everyone reading this. Now, getting back to medical electronics, with all the exciting advances going on, I am watching for the notorious inefficiencies in (es - pecially) hospitals to start disappearing, begin- ning with the filling out of forms at every cor- ner. Instead, they'll just scan my arm and have access to my medical history, medicines I'm tak- ing, insurance info, address and phone number, along with next of kin. I'll sign an electronic form with my fingerprint… I'm sure that in just a few years, when I am old and tottering (no smart comments!), I can have a fabulous array of services to protect and care for me—including that car with the virtual chauffeur—enabling me to stay in my home just as long as I like. Moving on to next month, don't miss, "What's New in PCB Fabrication." Tune in, see what's new, and learn. PCB THE FASCINATING POSSIBILITIES OF MEDICAL ELECTRONICS