Free Forums

Free Forums give you even more reasons to attend! Join industry experts and peers as they discuss challenges and cutting-edge solutions in these free interactive sessions.

FF01: IPC Technology Roadmap
Tuesday, March 31, 1:30 pm–3:00 pm
Moderator: Jack Fisher, Interconnect Technology Analysis, Inc.
Hot off the press! The IPC International Technology Roadmap for 2008-2009 will be released at the show. Be among the first to hear about the future technologies that will drive the electronic interconnect industry. Plan to stay for the iNEMI Roadmap session immediately following the afternoon break.

FF02: iNEMI Technology Roadmap
Tuesday, March 31, 3:15 pm–4:45 pm
Moderator: Bob Pfahl, iNEMI
This forum continues the afternoon interchange of roadmapping information (see FF01) with highlights of the 2009 iNEMI Roadmap (available to industry in March 2009) and a detailed discussion of several key technologies.

IPC Government Relations Forum
Tuesday, March 31, 3:00 pm-4:00 pm
Moderator: Dan Feinberg, Chairman, IPC Government Relations Committee
What are your international, national, and regional concerns regarding government regulations, legislation, and international trade? How can IPC help make your business more profitable? Attendees will receive updates on key lobbying issues and have an opportunity to interact with members of the Government Relations Committee.

FF03: Test and Inspection Summit
Wednesday, April 1, 1:30 pm–3:30 pm
Moderator: Rick Nelson, Test & Measurement World
The ever growing increase in electronic circuit complexity continues to challenge test engineers and the design engineers who need to build testability into their products. In addition, with multi-die packages becoming common place, the line between chip and board are blurring, further complicating the test process. Building on the 2008 Test and Inspection Summit, a panel of experts will bring you up-to-date on the latest test challenges and the technologies that are emerging to deal with them, including in-circuit electrical test, optical inspection, X-ray inspection, functional electrical test, and JTAG/boundary-scan test.

The panel, convened by IPC and Test & Measurement World, brings together experts from leading test and inspection companies who will provide key insights participate in an interactive discussion. It’s a “don’t miss” opportunity for anyone concerned with meeting the challenge of test.

Panelists:

• David Buhrkuhl, President, SPEA America
• Peter van den Eijnden, President, JTAG Technologies
• Mark Harding, Director of Sales, North America, Digital Test
• Jack Rozwat, General Manager, SST Americas Field Operations, Agilent Technologies
• Carsten Salewski, President & CEO, Viscom Inc.
• Phil Vere, Managing Director for Bondtest, Dage Precision Industries

FF04: Counterfeit Electronics
Wednesday, April 1, 10:15 am–11:45 am
Moderator: Dr. Jim Williams, Chairman, Founder, Polyonics
This interactive forum will provoke discussion among participants on actions being taken, and contemplated, to fight counterfeiting within the electronics manufacturing community. The emphasis will be on action-oriented "eco-system" approaches to fighting the problem, rather than fighting the counterfeiters along traditional paths (e.g. PCB board materials, components, etc) which results in fragmented strategies. For example, will "electronic pedigrees" become a useful means in this battle? How can some of the technologies available be implemented without “re-tooling” the entire manufacturing process? It seems clear that all segments of the industry have a shared responsibility and must work in concert, to detect, avoid and prevent counterfeit electronics products from reaching the marketplace, especially as health and safety issues become evident.

Panelists:

• Brad Botwin, Director, Industrial Studies Office of Technology
• Denny Fritz, Technology Consultant, MacDermid, Inc.
• Gene Panger, Market and Business Development Executive, TUV Rheinland Group

FF05: Environmental Laws and Regulations 2009: A Supply Chain Perspective
Wednesday, April 1, 8:30 am–10:00 am
Moderator: Fern Abrams, IPC
Environmental laws and regulations will continue to buffet your business in 2009. But laws and regulations are not the only forces that may impact your business; meeting your customer’s expectations and requirements may present just as much of a challenge. This panel discussion, made up of EHS leaders from top PCB, EMS, and OEM electronics companies will help you prepare for what is to come.

FF06: iNEMI Technology Roadmap – Part 2
Thursday, April 2, 8:30 am–10:00 am
Moderator: Chuck Richardson, iNEMI
Continuing in the tradition of previous iNEMI Pb-Free Forums, this session will present the latest status on iNEMI's efforts to eliminate “materials of concern.” Projects to be reviewed include: Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives, BFR-Free PCB, and Pb-Free Wave Soldering.

FF07: Industry Cost Challenges: EMS Solutions
Thursday, April 2, 10:15 am–11:45 am
Moderators: Gail Flower, SMT Magazine and Susan Mucha, Powell-Mucha Consulting, Inc.
In the realm of EMS providers there are many educational solutions for today’s assembly challenges. In this panel, speakers will present case histories and lessons learned to attack common problems in four specific areas:

EMS providers must face these challenges every day, and each step in the process from reducing changeover times to having materials or tooling ready at specific manufacturing steps plays an important part in controlling the rising cost of production. Counterfeit parts, unanticipated materials incompatibility, products poorly designed for manufacturing and defects resulting from post manufacturing handling mistakes create wasted time and effort, which drives unnecessary costs. The speakers in this panel will share their experiences and preferred solutions. In the discussion at the end of the panel attendees are invited to ask questions or share their production solutions with the audience. This is a vital discussion for both OEMs and EMS providers interested in cutting non-value added costs from the production cycle.

Panelists:

• A Case Study in Reducing Time to Market
  James Scholler, Vice President of Technology, MEC Companies
  Better, faster, cheaper has long been a mantra of the electronics industry and it has driven greater integration between design teams and manufacturing teams. However, unless both teams truly understand the key constraints in both processes, opportunities for time savings can be lost. This presentation looks at MEC Innovation’s process for freezing elements of the design related to long lead-time project launch elements such as ordering tooling. It will include a case study discussing how the Freeze Gate process was used to reduce the total design and project process.
• Filling Gaps in the Supply Chain
  Tony Musto, Progeny International
  This presentation will focus on the role brokers fill and also ways that reputable non-franchised distributors try to ensure component integrity.
• Enhancing Throughput through Early Identification of Supplier and Post-Manufacturing Defect Root Causes
  Ryan Wooten, EPIC Technologies, LLC
  This presentation will highlight EPIC Technology's Reliability Lab’s role in identifying issues related to material integrity, material incompatibility or customer handling and discuss how this type of early failure identification contributes to a robust Lean process.
• Lessons Learned in Developing a Robust High Mix Manufacturing Process
  Kevin Stone, Kimball Electronics Group
  Many EMS companies tout their expertise in high mix, medium volume production. Economic trends have increasingly made this segment of production more attractive to a larger number of EMS providers. This article looks at Kimball Electronics Group’s journey to move from a focus on high volume electronics production to a combination of high volume and high mix, lower volume projects. It will discuss initial assumptions on best equipment and business processes, lessons learned in actual implementation and the future roadmap.