HERNDON, VA – The top priority for manufacturing processes continues to be the development of a new methodology/strategy for R&D in today’s global outsourcing environment.
 
For systems integration, the top research need is to develop 3-D interconnect structures with associated thermal management. The top priority for energy is to increase energy efficiency in electronics products. The top research priority for the environment is to develop sound scientific methods to evaluate environmental impacts of materials.
 
Those are the findings of the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, which has published its 2009 Research Priorities identifying the most critical areas on which the electronics industry should focus research and development over the next 10 years. 
 
Development of the research priorities is the final step in the iNEMI roadmapping process. It combines findings from the 2009 iNEMI Roadmap with R&D needs identified through a series of industry gap analysis meetings. The result is a vision of research needs that will help ensure continued competitiveness and innovation for the electronics industry.
 
iNEMI uses the research priorities to identify deployment activities in areas where the consortium can have the greatest impact. The document also serves as a resource for iNEMI members and other corporate research labs; it is distributed to government funding agencies and academic research centers.
 
The 2009 iNEMI Roadmap identified more than 100 research needs, grouped into seven areas: manufacturing processes, systems integration, energy, the environment, materials and reliability, design, and information management. Overall, materials research continues to dominate R&D needs, says iNEMI.
 
For materials, the top priority is to develop the next generation of solder alloys with better area array shock, lower cost, lower temperature and reduced copper dissolution issues. The top priority for design is to create low-cost solutions for carrying >10Gb/s signal rates between components on a PCB.
 
Finally, the top priority for information management is to develop infrastructure to track components through the supply chain to prevent counterfeiting.
 
The 2009 Research Priorities can be downloaded at http://thor.inemi.org/webdownload/RI/2009_Research_Priorities.pdf.