WHY A CONSORTIUM?
After hundreds of face-to-face interviews during nearly 18 months of
work with wireless and RF industry experts in the US and Canada and 10's of thousands of
traveled miles, one thing has become very clear:
There continues to be a significant "packaging
knowledge gap"
between OEM's and suppliers.
Nearly 100% of the time, when discussing new
packaging technology(ies) with top level OEM engineering managers -- they say
"…what's that…?"
The companies in the RF/wireless OEM
community…
are so busy working on new products, they often do not have
time to objectively evaluate alternate packaging technologies and tools. They feel that if
they have something that worked in the past, it will work now!
The companies in the RF/wireless
supplier community…
find it difficult to objectively identify the needs of the
wireless OEM who are further up the supply chain. The "OEM Technology Tradeoff
Analysis Managers" are so busy, they do not often have time to come to conferences or
trade shows to meet the suppliers who exhibit.
The net result -- since this industry is moving forward at warp
speeds, the suppliers and OEM's are not efficiently learning about each other, hence,
costs are higher and time to market is slower.
The Consortium is a pro-active
organization of WIRELESS AND RF PRODUCT OEM’s and
their suppliers. Our mission is to facilitate communication up and down the supply chain,
to:
 |
Reduce Costs |
|
Improve performance and |
|
Decrease time to market |
... with an emphasis on packaging and interconnect
technologies.
Suppliers are able to efficiently learn about the technical and
business needs of wireless & RF OEM's so they can make the appropriate development
investments.
OEM's are able to efficiently learn of the developments of
suppliers so they can consider these developments on their product development roadmaps.
GOALS
Short Term
Simply put -- to provide accurate, objective and timely information
to members in order to facilitate:
Improving performance of wireless and RF products,
Reducing "total" costs ultimately to the service provider
and consumer, and
Reducing time to market.
for ALL types of wireless and RF products, from RF shelf tags to
satellites
|
Shelf Tags |
|
Handsets |
|
Base Stations |
|
Satellites |
|
WLL |
|
WLAN |
|
Commercial Radar |
|
VSAT |
|
LMDS |
|
Point-to-Point |
|
Other products… |
for ALL levels of packaging, from device technology to system
|
Design Tools |
|
Raw Materials |
|
Materials |
|
Active Device Technology |
|
Passive Device Technology |
|
Device Interconnect |
|
Substrate Interconnect |
|
Shielding |
|
System Packaging |
by ALL available means of communication.
Longer Term
As we proceed with meeting the short-term goals, our goals will
evolve.
For example:
One potential longer-term goal already being considered is to
identify developments, which exceed the capabilities and resources of a single company.
Once these developments are identified, the Consortium will work to prepare a "White
Paper" Proposal, which makes the business and technical case for that development,
then seek funding from appropriate sources.
Once funding is obtained, the Consortium will manage the
development, demonstration and commercial insertion of this new technology with its
members & selected outside sources.
HOW WILL WE MEET OUR GOALS?
Short Term
The Consortium members will identify those companies, worldwide,
whose products and technologies need to be understood more clearly.
The Consortium Management Team will:
|
CONDUCT AND REPORT 100-125 FACE-TO-FACE
INTERVIEWS PER YEAR, WORLDWIDE |
Travel, worldwide to conduct 100-125 face-to-face interviews with
selected companies to identify the current and future needs of wireless & RF OEM's and
the capabilities of suppliers. These interviews will result in detailed interview reports
and analysis and these reports will be made available on the WEB to members.
|
ATTEND AND REPORT ON TECHNICAL
CONFERENCES, WORLDWIDE |
Travel, worldwide, to attend as many technical conferences on
relevant topics and report findings on the WEB to members.
|
CREATE AND MAINTAIN "KEY-WORD INDEX
SERVICE" |
Maintain an ongoing wireless and RF packaging industry
"keyword index service" for many major technical proceedings, trade newspapers
and magazines, interview reports, sales literature, etc. and make this searchable index
available to members on the WEB page. (see sample, page *)
|
HOLD 2-3 FORUMS PER YEAR |
Set up, manage and run 2 to 3 Forums per year, on topics
identified as important by members. These Forum provide face to face interaction with all
levels of the supply chain to address pressing technical challenges and provide plenty of
"hall time" for attendees to interact.
|
CREATE AND MANAGE WEB
PAGE |
