iNEMI Schedules Key Meetings at APEX

HERNDON, VIRGINIA (March 17, 2009) - The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) will present two forums as part of IPC APEX EXPO(tm) (March 31-April 2, Las Vegas).  The consortium is also using this industry venue to hold gap analysis meetings and meetings for new iNEMI initiatives being organized.

APEX Free Forums
Forum FF02: iNEMI Technology Roadmap (Tuesday, March 31) - In this session, iNEMI will provide a first look at its 2009 Roadmap.  Discussions will cover highlights of key findings and provide more detailed information about specific topics - environmental, packaging and board assembly, plus new technology areas covered by this latest roadmap.

Forum FF06: iNEMI Pb-Free Forum (Thursday, April 2) - This forum will report on the latest activities in three iNEMI projects: Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives, HFR-Free PCB and Pb-Free Wave Soldering.

Gap Analysis Meetings
The iNEMI roadmap identifies industry needs, and these needs are the focus of follow-up discussions in a series of in-depth "gap analysis" meetings.  The gap analysis meetings identify critical technology gaps and develop action plans to address and close these gaps.  These discussions will provide input for the iNEMI Technical Plan, which defines deployment activities for the consortium's projects, and the iNEMI Research Priorities document, which identifies key areas of R&D activities for industry, universities and government funding agencies.

The following iNEMI Technology Integration Groups (TIGs) will hold gap analysis meetings at APEX: Board Assembly, Board & Systems Manufacturing Test, Environmentally Conscious Electronics, Medical, Organic Packaging Substrates and Organic PCB. These meetings are open to industry.

New Initiatives
Several new iNEMI initiatives will hold information/organization meetings at APEX, as described below:

PVC Alternatives - This initiative will investigate a cradle-to-grave lifecycle assessment (LCA) of PVC and "PVC-free" alternatives. Through performance testing of different PVC-free alternatives, the group intends to understand the electrical, mechanical and safety aspects of PVC-free alternatives.

Eco-Impact Evaluator for ICT Equipment - This group plans to develop a simplified tool to more easily derive key eco-environmental information for ICT (information and communication technology) equipment/assets.

HFR-Free Leadership - This initiative will establish desirable "technology envelopes," or technical specifications, to guide development and deployment of HFR-free solutions. Initial efforts will focus on HFR-free signal integrity and HFR-free PCB materials.

Characterization of Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives - As a follow-up to iNEMI Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives Project, the team is now working on characterization of Pb-free alloy alternatives, with two main thrusts:  (1) to characterize the thermal fatigue and acceleration behavior of alternative alloys through accelerated thermal cycle testing, and (2) to develop a set of test data requirements that will allow OEMs and others to evaluate alloy properties against their requirements.

About iNEMI
The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's mission is to identify and close technology gaps, which includes the development and integration of the electronics industry supply infrastructure.  This industry-led consortium is made up of more than 65 manufacturers, suppliers, industry associations and consortia, government agencies and universities.  iNEMI roadmaps the needs of the electronics industry, identifies gaps in the technology infrastructure, establishes implementation projects to eliminate these gaps (both business and technical), and stimulates standards activities to speed the introduction of new technologies.  The consortium also works with government agencies, universities and other funding agencies to set priorities for future industry needs and R&D initiatives.  iNEMI is based in Herndon, Virginia (near Washington, D.C.), with regional offices in Shanghai, China and Limerick, Ireland.  For additional information about iNEMI, visit http://www.inemi.org.

For further information:
Cynthia Williams, iNEMI
+1 207-871-1260
cwilliams@inemi.org