The advent of the electronics industry has left a tremendous impact on the human history. Nowadays, we can see that electronic circuits and devices are found in various applications such as home appliances, healthcare, automotive, communication, industries, transportation, etc., in which these applications are impossible to function without electronics.
Beginning of 19th century marked the important era of the revolution in electronics starting with the invention of the vacuum diode by J.A. Fleming which later led to the invention of the junction transistor. Subsequently, the emergence of semiconductor industries gained popularity and wide usage with different electronic circuits such as the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which is the most widely manufactured electronic device.
In turn, this technology has given birth to the invention of integrated circuits (ICs) that dramatically changed the nature of electronic circuits as the entire electronic circuit can now be integrated on a single chip resulting in low cost, compact size, and light weight electronic devices.
As IC technology improves, it has enlarged capacity that allow several hundred thousand of components on a single chip. It enables electronic industries to create the next generation computing, communication, medical and industrial automation solutions which are transforming all industries.
The Challenge
But despite all of the merits, electronic industries is facing disruptive forces that will challenge the business model and ability to survive and thrive.
The global electronic industries is the fastest growing sector which values at trillions of USD with its critical role in driving consumers to buy innovative and smart electronic products. According to the “Global Electronic Components Market 2020 Research Report,” the global market for electronic components is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.8% from 2020 to 2025 [1].
With this huge future market potential, the trend of electronic industries has always been at the center of the latest technological innovations to optimize costs and improve efficiency. This faster growth in technology has posed some challenges to many SME companies to keep up to the trends/changes.
For instance, the top players like Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Intel, to name a few, are investing lots of resources on new cutting-edge technology in order to expand their tech capabilities and stay competitive. They are the lead example of Industries’ IR4.0 Eco-friendly system in which the integration of digital tools and technologies together has boost revenue and productivity, improve product quality, reduce waste and operational costs, and meet the latest customer/global demands.
Technologies For Change
The unprecedented changes are inevitable. Electronics industries must evolve quick to the upswing by adapting to disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, cloud computing, big data, advanced automation, nano-electronics, advanced material, etc. together with high speed and efficient connectivity using new generation of wireless communication systems known as 5G.
5G is believed to be able to support information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) which enables and drives manufacturing, maintenance, inventory tracking, supply chain operation, safety, and decision making much more effectively and reliably.
With the ability to interconnect different pieces of equipment and appliances, IoT technology can help electronics manufacturing industries to efficiently reduce cost, innovate product, increase efficiency, and improve safety based on real-time information that these devices can provide. What’s more, it can transform the conventional industries to smart industries with fully automatic operations, store and exchange critical information, and make relevant decisions with minimum human intervention.
To ride on this platform, predictive maintenance technology coupled with big data collection can be introduced to monitor the health of equipment to predict when and how a piece of equipment may fail and to allow the owners to take extra precaution beforehand.
Beside these IT and OT technologies, semiconductor technologies such as advanced materials that are suitable to realize THz, high power, temperature stability devices are worth a mention as they can shape the future of the solid-state device innovations. It opens a new front to explore new energy conversion and storage methods, as well as enforce the adoption of 3D printing for metals as a direct manufacturing process. This enables a cost and resource optimization, and the innovation on a brand-new approach to realize advanced subsystem components to support the future technologies.
On top of these mentioned technologies, environmental sustainability is also one of the major key points on which it has been a globally big concern around the state of the green planet we are living. Innovation of utilizing a material, packaging, recycling, disposing waste, and energy consumption, etc. are inevitable for the future electronics industries to produce and deliver assets in a greener manner for a betterment of Mother Nature and humanity.
In conclusion, change is unavoidable. Either one adapts or risks falling out of competition. One needs to be agile and quick to adapt modern and innovation technologies which are crucial for every electronics industry sector to meet customer and global demands.
Footnotes
[1] 360 Market Updates. “Global Electronic Components Market 2020 By Manufacturers, Regions,Type and Application, Forecast to 2025.” Accessed June 19, 2020.
