Apr 12, 2002 Northbrook, IL
IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries (Northbrook, IL) has established the Photonics Manufacturers Association (PMA) Council, which plans to organize and coordinate roadmapping, standardization, legislative, market research and education efforts within the photonics industry. The PMA Council held its first organizational meeting on March 17-22 at the Optical Fiber Conference in Anaheim, CA. Interested attending companies came from several industry segments, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), component suppliers, production equipment and service providers.
�The formation of the PMA Council was a result of a strong grassroots initiative to both organize and accelerate standardization efforts in the photonics industry,� said Randy Heyler, PMA Council steering committee chairman and vice president of business development with Newport Corp. �It was widely felt that not only OEMs, but the entire supply chain could benefit from a more formal and coordinated effort to establish more industry-wide roadmaps and standards to address universal manufacturing cost issues.�
The Council is currently assembling a 10-member steering committee and searching for senior management and executive level volunteers to serve on its proposed Roadmapping; Standards Guidelines and Specifications; and Industry Statistics subcommittees.
Once assembled, the Roadmapping Subcommittee will support, interpret and amplify existing IPC, NEMI, OIDA and SIA efforts to generate roadmaps specifically designed for assembly, test and standardization of optoelectronic devices and modules.
The Standards Guidelines and Specifications Subcommittee will distill roadmap contents into areas requiring standardization efforts, assist in prioritizing key standards generation efforts and promote current standards initiatives and activities, including IPC-STD-040, Optoelectronic Assembly and Packaging Technology, an �umbrella� document that provides a roadmap for optoelectronics standards. Coordinating data collection and reporting key industry statistics to PMA Council members will be the goals of the Industry Statistics Subcommittee.
�We saw a win-win opportunity here,� said IPC President Denny McGuirk. �IPC�s existing membership base was already asking for photonics programming. The IPC Board agreed that supporting the formation of the PMA Council would help IPC fulfill these requests and provide growth opportunities for the organization.�
�The interest in the PMA Council is clear,� added David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards, technology and international relations. �The standards development is on a fast track, thanks to the significant volunteer contributions by industry experts. We see this effort expanding into the other subcommittee efforts, as the PMA Council helps IPC bring trade association services to the industry.�
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