Check Out 5 OEM Benefits for Onshoring PCB Microelectronics Assembly
There are five key benefits to U. S. OEMs for onshoring PCB microelectronics assembly and manufacturing. Today’s technology trends are toward PCB microelectronics assembly. However, that doesn’t mean traditional SMT assembly and manufacturing is going away overnight. It will continue to exist to support OEMs around the world.
Continuing PCB evolution and common sense point to the fact that there are growing restrictions on PCB real estate. PCBs and components are dramatically shrinking in size to meet the growing OEM demands for even smaller products based on miniature rigid, flex, and rigid-flex combination boards. Advanced wire bonding, in many instances, is used during microelectronics assembly. Fig. 1 shows an example of two stacks of wire bonding for a medical device biosensor application.
Read our latest column in SMT007 to get more details. But here, we present those five benefits in brief to give you a clear understanding of why it’s important for you to stay onshore with your PCB microelectronics assembly.
- Keeping your IP safe and intact in the U. S.
- Cost effectiveness in developing the process locally.
- Easy and efficient to go through certain phases of production.
- Relatively easy to set up the entire infrastructure for microelectronics assembly production in the U. S.
- Lead times are shorter.
These are win-win factors for U. S. – based OEMs, especially those developing and producing advanced miniature medical products. Under the Biden Administration, our Federal Government should take a major part in this effort by helping small-to-mid-size U. S.-based PCB assembly and manufacturing companies with grants and other forms of funding. Those dollars are critical for CAPEX expenses to streamline microelectronics assembly lines with robotics and other types of automation to further advance America’s technology leadership.