Electronics.ca Publications

Electronics.ca Publications is a world-class market research firm and publishing company whose focus is technology and market research for the electronics industry. Our research network spans dozens of areas of electronics expertise, and taps the knowledge of researchers and analysts internationally. We deliver critical information on the semiconductor, advanced materials, nanotechnology, electronics manufacturing, wireless technology and converging markets, to name a few, in the form of off-the-shelf reports, training materials, and industry standards.
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5G: What Are the Real Status and the Real Economics?

5G Deployment

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “5G: What Are the Real Status and the Real Economics?”.

5G refers to a set of international standards for a new (5th) generation of mobile communications service. It is intended to ultimately replace the service currently available in most of the US – 4G LTE. It is designed to be much faster (maybe up to 100 times as fast as 4G LTE) in terms of download or upload speeds. Data reception is anticipated to have much lower latency (time spent in transmission) so that the data is in very near real-time – close to zero lag. This added speed is excellent, and it is often a discussion topic, but it is not the real objective of 5G. The aim is to provide higher capacity on our mobile networks. Higher capacity for data, for voice, but mostly for video. Why the need for added traffic capacity? Simple: Cisco is now estimating that the compound annual growth rate of mobile traffic through 2022 is 36%! Our 4G-LTE networks are already nearing capacity in large cities, and yet are facing this impossible growth curve. The 5G is the answer to provide a vast new ability to meet this growing demand. All the other rationales for 5G are dreams; this is the driving reason.

The first question mostly ignored is the cost. There are many estimates available for 5G full deployment (small cells, mmWave) in the US. Early (2017) estimates fell in the $28B to $36B range for five years. Newer estimates now suggest that the cost over seven years would be as much as $275B and that the fiber alone needed for deploying the small cells would be as much as $130B-$150B. For a reference point, $275B would be well over ten times the total AT&T 2019 Capital Budget! A current study takes a different approach to the cost question and estimates that the total cost of ownership (TOC – includes maintenance, capital, and all fees) could increase for the mobile networks by as much as 300%!

5G deployment forecast

These are big numbers – yes, the B’s above are billions of dollars. These numbers suggest that we may be letting the technical hype run away with reality. A sudden conversion to a fully developed 5G large metro island, as is depicted in the many beautiful drawings, would be prohibitively expensive without some new services that would help, substantially, pay the bills. The question is, what new services pay for this? Alternatively, where are the added customers who pick up this big tab?

This comprehensive report is going to consider these issues and ultimately suggest the likely scenario for 5G deployment and associated five-year expenditures in this country. It moves into a discussion of 5G from many viewpoints, including objectives, frequency plans, architecture, and a listing and analysis of the vendors involved in the various parts of 5G infrastructure – phones, radios, and chipsets.

The report includes a discussion of the recent purchase by Apple of Intel 5G assets, and the recent Department of Justice approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Included is the analysis of the implications of 5G deployment of each of these current legal events.

The report presents, in detail, IoT, and Autonomous Vehicles as two possible use cases often mentioned for 5G. This report also examines the possibility of much higher levels of competition for high-speed Internet (and other fixed services) enabled thru 5G fixed wireless. The final main section of the report deals with specific forecasts for 5G in the US and the impact of those forecasts on overall network requirements.

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140 Million LPWA Devices Connect Smart Cities by 2022

smart cities market research

In the next five years, Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networking technologies such as Sigfox, LoRa®, LTE-M and NB-IoT will connect hundreds of millions of smart city sensing devices to low cost multi-kilometer cloud connected networks, according to Smart Cities LPWAN – A Market Dynamics Report.

“Intensifying competition among network operators and IoT platform providers combined with accelerating rollouts of LPWA networks has created a dynamic landscape for smart city solutions,” says Mareca Hatler, ON World’s research director. “Cities and their residents are the beneficiaries of today’s affordable solutions for smarter energy, water, transportation, public safety and environmental controls.”

LPWA networks continue to displace existing outdoor networking technologies for metering and streetlight monitoring, but they are also disrupting IoT solutions for parking, waste management, smart water networks, geotechnical monitoring, pollution monitoring and bike sharing.

Unlicensed LPWA IoT network technologies like LoRa and Sigfox have given IoT operators such as Comcast, Senet, Thinxtra and UnaBiz a significant cost advantage. However, LTE-M and NB-IoT networks are rolling out worldwide by mobile LTE operators, many of which also provide LoRaWAN™ as an alternative for either public or private network use.

The recently released LoRaWAN™ 1.1 specification provides several enhancements for network operators targeting smart cities including support for passive and active roaming, class B devices as well as security enhancements. Still, the largest opportunity is LTE networks with its 3GPP’s Release 13 announced last June and NB-IoT with a rapidly growing ecosystem. The inevitability of NB-IoT is not a given as its not suitable for mobile sensing applications, requires new tower installations and has interoperability issues.

There is a total potential of 2.6 billion connected wireless IoT devices for smart cities and LPWA is suited for 3 in 5 of the smart city IoT connections. ON World’s analysis of over 100 companies involved with LPWA technologies found that almost half are targeting smart city applications such as parking, waste management and streetlight monitoring and 38% are targeting metering.

LPWA Devices Connect Smart Cities

Smart city LPWA connected devices will increase by 12X over the next five years when there will be 141 million connections worldwide. Cumulative revenues from LPWA enabled equipment and associated services over this period will reach $32 billion.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site. View Report Contents: Smart Cities LPWAN – A Market Dynamics Report.

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Download IPC Standards – Everything You Need From Start To Finish

To achieve a high quality end product and maintain a competitive position in the marketplace, you need to infuse quality throughout the manufacturing process.

Did you know there is an IPC standard associated with nearly every step of printed circuit board production and assembly?  From design and purchasing to assembly and acceptance, Electronics.ca Publications offers IPC Standards to help you assure superior quality, reliability and consistency in the electronic assemblies that go into your product. Download IPC Standards Spec Tree – PDF file.

As with the manufacturing process — which uses a step-by-step approach – IPC standards also build upon one another. To achieve your desired results, it’s important to implement the appropriate IPC standards associated with each step of production.

Download IPC Standards
Download IPC Standards Spec Tree – PDF File

Why Use IPC Standards in Your Manufacturing Process?

  • Gain Control Over End Product Quality and Reliability — Quality and reliability are the cornerstones of competing in the marketplace and critical to your company’s reputation and profitability. By implementing IPC standards throughout the manufacturing process, you help ensure better performance, longer life and compliance with lead-free regulations.
  • Improve Communication with Suppliers and Employees — IPC standards are the standards that your competitors, suppliers and EMS providers use. Working from an established IPC standard helps all of you to “speak the same language” — the language of the global electronic industry. In addition, using IPC standards eliminates confusion for employees, because they know they need to perform to an established industry standard.
  • Help Contain Costs — Ensuring that your design and the bare boards you purchase comply with IPC standards allows you to produce electronic assemblies that meet stringent quality tests down the line, minimizing costly delays, rework and scrap.

The Most Popular IPC Documents

IPC A-610F – Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies
IPC-A-610 is the most widely used electronics assembly standard in the world. A must for all quality assurance and assembly departments.

IPC J-STD-001F – Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies
 J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies has emerged as the preeminent authority for electronics assembly manufacturing. The standard describes materials, methods and verification criteria for producing high quality soldered interconnections. The standard emphasizes process control and sets industry-consensus requirements for a broad range of electronic products. This revision now includes support for lead free manufacturing.

IPC A-620B – Requirements and Acceptance for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies
Revision B is now available for the only industry-consensus standard for Requirements and Acceptance of Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies.

IPC-DRM-PTH-E
Now updated to Revision D of the latest IPC-A-610E and J-STD-001E – our Training & Reference Guide illustrates critical acceptance criteria for the evaluation of through-hole solder connections.

IPC-DRM-SMT-E
Useful as a training aid in the classroom or on the shop floor, DRM-SMT-E contains computer generated color illustrations of Chip component, Gull Wing and J-Lead solder joints.

IPC-J-STD-033C
J-STD-033 Provides Surface Mount Device manufacturers and users with standardized methods for handling, packing, shipping and use of moisture/reflow sensitive SMDs.

IPC-J-STD-020D-1
IPC-J-STD-020D-1 standard identifies the classification levels of nonhermetic solid state surface mount devices that are sensitive to moisture-induced stress.

J-STD-075
J-STD-075 provides test methods to classify worst-case thermal process limitations for electronic components. Classification is referenced to common industry wave and reflow solder profiles including lead-free processing.

IPC Collections:

IPC-C-103 – Electronics Assembly Standards Collection

IPC-C-1000 Essential Document Collection for Board Design, Assembly and Manufacture

IPC-C-108 Cleaning Guides and Handbooks Collection

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European EMS Market Analysis

2014 was a tough year for most EMS companies with revenues in Western Europe  declining by 3% while an increase of 3.4% in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and  Middle East/North Africa (MENA) helped the overall European market post growth of 0.5%. Although the market is expected to recover, growth is forecast to remain flat in 2015/2016 before gaining some traction in the later part of the forecast period.

EMS revenues in Western Europe are forecast to reach Euro 11.16 billion in 2019, up from Euro 10.37 million in 2014, with the market increasingly focused on the Aerospace, Defence, Automotive, Medical, Control & Instrumentation, Industrial and Telecom  (ADAMCIT) segments of the market.

The European EMS Industry - A Strategic Study of the European EMS Industry 2014-2019
Source: RER , The European EMS Industry – A Strategic Study of the European EMS Industry 2014-2019

The transfer of production to manufacturing facilities in  CEE/MENA to reduce costs and  the increasing demand by OEMs for EMS to offer local manufacturing in key global markets will dampen growth in Western Europe during the period to 2019.

The reverse applies to CEE/MENA where growth will be boosted by the transfer of production from Western Europe and in particular, lower volume high mix products in the ADAMCIT segments. This is expected to be offset in part by the migration of higher volume products in the consumer, computing and communications, or 3C, segment to Asia as the major global EMS companies come under increasing pricing pressure.  Assuming that the leading global EMS providers remain committed to retaining a major manufacturing presence in the region revenues are forecast to reach Euro 16.21 billion by 2019, up from Euro 15.15 billion in 2014

Major EMS Players

Although made up of over 1,000 companies, the industry is dominated by a small number of Global players with the Top 3 – Foxconn, Flextronics and Jabil – accounting for around 44.5% of revenues in 2014, with nearly 90% from plants in CEE focused on  the 3C segment.

Approaching 75% of the total sales (Euro 19.1 billion) are achieved by the leading 50 companies or 5% of the total number. We are expecting that there will be further consolidation across the industry due to the downward price pressure, slow economic growth and requirement to broaden and deepen the design, development and aftercare services to customers.

This comprehensive report provides:

  • A detailed market analysis to 2019 for Western Europe, CEE and North Africa in a single report.
  • A breakdown of the market by major sector.
  • An in-depth analysis and comment on the key market trends impacting the European EMS Industry.
  • A ranking and detailed profiles of the Top 20 EMS providers in Europe.
  • An overview of electronic production and EMS manufacturing in the major countries and regions including a ranking of the leading companies and profiles of the major players.
  • A directory by country of the EMS manufacturing locations with addresses, contact numbers, websites.

An appendix with the estimated sales turnover for 2014 of the Top 50 European EMS providers and the Top 50 European EMS companies based on global revenues and a list of the prevailing and historical currency exchange rates.

The European EMS Industry report allows you to track these developments in a single cost-effective study providing both detailed market and company analysis. The eleventh edition of the European EMS industry report, published by Reed Electronics Research, highlights the issues impacting the European EMS industry.

Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications’ web site: The European EMS Industry – A Strategic Study of the European EMS Industry 2014-2019.

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200 Million Smart Home Safety and Security Devices by 2020

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “Smart Home Safety & Security – A Market Dynamics Report”.  According to this report, competition is intensifying for smart home service providers. This market research report covers the global IP security/smart home market as well as smart home safety and security products and services in the managed services, retail and professional installer channels.  Continue reading 200 Million Smart Home Safety and Security Devices by 2020

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Asian Semiconductor Equipment Suppliers to Lose Market Share in 2015

ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announces the availability of a new report entitled “Asian Semiconductor Equipment Suppliers: Markets, Market Shares, Market Forecasts”. According to this report, semiconductor equipment suppliers headquartered in Asia will drop from 36.6% of the global wafer front end (WFE) market in 2014.  Revenues generated in U.S. Dollar terms were $10.6 billion out of a global market of $29.2 Billion.

Continue reading Asian Semiconductor Equipment Suppliers to Lose Market Share in 2015
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Electronics Assembly IPC Standards Collection

It takes a lot to be successful in electronics assembly. Get the reference documents you need on all aspects of the job from solder materials, component characteristics, manufacturing and quality requirements, and acceptability of the final assembly. Includes 41 key documents for SMT and through-hole assembly, including the widely used IPC-A-610, J-STD-001 and IPC-A-620.  Get the complete IPC standards collection and save 55% on individual document prices. Users can also purchase and download IPC standards from Electronics.ca Publications by following IPC specs below. Continue reading Electronics Assembly IPC Standards Collection