Semiconductor development tools and their RoHS status

This is a guest post by Gary Nevison, Head of Legislation, Farnell, A trading division of Premier Farnell UK Ltd.

UK: Seems to be a bit of a fuss in mainland Europe at present in respect of semiconductor development tools, their RoHS status, and why are some manufacturer’s still supplying non-compliant parts.

Back in 2006, I can clearly remember the concerns around “semiconductor evaluation boards” often referred to as “development tools”.
Were they in scope of the RoHS Directive or not?

Certainly, manufacturers hoped not, and many believed not. This eventually resulted in NWML, the UK enforcement agency, posting guidance on their website.

They concluded that “most evaluation boards are included under category 3 -- IT equipment”.

That provided clarity, but in some other countries such as Germany, the debate has run and run.

With the publication of the so called “RoHS2” proposals the subject is again on the agenda.

Here are some simple guidelines:
* RoHS2 does not impact any current inventory of development tools.
* Any evaluation boards that are in scope at present should not contain the current six RoHS substances except where exemptions apply.
* Future substance restrictions will only apply to products put on the market (POTM) after the date that will need to be specified by the European Commission (EC).

The process for restricting additional substances could take several years and will follow on from the implementation of the “revised” RoHS Directive. At present it is not known how long this will take.

The EC should allow a transition period after the decision to restrict an additional substance has been agreed and published. New POTM dates applicable to additional substance restrictions are unlikely to be before 2012 and could be much later.

Evaluation boards may contain some of the phthalates BBP, DBP and DEHP for example in PVC wire, sealants, inks, adhesives and lacquers.

In summary, there is no need to worry about current inventory, and those POTM before 1/7/06 are out of scope anyway. However, if the 4 proposed substances do fall within scope then manufacturers will need to start looking for alternatives in future products.

In any event, manufacturers should be ensuring that finished equipment such as emulators and the small, open PCBs that provide a prototyping area and often offer a basic programming facility, comply with the directive.

element14 to enhance electronic design engineers’ development capabilities

BANGALORE, INDIA: element14, a new online technology resource and community for electronic design engineers was launched today.

This new website is specifically created for electronic design engineers who are looking for a wealth of unbiased technical information and tool-focused services in one source to enhance their design and development capabilities. element14, unlike many other engineering resource websites, uses web 2.0 functionality to facilitate interaction, collaboration and information sharing among users.

element14 provides a vast array of product data, design tools and technology information, ensuring electronic design engineers worldwide have access to necessary information when they need it. A true value added benefit of element14 is the ability to collaborate with select engineers about design techniques or seek new technology developments from experts in the field.

Users have their own unique login, allowing them to customise and personalise their homepage with widgets of the applications they use most.

Google Translate has been incorporated to facilitate even greater interaction and enable users of different languages to converse in real time, breaking down language barriers to help increase the availability of resources for this global community.

Users participate in the community by posting comments, podcasts and videos that can help to drive traffic to their site, using referral links to raise awareness about their individual profile, academia, technology development or business.

“element14 provides a very much needed one-stop resource for electronic design engineers, said Kevin Yapp, Chief Innovation Officer of Premier Farnell, the organisation behind element14. “This website provides information on a wide variety of technology materials with collaboration from a variety of electronics suppliers, academics and other experts from around the globe.

element 14 is specifically built for electronic design engineers, design students, suppliers and journalists looking for the opportunity to share technical information and have access to all the latest electronic design engineering.

Farnell looking to convert 3,500 prospects this year in India!

Now that's what I call aggression!

Last July, I had the pleasure of meeting Ms Harriet Green, CEO, Farnell Electronics, a part of the Premier Farnell group of companies. It is soon going to be a year since the company set up presence in India. Farnell has aggressive plans for India, with the company likely to look at converting at least 3,500 prospects this year.

I met up with Nader Tadros, Commercial Marketing Director APAC, Premier Farnell (see picture here), and Navin Honnavar, marketing manager, Farnell Electronics India Pvt. Ltd to get an update on Farnell.

According to Tadros, Farnell is said to be the number 1 small-order high service multi-channel distributor in the world. "We carry obver 3,500 leading suppliers and 450,000 product stocks globally. We have 36 transactional websites in 23 languages," he added.

Farnell currently has six warehouses -- one in America, and two in Europe and three in Asia -- Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore. In India, it now has nine branch offices, and one contact center and one global tech center (GTC) -- in Bangalore. The GTC provides live chat and board level support, which also translates into global support.

Tadros said that Farnell is aggressively are supporting the EDE (electronic design engineers) community and MRO (maintenance, repair, operatoinal) marketplace. "We have taken particular focus on developing the EDE space, providing support, services and relevant products. We want to make sure the value proposition is mapped on to the EDE needs," he said. Elaborating on the value proposition, he cited an example of x-ray machine manufacturers.

Global business strategy
Farnell has a four-pronged global business strategy. This includes:
* Focusing on global EDE customer segment.
* Increase business via the Web.
* Internationalization
* Continue to develop profitable MRO business.

Tadros believes that the power of the Web is tremendous. "It is very useful for customers to search and transact. Another area is customer demand. They are looking for efficiencies," he added. "An important aspect that can help us is that we are able to understand customers; needs. The data that the web search is able to provide gives us the critical information. If a customer searches for a part, and we track that, we are able to service their needs better."

Hasn't Farnell been affected by the recession? Tadros said: "We are not immune to the recession. The volatlity is higher, and it is also at the customer level." Honnavar added: "Our strategy seems to be working for us. We are maintaining our base in the MRO space. We are still pulling in customer requests and still growing."

So, what else is Farnell doing, besides these activities? Well, it has adopted a multichannel approach for the Asia Pacific region. It has 154 staff in eight call centers, besides being involved in direct and e-marketing. The company has nine local websites -- simplified chinese for China, thai for Thailand, and English for India, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Besides, it has 103 field sales engineers in 29 sales offices.

Aggressive plans
I started this post by saying I liked Farnell's aggressive plans. It currently has 2,500 active customers and 9,000 prospects in India alone. The company has a target to reach $25 mn by 2010. It is also a walue added distributor offering products to leading suppliers such as Texas Instruments, Molex, and 3,500 other leading brands.

Touching on Farnell's clients in India, Honnavar said: "We have independent design houses, resellers, R&D centers, educational centers, government organizations (such as BEL, HAL), etc., among our customers. The prospects includes a huge list of people. We have touched the top layers in tier 2 cities -- such as Coimbatore and Ahmedabad. We are looking at converting 3,500 prospects this year."

More focus on components, SMEs
The components industry isn't exactly in the pink of health right now. Giving his views on the electronics and components space, Tadros said: "Customers themselves are not able to anticipate the demand for the next quarter or periods. We are seeing that there is still growth in the EDE space and inquiries are still coming in. During a recession, you have an opportunity to distinguish yourself from competition. There is pressure on teams as they have to continually innovate. Customers require more even support, more technical documentation, and look for faster turnaround times."

Farnell is in a position to help those SMEs who are in the electronics and components spaces. Tadros said that the company can support such SMEs by helping them to build their markets in a timely fashion.

Honnavar added that Farnell is focusing on building a product and purchasing team, sitting out of Singapore and Hong Kong. "Moving forward, you will probably get to see more buying happening in the Asia Pacific region. Going ahead, a lot of sourcing will also be done from India." The company intends to be extremely close to suppliers, especially in the Greater China region.