NextFlex recently held its Innovation Days 2020, which took place virtually.

According to Malcolm Thompson, executive director of NextFlex, there were more than 400 “enthusiastic” attendees ­– including members and government partners during the three-day event. 

“Along with detailed updates of NextFlex technology programs, engineering and fab operations, we also offered updates from the NextFlex Nodes in Massachusetts and New York,” Thompson said. 

One of the highlights – a most appreciated and interactive session, Thompson said – was a live tour of the Technology Hub in San Jose, CA.

It was hosted by Dr. Art Wall, director of Fab Operations, and Dr. Janos Veres, director of engineering and featured participation from the virtual audience. 

“Dr. Wall live-streamed from all areas of the fab while Dr. Veres fielded questions from the audience,” Thompson said. “Several NextFlex engineers spoke about their areas of expertise, demonstrating the breadth of manufacturing operations highlighting design, print, processing, assembly and robotic testing and reliability.”

Experts in the defense field – all of whom explored opportunities for FHE to have an impact in their respective application areas – took part in a special “DoD as a Customer” session.

There were three panel discussions: “The Ultimate Horizon for FHE,” “Women Transforming Innovation” and “Next Generation Workforce.” 

Updates were provided on the PC 4.0 and 5.0 projects that are now underway.

Additionally, “a full day was devoted to the impact of our Workforce Development activities with commendations from Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA 17th District),” Thompson said. “The Congressman recognized outstanding teachers, student teams, and NextFlex for answering the call to transform FlexFactor into a virtual program amid the pandemic. The virtual FlexFactor pilot was such a success, it will be continued into the fall to serve more students around the country.”

The keynote was delivered by Dr. Robert Irie, acting deputy director, Strategic Technology Protection and Exploitation, and director, Maintaining Technology Advantage, Department of Defense Research and Engineering Enterprise.

During Innovation Days, NextFlex highlighted the evolution of its mission since 2015, when it was awarded its first cooperative agreement. 

“At that time, the focus, of course, was on flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) with an emphasis on flexibility,” Thompson said. “Today, FHE is much more than flexibility; it’s about low weight, low cost, fast to market digital design and manufacturing, thin and conformal form factors, and low temperature and additive processing that takes electronics ‘out of the box.’ 

“Now that NextFlex has proven low volume manufacture with greater than 90% yields, the NextFlex Flexible Microcontroller Platform has become a base device upon which functional products are now being built,” he added.

NextFlex is now in its second cooperative agreement and, according to Thompson, “views the future to include unique architectures in advanced packaging, including heterogeneous integration and interposers, and potentially, high power devices for specific applications. 

“Our mission is to deliver devices and systems in new, novel form factors for a multitude of applications in collaboration with our members, primarily to serve the Modernization Priorities of the DoD, but also for commercial markets as well,” he continued. “The use of processes adapted from traditional semiconductor processing and packaging will broaden the horizon for FHE for years to come.”

Like so many other events and conferences, Innovation Days 2020 was moved online due to COVID-19.

“Earlier this year, we could not have imagined what 2020 held in store for us and what that would mean for member events,” Thompson said. “Along with an advisory committee comprised of members and government representatives, we decided to convert our annual member meeting to a virtual version due to the pandemic. It’s not what we would have chosen to do, but it’s what we needed to do.”

All in all, the event was a success, Thompson said.

“While we learned some things about Wi-Fi bandwidth limitations, the virtual Innovation Days met the needs of members and government to find new opportunities to advance FHE technology and manufacturing, and to advance the mission of NextFlex and the FHE community,” he said. 

“Member feedback about the event has been overwhelmingly positive,” Thompson added.

Even with the event over, the Innovation Days website will be live so that all attendees can use it as a resource over the coming months. 

“We thank all the participants who, through their contributions, made Virtual Innovation Days a tremendous success,” the executive director said. “Because the virtual event allowed more people to participate than ever before, we believe that in the future, NextFlex events may always have a virtual component so that we can continue to expand participation.”