NextFlex News – October 2024

Dear NextFlex friends and supporters,

I am pleased to report that we hosted a very successful workshop entitled, “Hybrid Electronics for Defense Applications,” at Lockheed Martin’s Global Vision Center in Arlington, VA at the beginning of this month. It was wonderful to see some of you  there and to observe the networking during the event which established the foundation for strong collaboration. I was extremely impressed with the depth and breadth of the presentations. The discussions about extreme environments, multilayer hybrid electronics, and standards and guidelines are vital to the strengthening and continued growth of the hybrid electronics ecosystem. The facilitators appreciated the insight and recommendations that the attendees posited in the breakout sessions. It is always inspiring to hear ideas from both inside and outside of the NextFlex community.

For NextFlex members who would like to revisit the presentations or did not have the opportunity to attend, you can access the workshop slide decks in the Member Portal.

Looking ahead to next month, we will be releasing an updated Hybrid Electronics Ecosystem Assessment. NextFlex members will have access to the entire report, and non-members will be able to view an abridged version on the NextFlex website. In 2022, NextFlex spoke to 30 organizations, all US-based, to learn about the success and challenges in the FHE industry. This year, we spoke to almost double that number of organizations, across the globe, to develop a develop a more comprehensive view of the hybrid electronics industry status.

Industry segments represented by the organizations surveyed included aerospace, space, defense, RF & communications, diagnostic medical devices, healthcare & consumer wearable devices, automotive, soft robotics, asset & structural health monitoring, consumer electronics, and energy.

We were encouraged to see that nearly all the organizations we interviewed had high levels of project activity in the last 12 months and that over 50% of the respondents have commercialized hybrid electronics-enabled products in the last 24 months.

NextFlex members will be able to attend a webinar during the first week of November to review the assessment observations.  The recording will be posted in the Member Portal for future viewing.

I have had a productive first month as NextFlex Executive Director speaking with members, reviewing the status of the key initiative, and participating in institute activities to strengthen the hybrid electronics ecosystem. I look forward to continuing to meet with members of the NextFlex community and to providing you with an update next month on our activities.

Sincerely,

Dan Gamota, Ph.D.
NextFlex Executive Director