Electronics – a Hot Bed for Innovation

When you stop to think about it, virtually everything we do nowadays is affected somehow by electronic technology. The car, the computer, the i-Pod, the X-Box, the mobile phone even aircraft and space vehicles and so on, all depend upon electronics and the ideas that come out of the creative minds of people working in electronics. We tend to think of creativity in terms of design - the look of the item- but behind that colourful façade lies the real creativity. We all know about semiconductors and microchips but think little about them, yet it is these devices and the creativity of the engineers who design them that enable all these clever gizmos we take for granted to work.

Microprocessors are works of amazing creativity and UK companies such as ARM, CSR and Wolfson have designed the key components that enable the i-Pod, the Bluetooth headset, the i-phone and the X-Box to work. Don't be fooled into believing that these are exclusively American or Japanese creations. Without the design skills of UK engineers, they could not exist.

The car you drive is made safer by the increasing amount of the electronics content. Braking systems that stop the wheels from skidding, tyre pressure monitoring that gives you early indication of a flat tyre, parking sensors to stop silly little bumps, engine monitoring systems to reduce carbon emissions – all these are based on electronic designs, many of which began life as design projects right here in the UK.

New technologies being developed in this country are going to have a major impact on the way we live and see things in the future. For example among the new technologies is Organic Light Emitting Diode technology (OLED) and this is expected to replace LCD screens on mobile phones and other devices in the future. Electronic paper, a paper thin sheet of polymer that can be rolled up like a letter, will change screens for mobile devices making them much larger but easy to carry. Imagine downloading an entire book on to a single sheet and carrying it with you until you finish the book, then simply delete it and downloading another book or being able to plug a 20cms square screen into your mobile and watch video then simply rolling it up and putting it away. All this is going to be possible as a result of the work being done by UK companies.

Of even greater significance is the emergence of solid state lighting technology which will, in time, make the light bulb, as we know it, obsolete.

Using high power LEDs to produce higher levels of luminescence from a solid state source than could have been dreamed of 10 years ago, engineers are now designing products to creatively illuminate homes, offices and factories with multi-coloured and colour changing technology using solid-state light as the light source. The main challenges are of course to gain sufficient illumination from the LED for minimal energy but also to manage the heat generated by the LEDs and other electronic components, manage the optical properties of the device and drive the electronics efficiently but the outcome will be a vast range of solid state lighting products that will consume a fraction of the electricity of other light sources so benefiting the environment significantly.

All these developments require creative minds; minds that are flexible and open to new ideas. The old definition of an engineer has long since given way to the creative idea of a designer, someone who has the ability to think outside the box, to think originally and creatively then turn that into reality. The modern engineer does not have dirty finger nails; he/she has the ability to apply high levels of ingenuity through an artistic mind and uses it in the most exciting creative way to produce technologies and products that change the way we live. Just imagine how the designers who created the mobile phone, i-Pod or X-Box must have felt. They changed the way millions of people live their lives. Could you do that? Do you think you are ingenious and creative enough to be a modern engineer?

HARRY TEE

Chairman – The Electronics Leadership Council