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Miscellanea
World at work: The electronics industry
  1. D Koh1,
  2. G Chan2,
  3. E Yap3
  1. 1Professor and Head, Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, National University of Singapore
  2. 2Head of Preventive Medicine, Headquarters Medical Corps, Singapore Armed Forces
  3. 3Corporate Safety Program Manager, Seagate (RMO), Singapore
  1. Correspondence to:
 Prof. D Koh
 Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore; cofkohdnus.edu.sg

https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2002.001073

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    Spotlight on a diverse industry

    The electronics industry employs millions of workers throughout the world and plays a significant role in the structure of the world’s economy. Many multinational electronics industries retain their capital intensive operations in home countries, but locate their labour intensive operations in newly industrialising countries, because of the lower cost of labour and attractive financial and infrastructural incentives offered. In many developing and newly industrialising countries, the industry is a major contributor to employment and national economic growth.

    The electronics industry is diverse with a wide spectrum of processes. Its sectors include semiconductor wafer fabrication, manufacture of printed circuit boards, the assembly of semiconductor devices and printed circuit boards, and assembly of the final electronic products. There are also many supporting industries that produce materials and components necessary to make the final product. These include those which manufacture metal and plastic parts, electrical parts such as storage media for hard disks, precision motors to run drives, transformers, switches, liquid crystal displays, and other electronic components.

    In general, the processes in the electronics industry can be viewed as a series of work leading to the final product (table 1):

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    Table 1

    Work processes in the electronics industry

    • Semiconductor wafer fabrication—marks the beginning of every electronic product where circuits are etched onto wafers made of silicon.

    • Integrated circuit assembly—the preparation and testing of the encapsulated integrated chip.

    • Printed circuit board (PrCB) fabrication—the boards usually made of a plastic resin compound which is heated, mixed with a filler material, laminated with metal, cleaned and etched, and subsequently shaved and drilled.

    • Printed circuit board (PrCB) assembly—integration of various electronic components on the PrCBs which involves “stuffing” of components into the boards, cleaning, fluxing, soldering, trimming, and testing.

    • Final product assembly—the assembled PrCB is then incorporated with various other components to form the …

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