In the Q5 series of interviews Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure. Five short sharp questions reveal their thoughts on the issues that matter most.

From ARM's chairman, Sir Robin Saxby, to touchscreen technology firm Zytronic's MD, Mark Cambridge, the business leaders share their particular insights on the UK electronics industry.

2008

Q5 interview - Ian Bell, National Instruments [Monday 11 August 2008]
Ian Bell, technical marketing manager at National Instruments, talks to Electronics Weekly about how graphical test and development tools can address the challenges of programming multicore processor systems.

Q5 interview - Moshe Gavrielov, Xilinx [Wednesday 30 July 2008]
Moshe Gavrielov joined Xilinx as CEO in January. He talks to Electronics Weekly about the challenges facing the FPGA supplier as it moves from pure vanilla to SoC.

Q5 interview - John Bruggeman, Wind River [Monday 21 July 2008]
John Bruggeman is chief marketing officer at Wind River, the real-time operating system and development software company. He reveals his thoughts on multi-core systems, Nokia's recent open-source move and the main RTOS market drivers.

Q5 interview - Damon de Laszlo, Harwin [Monday 14 July 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Damon de Laszlo is chairman of Portsmouth-based connector manufacturer Harwin. He reveals his thoughts on UK competitiveness in global markets, the most exciting technologies, and the next big innovation in connector design.

Q5 interview - George Elliott, MED [Tuesday 8 July 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: George Elliott is chairman at miniature OLED display company, Edinburgh-based MED. The former CFO at Wolfson Microelectronics. He reveals his thoughts on breaking into the market in China, technology triggers for venture backing and the state of the high tech start-up community in Scotland.

Q5 interview - Kevin Ritchie, senior VP Texas Instruments [Tuesday 24 June 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Kevin Ritchie, Senior Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group, Texas Instruments. He reveals his thoughts on the limits of CMOS process technology, TI operating its own fabs, and the key technologies and applications facing TI.

Q5 interview - Hal Philipp, founder of Quantum Research Group [Tuesday 17 June 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Hal Philipp, founder of Quantum Research Group. He reveals his thoughts on expanding a UK-based semiconductor business globally, steering clear of VC funding and the customer impact of the acquisition by Atmel.

Q5 interview - Jay Alexander, Agilent [Tuesday 10 June 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Jay Alexander is the v-p and general manager of the oscilloscope business at Agilent Technologies. He reveals his thoughts about technical and commercial trends in the scope market.

Q5 interview - Stig Enslev, Arrow UK [Tuesday 3 June 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Stig Enslev is managing Director of broadline distributor Arrow UK. He reveals his thoughts on the most active product markets in Europe, the single biggest business challenge of 2008, and the potential for further consolidation in the European market.

Q5 interview - David Bell, Intersil [Wednesday 28 May 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: David Bell is the CEO of Intersil, the analogue semiconductor supplier. He reveals his thoughts on the importance of power efficiency, LEDs becoming economical for general lighting, and whether mobile TV will drive consumer technology.

Q5 interview - Gordon Serpis, 2001 Electronic Components [Tuesday 20 May 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Gordon Serpis is marketing manager of Stevenage-based distributor 2001 Electronic Components. He reveals his thoughts on the biggest business challenge in 2008 and what characterises a good design-in distributor, and he picks one interesting new product technology.

Q5 interview - Adrian Rawlinson, Marl International [Monday 12 May 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Adrian Rawlinson is managing director of Cumbria-based LED manufacturer Marl International. He reveals his thoughts on the commercial opportunity for LEDs,  the biggest challenge to the development of a high volume LED market, and the viability of UK manufacturing.

Q5 interview - Hamid Farzaneh, DisplayLink [Tuesday 6 May 2008]
Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Hamid Farzaneh, president and CEO of video interconnect technology company DisplayLink, which has an R&D team in Cambridge. He reveals his thoughts on the cost of designing a new chip from scratch, wireless displays and wireless USB, and what makes Cambridge such a good location for undertaking chip R&D.

Q5 interview - Graham Martin, EnOcean Alliance [Monday 28 April 2008]
Graham Martin is chairman of the EnOcean Alliance, which promotes self-powered wireless monitoring and control systems for sustainable buildings. He reveals his thoughts on the need for a low-power altrernative to ZigBee comms, the 'green credentals' of the Alliance, and a domestic retrofit market for EnOcean-enabled products.

Q5 interview - Joe Matano, UR Group [Tuesday 22 April 2008]
Joe Matano is managing director of specialist power system distributor UR Group. He reveals his thoughts on engineers changing their approach to power system design, the state of the UK electronics manufacturing industry, the impact of EuP and the two biggest technology opportunities in the UK.

Q5 interview - Glenn Palmer, Murata Electronics UK [Monday 14 April 2008]
Glenn Palmer is managing director of component manufacturer Murata Electronics UK. He reveals his thoughts on changes in chip capacitor technology, whether high density power supplies will require new types of high reliability components, and the prospects for new dielectric materials.

Q5 interview - Mike Lloyd, ML Electronics [Tuesday 8 April 2008]
Mike Lloyd is managing director of Wiltshire-based design services company ML Electronics. He reveals his thoughts on UK design houses, lower-cost rivals from China and India, and the possible impact of mixed-signal arrays.

Q5 interview - Sudhir Subramanya, Philips Lumileds [Thursday 3 April 2008]
Sudhir Subramanya is Lumileds Luxeon product manager. He talks about the future of LED packaging at Philips Lumileds design, including thermal conductivity, Luxeon V LEDs, and hex footprints.

Q5 interview - James Foster, XMOS Semiconductor [Tuesday 25 March 2008]
James Foster is CEO of XMOS Semiconductor, the Bristol-based developer of programmable chips, tools and IP aimed at consumer applications. He reveals his thoughts on what makes Bristol an ideal location for a semiconductor start-up, the shortage of high-tech skills in the UK, and what he would say to students to encourage them to consider a career in electronics design.

Q5 interview - Tony Milbourn, Camitri Technologies [Tuesday 18 March 2008]
Tony Milbourn is CEO of Camitri Technologies, which brings to market intellectual property (IP) being created in universities. He reveals his thoughts on the biggest challenge universities face when trying to commercialise IP, the one design technology with the largest commercial potential and Jeremy Clarkson as an ambassador for engineers.

Q5 interview - James Gourlay, Design LED [Tuesday 11 March 2008]
James Gourlay is chief technology officer and founder of Design LED, the Livingston-based specialist in printed light-guides and embedded LEDs. He reveals his thoughts on the pros and cons of operating a design and manufacturing business out of Scotland, the most exciting application for LED light systems, and when the LED will replace the filament lightbulb in consumer lighting.

Q5 interview - Ronald Black, Wavecom [Wednesday 5 March 2008]
Ronald Black is CEO at Wavecom, the French developer and supplier of embedded industrial wireless communications systems. He reveals his thoughts on the M2M business, the top-three wireless apps for 2008/2009, and the impact of software-defined radio on wireless design.

Q5 interview - Per-Olof Loof, Kemet [Thursday 28 February 2008]
Per-Olof Loof is CEO of Kemet, the capacitor manufacturer and supplier. He reveals his thoughts on global production, shortages of Coltan, and whether multi-layer ceramic capacitors for DC-DC converters can get much smaller.

Q5 interview - David Baillie, CamSemi [Wednesday 20 February 2008]
David Baillie is CEO of CamSemi, a fabless semiconductor company developing new generations of power ICs. He reveals his thoughts on the commercial significance of winning awards, the importance of power efficiency, and whether the UK still has a competitive edge for electronics design skills.

Q5 interview - Steve Landau, Lumileds [Thursday 14 February 2008]
Steve Landau is director of marketing communications at Lumileds. He reveals his thoughts on what it will take to settle the patent issues between power LED makers, whether lumens/$ will be cut far enough to beat OLED or electroluminescent technology as a florescent tube replacement, and his favourite power LED application.

Q5 interview - Simon Payne, XJTAG [Thursday 7 February 2008]
Simon Payne is CEO of boundary scan test firm XJTAG. He reveals his thoughts on UK electronics events, the competitiveness of the market for boundary scan technology, and problems with component circuitry.

Q5 Interview - Mark McClear (Cree) and Ulrich Kastner-Jung (Osram Opto Semiconductors) [Thursday 31 January 2008]
Mark McClear is a director at Cree's solid state lighting business and Ulrich Kastner-Jung is a director at Osram Opto Semiconductors. They reveal their thoughts on the power LED market, LEDs for general lighting, and OLED technology.

Q5 interview - Anne Miller, The Creativity Partnership [Thursday 24 January 2008]
Anne Miller is an engineer, inventor, author and director of The Creativity Partnership. She gives her thoughts on hard-wired creativity, inspiration and morphing ideas.

Q5 interview - Hans Peter Kuhnert, Tektronix [Thursday 17 January 2008]
Hans Peter Kuhnert, EMEA v-p of sales at Tektronix, talks about the proposed acquisition by Danaher, real-time oscilloscopes and the biggest challenge facing the test instrument industry in 2008.

New Year Q5 - Anglia, PicoChip and Altera [Tuesday 8 January 2008]
Three winners of Electronics Weekly's Elektra awards answer our questions this week: Danny Biran, senior v-p of product and corporate marketing at Altera, Guillaume d'Eyssautier, CEO of PicoChip and Steve Rawlins, CEO of Anglia Components.

2007

Q5 - Andy Stubbings, Noritake Itron [Thursday 13 December 2007]
Andy Stubbings, managing director of Noritake Itron in the UK, reveals his thoughts on whether vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) can compete with lower cost LCD technologies, government support for UK based manufacturing and market opportunities for VFDs in Europe.

Q5 - Andrew Leake, Dengrove [28 November 2007]
Andrew Leake, MD of distributor Dengrove, reveals his thoughts on whether independent distributors have an image problem, if you can combine independent and franchise distribution, and what markets are strong at the moment.

Q5 - Dawn Ohlson, Thales [22 November 2007]
Dawn Ohlson, director of educational affairs at Thales in the UK, reveals her thoughts on graduate recruitment, the money to be made in engineering and the UK skills shortage.

Q5 - Paul Marsh, GSPK Design [15 November 2007]
Paul Marsh, managing director of GSPK Design, reveals his thoughts on the contract design sector, management buyouts and government support for the UK electronics industry.

Q5 - Kevin Edwards, EnSilica [8 November 2007]
Kevin Edwards, business development director at design services firm EnSilica, reveals his thoughts on winning design contracts, designing chips for fabless semiconductor start-ups and investment in EDA tools.

Q5 - Mike Surrey, Telent [31 October 2007]
Mike Surrey, director of business development at Telent, reveals his thoughts on communications services, spinning out of Marconi and the types of engineers employed.

Q5 - Dave Shrigley, Wolfson Microelectronics [24 October 2007]
Dave Shrigley, CEO of Wolfson Microelectronics, reveals his thoughts on mixed-signal companies making very high profit margins, IPOs and the audio market.

Q5 - Jenni Rosser, Envirowise [18 October 2007]
Jenni Rosser, a cleaner design specialist with Envirowise, reveals her thoughts on 'cleaner design', RoHS and WEEE legislation and the most important changes that electronics manufacturers need to consider.

Q5 - David Sykes, ProVision Communications [9 October 2007]
David Sykes, CEO of wireless and video specialist ProVision Communications, reveals his thoughts on WiFi radiation health safety, technical limitations of a data network for video transmission and whether it is possible to eliminate packet errors in a wireless network.

Q5 - Danny Miller, Future Electronics [4 October 2007]
Danny Miller, managing director of distributor Future Electronics (EMEA), reveals his thoughts on levels of design-in and technical support, how the Internet changing the way semiconductor distributors operate and UK market for new design starts

Q5 - Simon Bond, SETsquared and the SiliconSouthWest network [26 September 2007]
Simon Bond, who runs the SETsquared business incubators in Bath and Swindon and the SiliconSouthWest network, reveals his thoughts on emerging technology trends, selling semiconductor IP and government incentives to encourage UK start-ups.

Q5 - Dr James Truchard, National Instruments [19 September 2007]
Dr James Truchard, president of National Instruments, reveals his thoughts on the role of the test and design engineer, PC and software-based instruments and the convergence of test and design.

Q5 - Fergal Brosnan, IC Mask Design [13 September 2007]
Fergal Brosnan, CEO of IC Mask Design, the Limerick-based IC physical design company, reveals his thoughts on whether EDA complexity is holding back innovation, the main EDA challenges for analogue designs versus digital designs and emerging technology trends.

Q5 - Andy Allen, Plexus [5 September 2007]
Andy Allen, v-p Europe of EMS company Plexus, reveals his thoughts on supply chain management, the sort of people he recruits and whether it matters where in the world you make your products now.

Q5 - An Electronics Technician at Freescale Semiconductor's East Kilbride facility [28 August 2007]
A worker, who preferred not to be named, from Freescale Semiconductor's East Kilbride facility, reveals their thoughts on private equity executives, the mood at East Kilbride and how the firm announced the sale to the staff.

Q5 - Derek Boyd from the NMI answers our questions [18 August 2006]
Derek Boyd, chief executive officer of the UK's National Microelectronics Institute, reveals his thoughts on the successful exploitation of UK design skills, a dearth of design skills and the lack of an equivalent of IMEC, the Belgium semiconductor research organisation.

Q5 - Adam Rawicz, Lambda Europe [13 August 2007]
Adam Rawicz, managing director of power supply company Lambda Europe, reveals his thoughts on the most important technology challenges in power supply design, the real impacts that digital control and comms bus technologies are having and the benefits and challenges of designing world-class power supplies.

Q5 - Harold Hughes, Rambus [1 August 2007]
Harold Hughes, CEO of memory interface company Rambus, reveals his thoughts on whether Rambus suffers from its litigious reputation, the development of Flash interfaces and the miss-statements on stock options.

Q5 - Carlo Rebughini, Austria Microsystems [25 July 2007]
Carlo Rebughini, vice-president of sales at Austria Microsystems, reveals his thoughts on the most important process technologies and parameters for production of analogue parts, the relative pros and cons of CMOS and SiGe process technologies and which markets for analogue products are driving the technology hardest.

Q5 - Professor Harvey Rutt, University of Southampton [16 July 2007]
Professor Harvey Rutt, head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, reveals his thoughts on the abandonment of CMOS research, the basic science education of undergraduates and the process of commercialising research.

Q5 - Mark Cambridge, Zytronic [6 July 2007]
Mark Cambridge, managing director of touchscreen technology firm Zytronic, reveals his thoughts on avoiding parallax errors, replacing vandalised screens and the sustainability of manufacturing in the UK.

Q5 - Tim Haynes, Nujira [5 July 2007]
Tim Haynes, CEO of Nujira, which develops wireless basestation technology, reveals his thoughts on technology start-ups attracting funding, WiMAX as a viable alternative to 3G for broadband access and GaN as an alternative to LDMOS in RF power amplifier designs.

2006

Q5 - Professor PK Nathan on OLEDs [3 August 2006]
Professor P.K. Nathan, chief technology officer of start-up OLED-T, reveals his thoughts on vacuum deposited OLED, OLED TVs and how long will it be before OLED firms can stop talking about lifetime and differential ageing.

Q5 - Rich Templeton, Texas Instruments [21 July 2006]
Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments, reveals his thoughts on the future for TI, 45nm and 32nm process generations and self-organising molecules and atoms.

Q5 - Simon Bircham, business manager at BSI [19 June 2006]
Simon Bircham, the electrical & electronics product manager at the British Standards Institute's product services, reveals his thoughts on policing the RoHS kitemark, the cost of attaining it and European versus American attitudes to standards.

Q5 - Martin Kent, chief executive of Abacus [2 June 2006]
Martin Kent, chief executive of distribution firm Abacus, reveals his thoughts on acquisition deals, whether the electronics industry face too many European directives and the single biggest change in distribution since 1969.

Q5 - David Young, Component Obsolescence Group [26 May 2006]
David Young, the MARS integrated logistics support manager at Raytheon Systems, reveals his thoughts on the activities of COG, RoHS deadlines and component obsolescence.

Q5 - Tony Harker, Institute for System Level Integration [19 May 2006]
Tony Harker, chief executive of the Institute for System Level Integration (ISLI), reveals his thoughts on the politics of running an academic institution, jobs in Scotland and spinning out any companies based on the work of the doctorates.

Q5 - Wally Rhines, Mentor Graphics [12 May 2006]
Walden Rhines, chief executive officer of EDA firm Mentor Graphics and formerly the executive v-p of Texas Instruments' semiconductor group, reveals his thoughts on the EDA industry, the VHDL standard and the time taken to complete designs.

Q5 - Andrew Gold, Roband Electronics [5 May 2006]
Andrew Gold, managing director of Roband Electronics, reveals his thoughts on manufacturing in the UK, staying competitive against cheaper Far East-based manufacturers and government hopes for innovation.

Q5 - Jim Lindop, chief executive of Jennic [26 April 2006]
Jim Lindop, chief executive of wireless IC developer Jennic, reveals his thoughts on ZigBee, offering extra support and the success of ARM.

Q5 - Hans Rohrer, Zetex [14 April 2006]
Hans Rohrer, chief executive of UK semiconductor maker Zetex, reveals his thoughts on gross margins in the analogue business, the importance of proprietary process technology and serial CEOs versus those who rise through the ranks.

Q5 - David Jones, Invotec [7 April 2006]
David Jones, chief executive of PCB firm Invotec, the biggest remaining PCB firm in the UK, reveals his thoughts on surface finishes for lead-free circuit boards, niches in the PCB sector and the rising cost of utilities.

Q5 - Stan Boland, Icera Semiconductor [31 March 2006]
Stan Boland, CEO of wireless chip start-up Icera and previously the CEO of Element 14 that was sold to Broadcom in 2000 for around £400m, reveals his thoughts on being based in Bristol, advice for budding entrepreneurs and the main problems facing the widespread take up of mobile TV.

Q5 - Lesley Thompson, Research Councils UK [24 March 2006]
Lesley Thompson, a programme manager for information and communication technologies within the Research Councils UK, reveals her thoughts on the need for a mini-fab in the UK, 'virtual' research centres and electronics design talent in the UK.

Q5 - Phil Bishop, Celoxica [14 March 2006]
Phil Bishop, chief executive officer of FPGA and SoC design software company Celoxica, reveals his thoughts on the integration of hardware and software design for FPGA-based systems, the benefits and pitfalls for any UK firm carrying out design on two continents and the most exciting applications for high-performance digital signal processing boards.

Q5 - Laurence Garrett, 3i [2 March 2006]
Laurence Garrett, a partner at venture capital firm 3i in its electronics, semiconductors and advanced technologies group, reveals his thoughts on floating a British technology business rather than selling it, good technology ideas in the UK and government schemes supporting technology start-ups.

Q5 - Sir Robin Saxby, ARM [24 February 2006]
Sir Robin Saxby, who shaped processor firm ARM during his years as chief executive officer before becoming chairman of the company, reveals his thoughts on the reasons behind ARM's success, whether he is an entrepreneur or a technologist and what has given him most satisfaction in his time at ARM.
(Video: Sir Robin Saxby accepts his Lifetime Achievement Award, Elektras 2007)

Q5 - Adam Fletcher, Afdec [10 February 2006]
Adam Fletcher, chairman of the Association of Franchised Distributors of Electronic Components, reveals his thoughts on Afdec’s main role in serving the distribution sector, closer links with other European industry associations and the biggest challenge to the distribution sector.

Q5 - Harry Tee, Electronics Leadership Council [30 January 2006]
Harry Tee, chair of the Electronics Leadership Council (ELC),  reveals his thoughts on the supply chain, the manufacturing of electronics in the UK and best way of fairly attributing the costs of implementing the WEEE directive.

Q5 - Stephen Lake, QinetiQ [20 January 2006]
Stephen Lake, director of QinetiQ’s business accelerator, reveals his thoughts on technology R&D, using government procurement to drive UK innovation and how to produce better science graduates.

Q5 - Charles Ward, Intellect [13 January 2006]
Charles Ward, CEO of trade body Intellect that coordinated a bid for a £3m Government-funded electronics Knowledge Transfer Network, reveals his thoughts on the UK's attractiveness as a location for electronics design and the UK Electronics Alliance (UKEA).

See also: Electronics Weekly's Technology Startups, where you can find articles on technology startups in the UK, an interactive map showing the location and business sector of each startup, and links to useful websites for the technology entrepreneur.

See also: the Electronics Weekly blog UK Tech Startups, covering news on funding for electronics startups