For the Final Manufacturing (San Jose) portion, the show hours today are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There is so much going on at this conference that you wouldn’t want to miss a thing. To start the day, at 9:00 a.m. the IEMT Keynote Speaker, Joseph Adam, goes over the 2003 ITRS Packaging Roadmap Overview. Any insight into the future of our industry should be enlightening. The SEMI Technology Symposium: International Electronics Manufacturing Technology lasts all day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 at a cost of $450 on site. In the evening, our Advanced Packaging Awards program starts at 6:00 p.m. and ends at 8:00 in Meeting Room C of the Convention Center. Stan Meyers will help honor those receiving recognition for their contributions to packaging technology.

Synergetix Introduces Test Sockets Built Online
SAN JOSE, CALIF.
Kansas City-based Synergetix demonstrated its new software, SocketBuilder, which builds test sockets online to meet user requirements. The user goes to the site, specs out their application, chip, electrical performance criteria, handler type, etc. Based on this input, SocketBuilder then generates an engineering drawing for the required socket. The program sends the user an e-mail with a hyperlink to their drawing. The user is presented a detailed manufacturing drawing, cutting the process from a normal weeklong experience to one taking minutes. Additionally, SocketBuilder recommends the appropriate spring contact probes. This should cut socket delivery times for most packaging applications.