(July 7, 2008) SAN FRANCISCO, CA — With SEMICON West 2008 just one week away, July 15-17,at the Moscone Center, San Francisco CA, exhibitors are getting the word out to make sure attendees don’t miss a thing. While SEMI has a full-line up of conferences, keynotes, and workshops planned, many exhibitors will be leveraging the venue to announce new processes, technologies, products, and more. And let’s not forget the assortment of award programs to acknowledge innovators in the industry. All in all, attendees should invest in some good shoes and get ready for a busy week.
Palomar Technologies’ senior scientist, Dan Evans and systems engineer Albert Perez will be among a full field of presenters during the all day wirebonding workshop Monday, July 14, co-sponsored by IMAPS and SEMI, giving their paper, Chain Wire Bonding of a RF-SOE Package using a Gold Ball Bonder. Palomar will showcase the latest application capabilities of its microelectronic packaging services and equipment at their West Hall location, booth 7515, addressing equipment and application concerns for those involved with optoelectronic, RF, and microelectronic packaging needs in the solar, LED, wireless, photonic, microwave, photovoltaic, computer, automotive, aerospace, and medical industries.
As ice cream icons, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, always say, if it’s not fun, why do it? Following that philosophy, learning and fun is combined at The MEMS Industry Group booth, where attendees will have the opportunity to experience “MEMS in the Machine”. Drill down into some of the most exciting MEMS-based applications to see the MEMS in the Machine inside. For those who want to be a rock star, give the MEMS-based Guitar Hero demo a whirl.
In the spirit of the recently held Euro 2008 soccer cup championship — which, incidentally, went to Spain in a valiantly played 3-1 match against Germany — Umicore Electronic Materials will be hosting the MicrobondDocfish Soccer Cup 2008 in its West Hall booth # 842, challenging attendees to beat the champions while learning about their product series for wafer bumping applications.
Indium Corp. invites attendees to meet the company’s web site bloggers, Jim Hisert, Paul Socha, Fez Sayed, Andy Mackie, Ph.D., and Rick Short on Tuesday, July 15, 2008, from 2-3pm at booth #7834 in the West Hall. Learn about the company’s latest processes such as flux deposit measurement using non-contact metrology, wafer flux spin-coating topography, and wafer-level flux printing. Bloggers will talk about hot blog topics including semiconductor assembly materials, future trends in first- and second-level assembly, halogen-free semiconductor assembly material, engineered solders in MEMS assembly, thermal interface issues, and solar device assembly.
Advantest will be holding a variety of demos at their booth #7447 in the West Hall including its mult-site RF production testing capabilities, handler capabilities, and air-cooled test head and compact design intended to reduce test costs for high-volume design.
Everett Charles Technologies (ECT) reports that its Semiconductor Test Group (STG) will highlight various advanced technology products around the theme, One World. One Stop. ECT to reflect the company’s worldwide reach. Products showcased included ECT’s Gemini Kelvin probe technology, now available for BGA applications; its new architecture Mercury probe; and a variety of wafer-scale CSP solutions.
Additionally, Jason Mroczkowski, RF engineering supervisor, ECT, will present “Taking the Guesswork Out of Loadboard and Contactor Design,” which explores the importance of test interface simulation prior to design. The presentation takes place at 12:40 p.m. on Thursday, July 17 on Level 1 of the West Hall during the Test Assembly & Packaging session of the TechXPOT program.
David Haynes, Ph.D., business services director at Surface Technology Systems (STS) will also present during the Test, Assembly and Packaging TechXPOT. His presentation, “Advances in DRIE Technology for 200mm and 300mm Wafer Through Silicon Via (TSV) Applications” is scheduled at 11:30am. STS reports it will be launching a new chemical vapor etch (CVE) system, jointly developed with XACTIX, Inc, which uses XeF2 to isotropically etch silicon to release MEMS devices. STS will be in two locations this year, at Booth 2047 in South Hall or Booth 8443 in West Hall.
At its West Hall location, Booth 8015, Jenoptik’s Lasers & Material Processing Division will be introducing a completely new process for wafer dicing called thermal laser separation (TLS), which thermally induces mechanical stress in the material using a laser to perform the dicing process. Supported by the European Union SEA NET project, the company’s TLS wafer dicing tool — JENOPTIK-VOTAN G semi is reportedly ready to be introduced into the production environment, and will be presented for the first time at SEMICON West. The process is one of 8 finalists for SEMI’s Best of the West competition. Other finalists targeting back-end processes include e GViaCoat from Alchimer for the electrografting of copper seed layers used for the metallization of through silicon vias (TSVs). EVG150 NanoSpray System from EV Group, a fully automated high topography spray coating system for very small and deep patterns, which is also finalist in this year’s Advanced Packaging Awards; and Alpine System from Mattson Technology, Inc. an advanced strip system for back-end-of-line and front-end-of-line process applications.
Semiconductor assembly and test service (SATS) giant, Amkor Technologies, announced their latest innovation in high-performance flip chip packaging technology to the media last week, and will introduce it to the industry at the company’s booth #7352 in the West Hall during the show.
Wednesday, July 16 will be a big day for award winners beginning with SEMI’s Best of the West program, whose winners will be announced that morning. Winners of the Attendee’s Choice Awards, co-sponsored by Solid State Technology and Advanced Packaging magazines, will be announced on the floor during the afternoon, Be sure to stop by the Pennwell booth, #345 in the South Hall, to cast your ballot online. Finally, the 8th Annual Advanced Packaging Awards will be announced during an evening celebration at the St. Regis Hotel.
For ongoing coverage during the week, the editors of Solid State Technology and Advanced Packaging magazines will be out in full force, bringing readers e-Show Daily Report: Live from SEMICON West. Stay tuned.