Issue



A Celebration of Packaging


10/01/2008







A packaging engineer living in this Information Age has an obligation to keep on top of everything that’s happening. But it’s difficult to go to every SEMICON, every IMAPS, every MEPTEC meeting. There are websites, blogs, podcasts, videos, seminars, conferences, society standards meetings enough to bury an engineer in the field under a landslide of information.

However, there is one really great gem of an event that you should not miss. On Thursday, November 13, 2008, at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose, CA, MEPTEC and Advanced Packaging Magazine are presenting a day-long symposium to celebrate MEPTEC’s 30th year. It’s called Packaging Developments and Innovations: from Systems Design to Integrated Delivery. Glenn Daves, director of packaging technology at Freescale Semiconductor is the keynote speaker. His talk about aligning packaging development with the needs of the market will set the stage. The luncheon keynote speaker, Mike Crawley, credited with introducing surface mount packaging to the US, will describe how being in the right place at the right time and paying attention to what is going on around you in the high tech business presents exciting opportunities.

Jim Walker, Gartner Dataquest leads the first of four sessions: Advanced Packages and Processes. Gheorghe Pascariu, of Unovis Solutions, will talk about high-speed placement of wafer-level devices. Rozalia Beica, Semitool, Inc. will present advances in 3D vertical interconnect using through silicon via (TSV) technology. Finally Simon McElrea, VP development and operations at Vertical Circuits Inc. will talk about the tipping point for 3D.

I will lead session two, Packaging to Board Assembly Trends. Jan Vardaman of TechSearch International will present the latest developments in packaging and the impact on board-level assembly. Tim Olson, Amkor, will talk about industry requirements and the latest packaging styles. Raj Pendse, Ph.D, of STATS ChipPAC, will hit on how packaging styles come about.

Session three, Microelectronics Substrate Fabrication and Assembly Innovations, will be lead by Dale Baird of Sierra Microelectronics. Bernd Appelt, of ASE (U.S.) Inc. will present substrate requirement options for 4th generation flip chip packages. Lex Kosowsky, of Shocking Technologies will cover embedded electrostatic ED solutions.

The last session, on design trends, is lead by Mary Olsson of Gary Smith EDA. Gary Smith, chief analyst at EDA, will go over design trends for 2008. An-Yu Kuo of Apache Design will present on co-design, and Per Viklund, Mentor Graphics, will present on chip-package-board co-design solutions for 3D integration.

I know, I know, I started out by saying that you’re already inundated by too much information, and then gave details on MEPTEC and Advanced Packaging’s latest packaging symposium on November 13. I may be a tad prejudiced, having helped put this together. Trust me; you won’t be disappointed. Honesty remains my strong point. See you in San Jose before turkey time.

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Gail Flower
Editor-in-Chief