Issue

Margaret, who saw Alf, Ben and Chuck exchange sports cards, asked, "How many cards do you guys have?"

The packaging world has seen profound changes over the decades and we may be faced with another one shortly.

TOKYO AND PLEASANTON, CALIF. — Advanced Interconnect Technologies (AIT) and Nakaya Microdevices Corp. of Japan have created a joint venture to provide subcontract assembly and test services to Japan.

MEPTEC's latest one-day symposium, "International Wafer- level Packaging Conference: The Convergence of Fab and Assembly," focused on one of the hottest topics in the industry.

RIETI, ITALY — Assembly and test subcontractor EEMS Italia Spa is increasing its 300 mm capabilities by placing a repeat order for a 300 mm dicing and grinding system from Disco Corp. of Tokyo.

HSINCHU and KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN — Chipbond Technology Corp. and Fupo Electronics Corp., two Taiwan-based packaging subcontractors, will merge.

SANTA CLARA, CALIF. — Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE) announced a new wire bonding technology with three tiers of fine-pitch wire bonds.

SINGAPORE — Advanpack Solutions PTE Ltd. (APS), a packaging developer and contract wafer bumper, announced a new capability to meet the legislative restrictions imposed by the European Commission that require lead-free electronics packaging by January 1, 2006.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Unitive announced its intent to install a 300 mm production line and support for electroplated wafer bumping and WLP.

LONDON — The United Kingdom is not known as a critical location for semiconductor packaging, but there are numerous companies doing some very interesting work there.

For many years, semiconductor package marking commanded little attention and continued with little change.

Package and Board-level Reliability Analysis with CAE

Wafer bumping technology recently has attracted considerable attention in the high-end computing and networking markets, primarily because this technology has enabled high performance for high-density MPU, ASIC and memory device structures.

Multilayer thin film interconnect on a laminate substrate

Since the early 1990s people have been excited about a new generation of consumer electronics — a true "anything, anytime, anywhere" generation that would enable instant communications through a wide range of devices.