Who’s Who at SEMICON Europa
11/01/2007
BY FRANÇOISE VON TRAPP, MANAGING EDITOR
For US-based editors of an international publication, SEMICON Europa was a great venue for meeting with industry experts, equipment and material manufacturers, and service providers we generally only communicate with electronically. Most things strange and wonderful revolved around developments in MEMS, wafer-level packaging, 3D integration, and meeting unmet niches in mainstream technologies.
Always on the cutting edge, IMEC offered a new twist - literally - on flexible electronics, introducing stretchable electronics. Developed at the research center’s associated laboratory at Ghent University, this technology is expected to pave the way for biomedical and textile applications with ultimate user comfort. Philip Pieters, Ph.D., director of business development, IMEC, explained the key is a spring structure of fine gold wire - which is the optimum shape for elasticity while maintaining an electrical connection - embedded in elastic silicone film. The next step is to incorporate the elastic interconnections into full electronic circuits.
Michael Smyth, international sales manager for Oxford Instruments, a UK-based company who’s core technology is in plasma etch and deposition tools for the front-end, is expanding into back-end processes with cryogenic etch for through silicon vias (TSVs). “It’s evident that the packaging of the device is becoming as important as the development of the device,” he noted.
Metryx, another UK-based newcomer, offers a tool for mass metrology that uses atomic scale mass change to detect build on product wafers. Mark Berry, sales manager, says this tool is targeted to 3D integration technologies - and specifically TSVs, which experience enormous mass change.
Leo Archer, Ph.D., VP emerging technologies for SEZ Group. talked about the company’s foray into back-end of line (BEOL) technologies with their next-generation DaVinci tool, which was developed to bridge the gap between the front-end-of line (FEOL) and BEOL to perform post deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) residue clean. He said the tool targets those who don’t need the complexity of FEOL technology.
At the Henkel booth, Josef Schneider, business manager for the company’s European semiconductor division, talked about their non-conductive adhesive die-attach film, which combines dicing and die attach processes into one product, thereby enabling stacked-die applications.
All in all, the synergy between the conference sessions and new product offerings was evident, further proving NXP Semiconductors’ Eef Bagerman’s statement that the pace of change in IC assembly is accelerating.
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Jean-Luc Delcarri, president, Altatech Semiconductor, shows Françoise von Trapp, managing editor, how molten metal alloys can be dispensed to form bumps on wafers down to 50 µm as close as 20 µm using Altatech’s wafer bumping printing and dispense system.
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Reinhart Richter, V.P. customer group, pictured here with Karl H. Funke, CEO and Barbara Loferer, marketing communications manager, explained Multitest’s MT2168 pick-and-place handler, designed to match the pace of shorter test times and parallel testing of the latest testers in the industry.
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Dubbed “3D Queen” by Brigitte Wehrmann, marketing communications manager, SUSS MicroTec’s lithography division, von Trapp draws the winner of SUSS’s lithography game. Wehrmann presents the coveted prize - an iPod Nano - to a happy Gerhard Bleidiessel, from Micro Resist Technology.
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Diane Weissbach, inside sales and marketing manager, RVSI talked about the WS3800 wafer inspection system, which offers 2D surface defect inspection and 3D bumped wafer metrology for the detection of nodules and craters in the surface of gold-bumped wafers.
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Smart Equipment Technology (S.E.T.), formerly SUSS MicroTec’s device bonder division, made its SEMICON debut. Shown here with the award-winning KADETT device bonder are Gaël Schmidt, president and CEO, and Guénaël Ribette, international sales manager.
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Patrick Milo, Hans Auer, and Andreas Dill, sporting Oerlikon ties (L-R), entertain guests during Oerlikon System’s wine and cheese party.
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Socializing at the close of the exhibition day is a SEMICON Europa tradition. (L-R) Sven Jarby, head of marketing and communications, Oerlikon, and John West, VSLI Research Europe, catch up at the well-attended event.
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Gerisch and von Trapp (center) visit with Aya Maria and Erich Thallner, founders and owners of EVG, and Thomas Fodermeyer, director of marketing and communications.
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Frédéric Pasche shows von Trapp the prototype hybrid tool collaboratively developed by Disco and Synova. Housed in a Disco base, Synova’s Laser Micro-jet (LMJ) is integrated next to the saw blade. The tool allows for either saw or laser dicing, or both. Not yet commercialized, the companies are targeting an end of 2007 launch.
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Mark Murdza, marketing communications director, for Antares Advanced Test Technologies, displays the company’s spectrum of test and burn-in sockets available to accommodate a variety of advanced packages.
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Demonstrating the latest in “hands-free” technology at EV Group’s reception, are, (L-R) Holger Gerisch, European sales manager, Advanced Packaging; Josef Meiler, Ph.D., sales manager, Europe; and Hermann Watl, senior V.P. sales, EV Group.