12/18/2006  By Jeffrey C. Demmin, contributing editor

Two of the premier conferences in the semiconductor industry fill the calendar in early December: SEMICON Japan and IEEE's International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). Both events had some interesting updates for us.

12/14/2006  The SMTA will present awards and plaques to winners of best conference, proceedings, and international papers from SMTAI 2006, held in September in Rosemont, Ill. Two of the top three papers address advanced packaging.

12/13/2006  A non-conductive paste (NCP) underfill and encapsulant, Hysol FP5110 from Henkel adheres flip chip image sensor modules to 2- and 3-layer flexible printed circuits. Image sensors are a component in nearly half of mobile phones in production, according to Robert Chu, global product manager for CSP underfills.

12/12/2006  Debra Vogler, senior technical editor of Advanced Packaging and Solid State Technology Magazines, will speak at a panel discussion, "Industry Journalism in the Internet Age: Can It Survive?," on December 20 at the Northern California Business Marketing Association (NorCal BMA) lunch program.

12/07/2006  Pac Tech GmbH announced the purchase of a 53,512 sq. foot wafer bumping facility on Panang Island, Malaysia. The new company, Pac Tech Asia, will provide equipment and services for wafer bumping and wafer level packaging.

12/05/2006  Andy Mackie joined Indium Corporation as product manager for semiconductor packaging materials. Mackie, based at global headquarters in Clinton, will manage marketing of packaging products and report to the director of solder products.

12/04/2006  The electronics group of Henkel acquired Accurus Scientific Co. Ltd., based in Taiwan. The manufacturer produces solder spheres and type 1 – 7 solder powders for advanced packaging and PCB assembly. By acquiring a company headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Henkel gains technical and market support in that region, establishing a Taiwan base.

11/14/2006  Wafer-level packaging (WLP) may finally reach the mainstream for ICs, according to industry vendors and analysts at the 3rd annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference (Nov. 1-3 in San Jose, CA). Packaging leader Amkor showed that this technology will soon be applicable to ~85% of all ICs by unit volume, and should see market growth of 25% CAGR over the next five years. Analysts presented details of the markets and applications driving this slow revolution in mainstream packaging.

11/14/2006  Is the consumer-goods market directing packaging roadmaps? Will India eclipse China as the industry "hot spot," or will South Africa, Morocco, or another locale surprise everyone? Advanced Packaging recently asked the industry for its opinion on the state of affairs going into 2007. With emails and handouts at tradeshows, we reached out to a large base in the packaging field, and the responses vary as much as the technology.

11/03/2006  The Wafer Level Chip Scale Package Forum, a non-profit group focused on promoting the adoption of wafer-level chip-scale packages (WLCSP) semiconductor devices in consumer electronics products, met for the first time this week in San Jose to discuss WLCSP issues, and to establish industry sponsored "best practices" for their use.

11/01/2006  It’s amazing how much you learn when you reach out to others. My father often told me figuring out what I would do with my life was a quandary to him.

11/01/2006  SEASIDE, OR - The third edition of Flexible Circuit Technology features new technologies and applications that have developed over the eight years since the second edition was published.

11/01/2006  Tin is a common component of solders because of its desirable properties such as low melting point, high diffusivity, low surface tension in the liquid phase, and others.

10/31/2006  Silicon Microstructures Inc. (SMI), a Milpitas, Calif., silicon sensor designer and manufacturer, announced it has achieved ISO/TS 16949:2002 certification for its new six-inch MEMS production line.

10/23/2006  EV Group and Datacon Technology GmbH installed an EVG540C2W system at Datacon's application laboratory, for advanced chip-to-wafer (AC2W) development work.

10/19/2006  Flip chip and wafer-level packaging (WLP) usage is expanding into a broader range of devices, according to TechSearch International's report, "Flip Chip and WLP: 2006 Market Update and Technology Developments." The study finds flip chip and WLP growing by 24% from 2005 to 2010, and predicts that flip chip substrate limitations will be resolved by 2007.

10/18/2006  Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs) will dominate purchasing in semiconductor chips in 2006, primarily for PC manufacturing, says iSuppli report "ODM Semiconductor Spending Analysis." Quanta, Asustek, and Wistron — the top three spenders worldwide — are all based in Taiwan. All three also reportedly use the majority of chips purchased to make PCs, notably laptops.

10/17/2006  Enhancements to the Optimal SiP Analysis Suite, software used for system-in-package (SiP) design, include automatic port-mapping between chip and package models; combination possibilities for SiP, package, and PCB models through common meshing and IR visualization; and co-design support to reportedly enable unified 3-D signal and power integrity analysis of an IC.

10/17/2006  The SC-400 PreciseCoat conformal coating jet applies coating materials selectively onto small substrates or where tight tolerances exist between coated and uncoated areas. The jetting system substitutes for masking in situations requiring high accuracy.

10/12/2006  October 12, 2006 - Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. says it is entering the die bonder market with an agreed-upon $30 million acquisition of equipment supplier Alphasem, a subsidiary of Dover Technologies International Inc.