11/22/2005  Stamford, CT — FEINFOCUS, a COMET business unit, and Xradia, a developer of ultra-high-resolution X-ray imaging systems for 3-D tomography, have joined forces to develop an advanced 3-D X-ray inspection technology for the semiconductor packaging and medical device industries. The microXCT defect detection system uses non-destructive 3-D tomography to view the complete structure of advanced packages, scanning packages in 3-D at full resolution.

11/15/2005  By Françoise von Trapp, Advanced Packaging Associate Editor
Haverhill, Mass. — Like it or not, agree with it or not, or prepared for it or not, lead-free is a reality and it's time to get on board. This was the overall message at last week's Lead-free Technology Forum and Workshop. The event was sponsored by Dage Precision Industries, Ltd., and hosted by the Circuit Technology Center in Haverhill, Mass.

11/09/2005  By George Riley, Ph.D., Advanced Packaging contributing editor
San Jose, Calif. — The second International Wafer Level Packaging Conference, held Nov. 3–4 in San Jose, highlighted industry changes since last year. Talk was of rapid growth, new market opportunities, and technology improvements. The keynote speaker stimulated that enthusiasm by discussing the just-announced purchase of Shellcase Limited assets.

11/08/2005  By George Riley, Ph.D., Advanced Packaging contributing editor
Tessera Technologies' November 1, 2005 announcement that they will purchase the intellectual property and various assets of Shellcase Limited proves this chip scale package pioneer is determined to establish a similar leading position in wafer-level packaging (WLP).

11/03/2005  Clinton, N.Y. — Blackberry & Cross has become Indium Corp.'s newest representative in Central America, and will be responsible for selling Indium's solder pastes; rework fluxes; wave solder fluxes; flip chip and liquid fluxes; underfills; conductive epoxies; solder spheres; and fabricated solder products.

11/01/2005  A Consumer Electronics Case Study

10/06/2005  By Françoise von Trapp, Advanced Packaging Associate Editor
Projected industry growth, offshore migration of manufacturing, challenges caused by rapid developments in technology, and advances in nanotechnology dominated industry discussion at the 2005 International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) Symposium, September 25-29^th in Philadelphia.

10/04/2005  Utica, N.Y. — Indium Corp. is enhancing customer service resources in Malaysia, India, and the Philippines by promoting Sehar Samiappan to senior technical engineer, and by hiring David Vetharudge as area sales manager. These appointments should help to fully support customers in this region with experienced sales and tech support experts.

10/03/2005  San Jose, Calif. — August's Worldwide semiconductor sales made a sharp increase to $18.6 billion, a 3.2% increase from the $18.0 billion reported in July and a 1.7% increase from the $18.3 billion reported in August 2004, reports the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Year-to-date semiconductor sales through August, at $144.4 billion, are up by 5.8% over the same period of 2004 when total sales amounted to $136.5 billion, according to the SIA.

10/01/2005  High Electric-Current Density Testing

10/01/2005  FAIRBANKS, Alaska - The Office of Electronic Miniaturization at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has partnered with Tessera Technologies to use the company’s MicroBGA chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology for developing regional enterprise and government projects requiring reliable, industry-proven semiconductor packaging capabilities.

09/21/2005  London, England — Lead-free wafer bumping and electronic packaging are emerging as an effective means of creating better performance semiconductor devices and gaining a competitive edge in a crowded market, furthered by growing environmental concerns from authorities such as the RoHS Directive. End-user demand for low-cost products, fuelled by the influx of Southeast Asian companies, is also prompting European participants to up the ante in innovation.

09/19/2005  (September 19, 2005) San Jose, Calif. — Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT) has begun volume production of its RoHS-compliant flip chip packaged monolithic 512K × 36 (18-Mb) and 256K × 36 (9-Mb) network search engines (NSEs) with dual Network Processor Forum (NPF) Look Aside (LA-1) interfaces. This enables telecommunications equipment designers to reach line rate performance up to OC-192 and beyond, while also meeting the new environmental regulations.

09/15/2005  Shanghai, China — Intel Corp. has established Asia-Pacific Research and Development Ltd. (Asia-Pacific R&D Ltd.) in China, based in Shanghai's Zizhu Science Park, to help enhance local R&D capabilities and to deliver time-to-market, customized platforms and solutions for markets across the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

09/01/2005  Someone once said that to do the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

09/01/2005  It is with great pleasure that once again, Advanced Packaging Magazine congratulated the participants and winners of the 2005 Advanced Packaging Awards (APAs).

08/18/2005  Aug. 18, 2005 - Tessera Technologies Inc. has transferred its MicroBGA chip-scale packaging technology to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and to North Dakota State University. This licensing and transfer of technology is a part of the development of an advanced technology center on both campuses.

08/11/2005  Phoenix, Ariz. — RoseStreet Labs (RSL) has opened their 3-D Research and Development laboratory for next-generation semiconductor packaging. Along with their subsidiary, FlipChip International, they will develop new materials and processes for packaging used in wireless products. Also, RSL's alliance with SUSS MicroTec allows RSL to use SUSS' full suite of lithography and 3-D packaging equipment in the new lab.

08/11/2005 

08/10/2005  August 10, 2005 - Feinfocus, a Comet business unit and manufacturer of x-ray inspection systems, has entered into a technology alliance with Innov-X Systems, a Woburn, MA manufacturer of high-performance, portable x-ray fluorescence analyzers.