01/20/2004  (January 20, 2004) Pleasanton, Calif.—ASAT Holdings Ltd. and ASAT Inc., global providers of semiconductor package design, assembly and test, will provide flip chip land grid array (LGA) technology to Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Co. Ltd. (Hong Kong, China) for multimedia applications.

01/20/2004  (January 20, 2004) Chandler, Ariz.—Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. has chosen Amkor Technology Inc. to assemble and test single- and stacked-die chip scale packages for its broad range of advanced semiconductor devices, including microcontrollers, application-specific digital audio controllers and SoC ASICs.

01/16/2004  (January 16, 2004) San Jose, Calif.—Xilinx Inc. recently issued a product advisory potentially affecting certain lots of its Viretex-II Pro and XC2V6000 products using flip chip technology. The affected parts were manufactured using improper solder material that may cause random upset of device configuration.

01/05/2004  Venture-backed initial public offerings were up for the third quarter in a row, according to Thomson Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

01/01/2004  Each New Year brings with it a hope for continued growth and prosperity. This year is no exception. Let's face it; the last two years in electronics assembly have been grim. However, most signs point upward for 2004.

01/01/2004  To bridge the gap between biology and electronics in neurons on chip, IMEC, the University Hospital of Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel) researchers are exploring new transducer concepts, surface chemistry solutions and packaging techniques. We believe that the key to efficient and reliable ionoelectronic devices is surface chemistry.

12/31/2003  (December 31, 2003) Singapore—ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS), an independent semiconductor test and advanced packaging service provider, has appointed Eleana Tan Ai Ching as alternate director to non-executive director, Tay Siew Choon, effective January 2, 2004. She replaces Gan Chee Yen, who stepped down.

12/29/2003  (December 29, 2003) Singapore—ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS), an independent semiconductor test and advanced packaging service provider, has announced the formation of a strategic alliance with SimmTech Co. Ltd., a provider of semiconductor substrate material and telecommunications-related printed circuit boards (PCB) for substrate support and technology.

12/17/2003  (December 17, 2003) Taipei, Taiwan—Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. (ASE), a semiconductor packaging and testing company, announced that international semiconductor supplier austriamicrosystems' new low-power radio transmitter/receiver ASIC has been packaged using ASE's quad flat no lead (QFN) solution.

12/15/2003  (December 15, 2003) Tokyo, Japan— Fujitsu Ltd. has developed technology that enables the formation of ultrafine-pitch 35-micron solder bumps, and high-precision flip chip bonding interconnection—increasing connection density approximately 50 times compared to conventional flip chip interconnections.

12/12/2003  (December 12, 2003) North Billerica, Mass. — BTU International Inc., a supplier of advanced thermal processing equipment for semiconductor packaging, surface mount and advanced materials processing, has achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification.

12/01/2003  My wife and I have always been Sherlock Holmes fans. While not as exciting as Harry Potter, who can forget those old Basil Rathbone black-and-white episodes, or the newer ones starring Jeremy Brett and his slicked-back hair?

11/14/2003  (November 14, 2003) Chandler, Ariz. and Hong Kong, China—Amkor Technology Inc.and ASAT Holdings Ltd. have entered into a comprehensive patent cross-license agreement for their respective quad flat no-lead (QFN) packaging technologies.

11/13/2003  (November 13, 2003) West Lafayette, Ind.—A research team led by engineers at Purdue University and physicists at the University of Chicago has made a discovery about the formation of drops that could lead to new methods for making threads, wires and particles only a few nanometers wide.

11/01/2003  Flip chip assembly is a key capability to enable product miniaturization. Our previous studies have investigated several flip chip interconnection types, including anisotropic conductive film or paste, and Au-Au thermosonic bonding. This project focuses on the assembly of 0.200- and 0.250-mm-pitch solder flip chip devices.

11/01/2003  There is a rapid increase in the number of electronic packages using flip chip technology. With the ongoing expansion of the Internet, mobile phones, PDAs, desktop computers and laptops, digital camcorders, digital cameras and other electronic-based consumer products, the flip chip revolution is in full swing.

10/31/2003  Amkor's power SiP addresses thermal challenges
(February 3, 2004) Chandler, Ariz.—Amkor Technology Inc. is using its system-in-package (SiP) technology to solve the challenges of thermally demanding DC/DC power-conversion applications.

10/31/2003  Bell Labs' creation may enable laser-on-chip applications (November 3, 2003) Murray Hill, N.J.—A team led by scientists from Bell Labs has built a novel semiconductor laser that may have numerous applications ranging from advanced optical communications to sensitive chemical detectors.

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10/02/2003  September 25, 2003 - Semiconductor packaging and test firm ASAT Holdings Ltd. has relocated its US headquarters from Fremont, CA, to Pleasanton, CA.