Memories to Jack Balde
"We all miss you already"
Photos of a busy man
1. His favorite Newsletter column mug shot.
2. Jack cheering up the hard working CPMT Executive Director, Marsha Tickman.
3. Jack at a Flat Panel Packaging Workshop which he initiated and organized.
5. Applauding to a good suggestion from the audience, Jack gives guidance at an informal talk.
7. Addressing the Board of Governors with sage advice.
8. Giving a verbal "white paper"
10. A man projecting his ideas to a Society of Engineers.
11. Working long hours with other active CPMT volunteers
John W. (Jack)
Balde
1923 - 2003
Some knew him only as the rotund man sitting close to the front
of the meeting room, asking piercing technical questions of almost
all the presenters in a booming voice that needed no microphone.
Others were privileged to have known him for many years, working
with him on a book project, or a difficult technical problem,
or on the organization of a conference or a workshop on a new
cutting edge topic. Those working with him would always get phone
calls, or long messages on their answering machines, late into
the evening or on weekends, for Jack seemed never to stop thinking
about the problem at hand, or about how to organize an IEEE or
IMAPS activity on the latest technology, or about exactly what
speakers to put together in what order to make that activity the
best it could be. Those phone calls always ended with, "I've
got a funny for you…,"and Jack would launch into some
off-color story guaranteed to coax a laugh from even the most
puritanical.
Jack Balde passed away on September 8, 2003. It is doubtful
we will see another like him in our profession.
Jack was born on March 4, 1923, in Brooklyn, NY. He received
his BS in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in 1943. Jack began his career at Western Electric and Bell Laboratories
that same year, and in his first few years was awarded ten fundamental
patents in Tantalum Thin Film technology, the core technology
for thin film microelectronic hybrids. This early development
of hybrids, with precision tantalum-based resistors and capacitors,
led to the industry-wide use of hybrids for precision RF and military
applications.
He was later involved in flat under-carpet cable development,
which then became an industry standard. He led the IEEE standards
task force for this technology (mid-1970s), which continues in
widespread use. He received a special IEEE award for this development
in 1975. He later also led an IEEE task force on the use of silicone
gels as a means of environmental protection for integrated circuits
(1981 report), at a time when the norm for reliable ICs was expensive
hermetic packaging. In 1980, he retired from Bell Labs, and in
1981 founded Interconnection Decision Consulting, Inc., a firm
that has consulted for 200 clients.
In 1985 he led another IEEE task force on lead compliance in
surface mounted IC chip carrier packages, recognizing that the
high failure rate of these packages was due to improper lead design
and inappropriate lead frame material. Without the work of Jack's
group, the early-stage development of surface mount package technology,
now mainstream, could have come to a crashing halt.
Jack was an early proponent of MCM (multichip module) technology,
with a Spectrum article in 1985, one book in 1986, and another
in 1987 (both with co-authors). MCM technology was then only getting
started outside of mainframe computer companies. He developed
the nomenclature for the characterization of various MCM substrate
configurations, and led an IEEE task force on MCM standardization.
He spearheaded the establishment of a joint annual IEEE-ISHM-IEPS=EIA
conference on MCMs beginning in 1990, and was general chair that
year and active in every subsequent year. His leadership and
advocacy of MCM technology are responsible for the extensive use
of multichip packaging in many areas today.
In the IEEE, Jack led the CPMT-TC for System Packaging, which
he founded in 1968, for 34 years. (This TC started out as the
Computer Society Packaging Committee.) He was responsible for
organizing the annual Computer (now System) Packaging Workshops
for many of those years. The unique workshop format he introduced
enabled packaging professionals to form a strong sense of community
and collegiality. The informal nature of the workshops encouraged
communication that cannot happen at large conferences. He also
worked with CPMT chapters in Europe and Japan to begin similar
workshops, which continue on an annual basis, alternating between
Japan and Europe. His leadership was both organizational and technical;
his talks often set the stage for focusing the discussions on
cutting edge questions.
In other IEEE-related activities, he served on the CPMT Board
of Governors, and on the CPMT Fellows committee for 10 years.
He was a member of the Electronics Components and Technology Conference
(ECTC) organizing committee for 33 years.
Jack recognized that electronic packaging is a multidisciplinary
field, and that strictly IEEE activities could not encompass all
aspects of, and all professionals associated with, packaging.
Thus he was instrumental in forming the International Electronics
Packaging Society (IEPS) in 1980, to provide an avenue for the
interaction of EEs, MEs, materials scientists, and others involved
in packaging. He served on the Board of Directors for many years,
and was Chairman in 1982. He organized annual MCM workshops for
IEPS and IMAPS (the International Microelectronics and Packaging
Society) after the IEPS merger with ISHM.
Always on the cutting edge, Jack edited the book "Foldable
Flex and Thinned Silicon" for Kluwer in 2002. This advanced
3-D packaging technology may someday be widely used as a result
of Jack's involvement in bringing together the work of many early
practitioners in one place, just as his work has fostered the
development and widespread use of hybrid technology, under carpet
cable, non-hermetic IC packaging, surface mount technology, and
multichip packaging.
Jack received many honors for his career achievements, including
the rank of IEEE Fellow in 1989, the IPC President's Award in
1975, IMAPS Fellow and Life Member in 1997, the Founder's Award
from IEEE and IMAPS for establishing the MCM Conference, the IMAPS
Hughes Award for excellence in electronic packaging in 1999, and
the IEEE-CPMT Millennium Medal in 2000. But more important than
these formal recognitions, Jack captured the respect and admiration
of those who knew him well. Many have e-mailed some of their recollections.
George Harmon, NIST Fellow, wrote:
"We will all miss Jack, both for his contributions, and
as a person. In recent years he didn't travel to meetings as much
an in the past. However, as always, he used e-mail to convey his
wisdom to us. When a burning issue arose, he used his experience
to interpret it and advise us as to the best solution. I personally
looked forward to hearing his opinion. Often these were policy
issues, but also many on technical direction. When he disagreed
with the common wisdom, I observed that he was usually right.
He was an indefatigable organizer of conferences, workshops,
standards, and working groups across three Societies (IEEE, IMAPS,
IEPS) that I know of. I served on his IEEE Gel Task Force. As
chairman and with strong opinions, Jack could have dominated the
results, but he never argued when the vote went against him, accepting
the collective opinion as his own. I learned to admire him with
his objectivity in handling that committee. Above all, he was
honest with himself and his peers.
Jack served on my CPMT Fellow committee for about 10 years.
The members often had strong opinions, with large standard deviations,
but I always looked forward to Jack's ratings/comments. They were
well thought out, written, insightful, and extremely objective.
Jack, you will be sorely missed and well remembered!"
Eric Bogatin, CTO of GigaTest Labs, wrote:
"I first met him when I was a young engineer fresh out
of graduate school, in my first job at Western Electric's ERC
in Princeton. I remember the first time I ever saw him, everyone
was crowded in a conference room around a table and Jack was at
the center if it, explaining why multi chip modules were go-ing
to revolutionize electronics.
I was passing by the conference room and stuck my head in to
see why everyone seemed so excited. There were at least 20 engineers
standing around in rapt attention. I had never heard anyone so
passionate about a vision before. It was a passion that he communicated
to all those around him.
Since then, I have always been in rapt attention whenever I
have heard Jack speak. I brought Jack in as a consultant for me
while I was at Sun Microsystems and had the privilege of working
with him on his consulting team when I went independent.
Whether he knew it or not, Jack has been a mentor for me for
over 20 years and was the prime influence that steered me into
packaging technology and in particular, multi chip modules, where
I spent more than half my career.
I will miss his insights and he will be a great loss to the
packaging community."
Srinivas Rao, VP of Technology at Solectron Corporation, wrote:
"The message I just received on Jack passing away deeply
saddens me. I first came in contact with Jack about 14 years ago.
The issues then were MCMs. Anyone that has met with him would
agree the first impression one captures is one of size. However,
very quickly - once engaged in conversation as I learned - his
physical size was really small. What really impressed me (and
surely others would have picked the same) was the size and immensity
of his big heart. His attitude, passion and concern for technology,
solutions, and people were really his winning qualities. He had
a logical reason and concern for most anything, but he had an
extremely soft side towards people.
I will remember Jack for his technology passion just as much
as his 'guarded' compassionate (that he concealed at times) views.
I have enjoyed working with him on various occasions - Workshops
at Maine, Ojai, and Palm Springs.
I offer my condolence to his family. Jack, you ought to be
pleased to know that you have served well, been a good source
of knowledge and inspiration to many of us."
Dick Otte, President of Promex Industries, wrote:
"Jack was a major force driving technical progress in
our industry. His contributions will be sorely missed. The void
he leaves behind will have a major detrimental impact on our Con-ferences
and Workshops and IMAPS and IEEE.
Jack's contributions to our industry are hard to underestimate.
He was a major force to commercialize SMT technology, a major
organizer of Workshops and Conferences related to electronic components,
packaging and assembly, an important industry consultant, an author
of leading edge technical books, a major participant at industry
conferences, a visionary constantly seeking the best, most workable
directions for the technologies and, finally, a friend over the
years to many of us in the indus-try.
We, in the industry, owe much to his energy and commitment
to technical "truth".
Jack will be missed by many of us."
Don Brown, head of the IWPC, wrote:
"I've known Jack for many years. He and I co-authored
a book, "VLSI and the Substrate Connection" in 1981,
and then in the mid 80's he and I were on opposite sides of the
largest patent infringement lawsuit in the history of the US.
We served on the former IEPS board of directors together, and
worked together on countless activities. His wisdom, kindness,
vision and strength of personality were a beacon for us to follow.
For me person-ally, Jack was an unforgettable mentor."
IMAPS President Peter Barnwell wrote:
"Jack was remarkable man of whom I have many memories.
He was a demanding but always fair individual with great en-ergy
and vision. I had many discussions with him over the years and
he was a great help to me when I took over as President of IMAPS
last year. I will miss him greatly and he will be a tremendous
loss to our Society and particularly the Advisory Council."
Noted industry consultant Werner Engelmaier wrote:
"Jack's passing leaves a significant hole for me personally
and for our industry as a whole. I met Jack way back in my early
days at Bell Labs and I was part of Jack's IEEE Compliant Lead
Task Force when we all tried very hard to make SMT work. We had
many sessions together at the IEPS conferences and served as directors
together.
While I was never a member of Jack's team of consultants, he
was extremely helpful when I took early retirement from Bell Labs
and started as a consultant. Without him, I may never have had
the courage to strike out on my own. Jack, your wisdom, experience
and enthusiasm will be missed very much."
Retired colleague Tony Lubowe wrote:
"I first met Jack in 1971 when Bell Labs, in its wisdom,
set up an Interconnection Technology Laboratory, staffed by a
group of bright young people, almost all of whom knew nothing
about interconnection technology. The really wise thing was to
send us down to ERC to be trained (and entranced) by Jack. He
held court in the largest, brightest, best, corner office in the
building. (It took me a few visits to realize he wasn't at least
a VP. West-ern Electric's mistake on this was worse than mine.)
It was impressive how he patiently trained (and re-trained, as
needed) the hordes that descended upon him. We all did some good
work for Bell Labs, and AT&T, and Western Electric, and later
on, for many other companies, always with Jack available to answer
or re-answer a question.
When I decided to retire 26 years later, my family was afraid
I would go nuts without working. Jack took me on at IDC and for
a while I again enjoyed working with him. I appreciated Jack's
understanding on this also - it was clear to me (and us all) that
he loved consulting more than anything but his family.
Conclusion
That indeed sums up this hastily written, deadline driven tribute
to our late colleague, mentor, and friend. We have been blessed
to know Jack. We shall not see his like again.
Len Schaper, Professor, Electrical Engineering,
University of Arkansas --CEO, Xanodics LLC