Presidents Message

ECTC 2004

I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy the great 54th ECTC conference in Las Vegas, 1-4 June 2004. As you know, this conference is jointly sponsored by the CPMT Society and the Electronic Components, Assemblies and Materials Association (the components sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance). There were more than 1000 of us in attendance. The Technical Program of 39 oral and two poster sessions had over 325 papers. The program covered a wide range of topics, including: embedded optical interconnects, portable product reliability, 3D and high performance package design, flip chip bump reliability and electromigration, Pb-free flip chip interconnections, integrated inductors, wafer-level packaging and manufacturing, RF modules, reliability test methods, and electrical, thermal and mechanical modeling. Sessions were also included on the two new emerging technology areas of MEMS and nanotechnology.

The technical program was complimented by a plenary session featuring presentations on high density substrate technology, coordinated by CPMT High Density Substrates and Board Technical Committee, chaired by Yoshitaka Fukuoka of WEISTI, and a panel discussion featuring several industry perspectives on the emerging use of low-k dielectrics in integrated circuits.

As part of our new cooperative arrangement with NEMI, the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (discussed in the last newsletter) a special workshop was held on Tin Whiskers. The well-attended workshop provided the results of three NEMI-formed projects on 100% tin component finishes.

I'm sure you'll all join me in congratulating Pat Thompson, Program Chair; Steve Bezuk, General Chair; Donna Noctor - Vice General Chair; Eric Perfecto, Assistant Program Chair and all of the session chairs, professional development course instructors and speakers for a great week.

Global Representation:

As I shared with you in the last issue, one of my goals is to increase global participation in our Society. At our Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas, I introduced a motion to implement a process whereby governing board members are nominated and elected on a regional basis. The process will ensure that membership on the Board is proportionate to the geographic make-up of the CPMT membership. So if the Asia/Pacific Region has 30% of the CPMT membership -- it will have 30% of the Board elected positions. Candidates for these positions will come to the CPMT Nominations Committee from the region (chapters and leaders of major conferences) . Only members in a region will vote for the representatives of that region. When this is implemented, it will give us true representative governance.

The motion passed, and the Constitution and Bylaws Committee will draft the required changes (which must be approved by IEEE before they can take effect.) Assuming all things proceed as planned, the new election process will take effect with the election of Board in 2005.

Award Winners

The ECTC conference is also a time to recognize outstanding contributions by individuals. Congratulations go to all the award winners for the year 2004.

David Feldman Outstanding Contribution Award
Ralph W. Wyndrum, Jr. (Wyndrum Associates) for exceptional service to IEEE and the CPMT Society in various leadership roles for over 45 years.

Outstanding Sustained Technical Contribution Award
Luu T. Nguyen (National Semiconductor Corp.) for major contributions to wafer level packaging and lead-free packaging, and for research collaboration and technology transfer in the area of electronic packaging.

Exceptional Technical Achievement Award
Johan Liu (Chalmers University of Technology) for major research contributions in the area of conductive adhesives for electronic interconnect applications for a wide variety of industrial and consumer products.

Outstanding Young Engineer Award (co-recipients in alphabetical order)
Daoqiang Lu (Intel Corporation) for outstanding contributions to electrically conductive adhesives and advanced interconnect technologies and for supporting CPMT Society activities.

Shijian Luo (Micron Technology, Inc.) for outstanding contributions to underfills for flip chip packaging, and materials and processes for wafer level packaging and for supporting CPMT Society activities.

Lei L. Mercado (Intel Corporation) for outstanding contributions to the development of industry standards for electronic package reliability assessment, RF MEMS designs and copper low-k packaging and for supporting CPMT Society activities.

2003 IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging Best Paper Award

"High-Density 3D Packaging Technology for CCD Micro-Camera System Module" - published in the May 2003 issue

Hiroshi Yamada, Takashi Togasaki, Masanobu Kimura, Hajime Sudo

2003 IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging Honorable Mention Paper Award

"Thermal Analysis of Micromirrors for High-Energy Applications" - published in the August 2003 issue

Jianglong Zhang, Y.C. Lee, Adisorn Tuantranont, Victor M.Bright

2003 IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies Best Paper Award

"Thermal Management of BioMEMS: Temperature Control for Ceramic-based PCR and DNA Detection Devices" - published in June 2003 issue

Daniel J Sadler, Rajnish G. Changrani, Peter C. Roberts, Chia-Fu Chou, Frederic Zenhausern

2004 Chapter of the Year Award
Santa Clara Valley Chapter

Tom Tarter - Chapter Chair

2004 Student Chapter of the Year Award (co-winner)
Georgia Institute of Technology
Shashikant Hedge - President
Leyla Conrad - Student Chapter Advisor

2004 Student Chapter of the Year Award (co-winner)
University of Arkansas
Ryan Pooran, President
Fred Barlow, Steve Tung - Student Chapter Advisors

"…Don't leave your career to chance"

As I mentioned in my ECTC luncheon address, the draw of Las Vegas is gambling, the hope of hitting the long shot…crossing your fingers, closing your eyes and leaving your fate to chance. While this is a great attitude for gambling in Las Vegas, this is not how we should look after our careers. May I suggest that members aggressively seek out the opportunities that CPMT membership affords them, whether it be attending chapter meetings, attending the professional development courses and the technical sessions that are held each year at ECTC and other CPMT sponsored meetings around the world or simply networking with your peers from other companies who someday might think about YOU for that job opening that they have. So I encourage you -- do not become complacent in your career; do not leave it to chance. Leave the slot machine mentality in Las Vegas and invest in yourself. Take advantage of the opportunities your IEEE CPMT, membership affords you . And last but not least - enjoy your careers. These continue to be exciting times in the microelectronics industry.

I look forward to meeting and working with all of you during the next two years and thank you for your continued membership in our Society.