Bangalore, India launches newest CPMT Chapter

(Compiled by CPMT chair: K Raghunathan)

India's newest CPMT chapter was launched in Bangalore on 10 December at the Texas Instruments India facility. Representatives from VLSI design, Package design, Board design, EDA, Test Services and Reliability analysis were in attendance to make it a successful beginning. Dr. Surendra Pal, President of the Bangalore IEEE presided over the function. Prof. Madhavan Swaminathan, Deputy Director of Georgia Tech's Packaging Research Center (GT PRC) launched the chapter. K Raghu Raghunathan (Texas Instruments) and Suresh V Subramanyam (Intel) with support from the local Industry, GT PRC & India Institute of Science, Bangalore organized the chapter.

The main goal for the coming year will be to raise the awareness of packaging related issues. An ambitious program was outlined to educate through introductory course followed by advanced topics in the areas of Electrical, Thermo-mechanical, Manufacturing and Reliability. The chapter is also planning to hold regular meetings along with tutorials. The audience feedback was positive with pledge for active participation in the events. EDAPS conference was identified as another opportunity to interact with other experts. IEEE Bangalore (Surendra Pal), IEEE/CPMT Global (Ralph Russell) and GT PRC pledged to guide and support the chapter initiatives.

The CPMT chapter recognized the petitioners and also the efforts of Marsha Tickman, Executive Director, IEEE CPMT Society to expedite the approval process were appreciated. Following were chosen as the office bearers for 2005:

Chairman: K. Raghunathan (Texas Instruments)
Vice-Chairman: Suresh Subramanyam (Intel)
Secretary: M. Saketuraman (GE)
Treasurer: Manish Rawat (Wipro)

The newly appointed Chairman Raghunathan outlined the priorities. They are

o Plan to raise the membership to reach critical mass
o Raise the awareness by means of tutorials, educational activities
o Join the Region 10 chapters and assist in the growth of the industry
o Looking for closer cooperation with other CPMT chapters
o Plan to organize a region wide conference in 2005
o Become a conduit for Indian industry to reach out to the global network

Dr. Surendra Pal provided an overview of the local IEEE chapters and extended his support in terms of getting experts for delivering lectures and also mentioned that he will support on fund needs for the CPMT chapter. P R Patel, from Intel, shared his thoughts that the CPMT chapter will serve as a platform to generate interest with the local industry and with knowledge sharing by experts from different domains happening as part of CPMT chapter lectures, it will help the businesses to integrate into the Semiconductor Packaging world.

Vice-Chairman Suresh Subramanyam in his vote of thanks requested the audience to make the best use of the local CPMT chapter and make it a successful one.