TC - 12: Technical Committee on Electrical Design, Modeling and Simulation

In this newsletter, we requested two of our renowned international committee members, Dr. Mahadevan Iyer and Prof. Hartmut Grabinski to provide write-ups on activities in Singapore and Europe.

---Alina Deutsch and Madhavan Swaminathan
---Vice Chair and Chair

SINGAPORE
1. Background :
The focus of Electronic Packaging in Singapore and the region has been in assembly and manufacturing in the eighties and early nineties. However for the past five to six years more and more emphasis is being given for Research and Development in different disciplines related to advanced component and system packaging. One of the key areas identified by Singapore Government and the MNCs and SMEs operating in this region is Package Design & Electrical Analysis. The consortia running in Research Institutes involving Singapore Semiconductor Companies, Assembly & Test houses , Design houses and other PCBA companies are examples of the growing Research & Development focus in Package & System Design.
Status
a) Interest Group
The commencement of TC 12 is very timely and is welcomed by Singapore. The formation & objectives of TC 12 were notified to many companies through the Packaging Consortium activities and Electronic Packaging bulletin at the Institute of Micro electronics .

Staffs from various Semiconductor companies & OEMs are enthusiastic to form Interest Group to discuss issues and work towards potential solutions in High speed digital package design & modeling, SSN analysis & Package Resonance , Assessment of different modeling & measurements (TDR & VNA based) used for the above. The interest group also want to address RF package design & modeling and Embedded passives. The Group is being formed as a part of TC 12 ( SE Asia) activities and we hope the items addressed in this group could be summarized and presented for the TC 12 meeting. Regular group discussions are being organized as a part of TC 12 activity.
b) Electrical Design Sessions in IEEE CPMT Packaging Conference

IEEE CPMT is organizing its 4th Electronic Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC) in Singapore during 5-7 December. As an effort of our group meetings and publicity we succeeded to have 11 abstracts in package electrical design & analysis from US, Europe & this region out of which nine are selected to run two sessions in the conference. This is a good sign.

We intend to organize evening talks within the topics & scope of TC 12. This could be independent or in conjunction with IEEE MTT .
c) Participation in EPEP

We started participating in EPEP since 1998 and hope to have more and more participation from this region in the years to come.
d) Co- ordination with TC 12 at Japan & Korea.

We intend to have more active programs with Japan & Korea and possibly with the support of TC 12 members in USA, we could have one or two day workshop/symposium. Initial discussions with Sudo San ( TC 12 coordinator Japan) have been done.
.e) Support from TC 12 members, USA

We constantly seek the support and guidance from TC 12 members USA in shaping good activities in this region. We also propose to have one of the forthcoming TC 12 meetings to be held in Singapore.

Thank You & Best Regards

Mahadevan K.Iyer
R&D Manager,
Advanced Packaging Development
Institute of Microelectronics (IME)
11, Science Park Road,
Science Park II, Singapore 117685
Tel +65 7705424 Fax: +65 7745747
e-mail: iyer@ime.org.sg

EUROPE

4th IEEE Workshop "Signal Propagation on Interconnects"
During the last four years, the IEEE Workshop on Signal Propagation on Interconnects (SPI) has been developed into a forum of exchange on the latest research results in this area. The aim of this workshop is to report on the most recent developments in the field of interconnect modeling, simulation and measurement on chips, boards, and packages. The event is also meant to bring together developers and researchers from industry and academia in order to encourage cooperation.
This year the workshop took place in Magdeburg, Germany. Magdeburg is one of the most historical cities in Germany. The founder of the Holy Roman Empire, Otto I (912-973), also known as Otto the Great, developed Magdeburg (first mentioned in the year 805) as his main residence, built an imperial palace and founded the Magdeburg Archbishopric.
The workshop hotel „Parkhotel Herrenkrug" is a historical building, firstly mentioned in 1676. It is located in a wonderful park near the Elbe river and belongs nowadays to the top ten German conference hotels. In this beautiful environment the 4th SPI Workshop was dealing with the topics
- Modeling,
- Numerical Methods,
- Radiation and Interference,
- Measurement Techniques,
- Simulation,
- System Design Issues, and
- Transmission Line Theory.
As in the previous years the workshop was dominated by many fruitful discussions following the presentations of continuous high quality. Details concerning the presentations can be found on the website https://www.tet.uni-hannover.de/SPI/index.htm .
Each of the first four SPI Workshops took place in different parts of Germany and the
organizers felt that it was time for a change. Therefore the 5th SPI Workshop will take place in Northern Italy in the spring of 2001. It will be chaired by Professor Flavio Canavero from the Politecnico di Torino, Italy.