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Advancing Microelectronics • Volume 29, No. 3 • May/June, 2002

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European Activities & Calendar of Events

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EU programmes & activities:

Low-Profile and Flexible Electronic Assemblies Using Ultra-Thin Silicon

– The European FLEX-SI and FLIBUSI Projects

Thomas Harder, Wolfgang Reinert
Fraunhofer ISIT, Germany

FLEX-SI

Today there is a strong trend towards the use of ultra-thin chips for smart card and smart label applications, power devices and advanced assembly techniques with paper thin and flexible packaging. Stacking of ultra-thin chips in multichip modules is required for low profile electronic modules, e.g., for memory modules and system-in-package. In the European FLEX-SI Project (IST-99-10205), the eight partners (Philips Semiconductors (A), W.S.I. (F), Datacon (A), Nokia (FIN), Oticon (DK), PAV CARD (D), Helsinki University of Technology (FIN) and Fraunhofer ISIT (D)) are working together on an industrial approach of low-profile packaging with ultra-thin silicon chips.

The FLEX-SI project aims at the development of different low-profile electronic packaging solutions based on ultra-thin flexible Si chips with a thickness < 50 µm. Therefore, industrial processes for the wafer thinning, handling and mounting/taping as well as shipping techniques have been developed. Furthermore, the materials properties of ultra-thin silicon especially the electrical performance of circuits under bending stress are investigated including the analysis of long term behaviour and reliability.

Derived from different industrial applications three ultra-thin packaging technologies are realized: multi chip module with active component integration into flexible substrates (MCM-L), chip-on-chip and chip-in-flex. The electrical interconnection is performed mainly by a small gap, flip chip technology. Demonstrators from different application fields employing these ultra-thin packaging technologies are assembled and qualified:

• Mobile telecommunication device employing MCM-L
  
• Hearing aid using chip-on-chip
  
• Identification system (smart label) with chip-in-foil
  

The main objective of the project is to provide industrial processes enabling ultra-thin packaging solutions and flexible electronic assemblies that will on the one side improve existing products, e.g., in mobile telecommunication and medical applications and on the other side will enable totally new products with hidden electronics.

Key issues

• Wafer thinning down to a rest thickness < 50 µm incl. the necessary stress release
  
• Material properties of ultra-thin silicon including the electronic performance of circuits under bending stress, long-term behaviour and reliability
  
• Improved test methods for (ultra-) thin wafers
  
• Industrial handling and shipping techniques for ultra-thin wafers
  
• Prototype equipment optimised to handle ultra-thin silicon, e.g., flip chip die bonder
  
• High density packaging technologies leading to paper-thin assemblies with the optimized processes for MCM-L, chip-on-chip, chip-in-foil
  
• Tested demonstrators with ultra-thin ICs working in their functional systems
  
  

Ultra-thin packaging solutions and flexible electronic assemblies will enable new products in the field of information and mobile telecommunication technology that will improve the quality of life of citizens as well as health, safety and working conditions. Both, information and telecommunication technology increasingly influence and determine human life. The integration of these fields will advance the functionality and improve the ease of use of electronic systems. Examples are wrist-watch communicators, a medical control unit that is carried at the body, hidden electronics as a protection against larceny, an integrated sensor module for monitoring the load affecting humans at their place of work, flexible identification systems attached to goods to enable the tracking of goods flow including waste disposal control and improving anti-counterfeit techniques.

FLIBUSI

As a spin-off from the FLEX-SI Project the Semiconductor Equipment Assessment (SEA) Project FLIBUSI “Flip chip die bonder for ultra-thin silicon” was initiated. In this project the prototype flip chip die bonder developed within the FLEX-SI Project is evaluated under close to production conditions.

Summary and objectives

The overall objective of the FLIBUSI project is to evaluate, improve and assess the Datacon flip chip die bonder for use with ultra-thin chips (~50 µm), including the evaluation of the die ejection process with different tapes and the flip chip placing process. Its effectiveness for high speed flip chip bonding of ultra-thin chips for smart label and power module production applications will be assessed. The performance of the equipment is evaluated under close to production conditions and assessed in terms of process quality, yield, MTBF, MTTR, uptime, throughput and Cost of Ownership. It will also be benchmarked against competitive flip chip die bonding equipment.

The FLIBUSI project also covers power electronics, another application field for ultra-thin silicon. For power electronics, thin wafers reduce the electrical resistance and therefore the power dissipation. The chip thickness required for power electronics is currently ~ 250 µm but is migrating towards the 60 µm to 120 µm range whilst smart card/label requirements currently in the range 150 µm - 120 µm are demanding 50 µm silicon thickness especially for smart label applications. Accordingly, the bonding of ultra-thin chips is a major development area for the mass production of low profile miniaturized electronic devices. The flip chip bonding of ultra-thin chips represents the latest development in the area of electronic packaging. The availability of automatic equipment that is able to work with ultra-thin wafers/chips is therefore a key requirement for industrial applications including identification systems, power electronics, mobile telecommunication, computers, consumer electronics and medical technology.

The main goal of the assessment project therefore is to enable enhanced use and performance of ultra-thin silicon by providing automated industrial equipment for flip chip placement on substrates. The equipment is installed and evaluated at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) in Itzehoe. The user PAV CARD contribute their smart label product to the evaluation. This is characterized by a small chip size of approximately 1mm2 and will have a thickness of ~50 µm. Danfoss Silicon Power provides a power electronics assembly application with larger chips (» 1 cm2) of 100 µm thickness. Both companies are participating actively in the assessment of this equipment.

Description of the flip chip die bond equipment for ultra-thin chips (modules)

The automatic flip chip bonder’s flexible modular design provides an integrated unit incorporating pick-up, flipping, dipping, dispensing and bonding. Each complete bonding unit can be used in parallel or sequentially, all controlled by just one user interface. It provides an enhanced placement throughput of ~ 2000-3000 components per hour from a single unit. For project FLIBUSI two modules are employed to address realistic performance and functionality issues.

Each module is equipped with a pick&place-head, which allows high precision movement with four degrees of freedom (x, y, z, Q). The substrates are automatically transported from the input system to the bonding location and on to the output system by means of the substrate transport. Wafers are presented in a wafer magazine and are automatically transported to a wafer table where single dice are removed from the adhesive tape by means of an eject system. A flip unit picks up the ejected dice and flips them by 180°. Afterwards the pick&place-head picks up the flipped dice, moves them optionally to the flux (dipping station), and finally brings the dice to the bond location on the substrate.

The strengths of the equipment relate to its flexibility for handling different “thin silicon” applications, and related processes while having high accuracy and an acceptable throughput. Enhancements have been made to the handling components (eject system, the flip unit, pick&place head, and software) to reduce the impact on thin dice and to enable fast flip chip cycles with very small dice on large area substrates up to 8-10 inches.

The work is carried out under the IST-1999-10205 Project FLEX-SI ´Ultra-thin packaging solutions using thin silicon´ and the IST-2001-32315 Project FLIBUSI ´Flip chip die bonder for ultra-thin silicon´ funded by the European Commission. The authors gratefully acknowledge their support.

Concentrated Information in the new NETPACK

As some might remember, there was already a Netpack project between 1994 and 1998. Being a “Network for the packaging industry” it was popular among developers as an opportunity to exchange information, especially within the European Packaging industry.

A third issue of Netpack will start now with a changed concept, financed by the European Union. In contrast to the former versions, Netpack has widened its approach in other European countries.

Each of the new partners ETH Zürich, the Technical University of Berlin in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IZM in Berlin, Acreo from Sweden and the Technical University of Budapest are responsible for four respective work areas. These four areas are providing an exceptional service for developers by concentrating information in one place.

Divided into four working groups the new Netpack deals with more than Networking. The Packaging Store, developed by the TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer IZM, is a database for developers. Producers of machines, materials as well as service providers can supply information about products and new developments to the Internet. Experts as well as newcomers can gather information from this database. Be it that little piece of information the expert just needs at the moment or be it an overview of the latest technologies. An innovative search engine supports the on-target search of most diverse information. At the same time information about companies and their offers can be listed.

The Packaging Store offers the possibility for companies and research institutes to present themselves to the relevant target group. Thus having the possibility to get new contacts and customers. Featuring a self entering and administrating information database the Packaging Store offers the opportunity to keep the entered information up to date to the information provider.

Besides the Packaging Store, Netpack also offers the Vision Lab, where researchers and engineers can exchange views and opinions concerning future developments in the field of packaging. As a kind of crystal ball the Vision Lab especially offers the opportunity to stimulate the creative thinking.

The Education Pool supplies scientists and teachers in the field of packaging with important and useful information on new literature for education. It also forms a newsgroup where teachers can form a community to exchange experiences and ideas. Furthermore this forum gives you some influence on how new teaching materials are designed and offers downloadable lecture material.

Netpack Club, the fourth area, is a rendezvous site that interactively supports networking activities and is especially interesting for people from the EU newly associated countries and prospective member countries. Here you can make new personal and professional relationships with other Europeans working in the same field.

The www.netpack-europe.org website in its final version will be available from mid 2002. Who wants to join Netpack as a supplier of information or as a member, or who wants to have more information about Netpack should visit the website, or contact kathrin.eckhard@izm.fraunhofer.de .

UK:

Meetings Programme:

• Advanced Manufacturing - September 2002
  

Location - Kingston University.

• Automotive Technology and Applications - Autumn 2002
  

Location to be announced.

Please check the details at the web: http://www.imaps.org.uk/

News from the Chapter:

MicroTech 2002, January 29-30, 02, Manchester.

The IMAPS-UK “flagship” conference MicroTech 2002 took place in Manchester. After previous years being held in London, it is now planned that it should circulate between cities, where the microelectronics business is located.

Apparently the microelectronics industry in UK is facing problems. Unfortunately very few people attended the conference, in spite of the interesting programme and nice venue.

The technical programme did this year focus on the two broad topics: Packaging & Encapsulation and MEMS and Special Applications. The Packaging & encapsulation papers addressed flip chip underfills and lead-free solders, and the MEMS sessions included thick film hybrids for automotive applications, RF flip chip modules and materials and technologies for embedded passives in LTCC.

From the Packaging & Interconnection sessions, some of the topics are mentioned:

Emerson & Cuming made a good overview on the important parameters for obtaining high(er) yields with no-flow fluxing underfill products. The important issues are PCB design, PCB prebake, dispense, component placement, reflow and post cure. Still post cure is required if a standard reflow profile is used and a robust process with wide reflow process window is the goal.

Cookson Semiconductor Packaging materials, presented a reliability study of no-flow underfills on three flip chip and two BGA/CSP vehicles. The test “chips” were mounted on FR4 with Cu/Ni/Au or Cu/OSP and also mounted on ceramic with AgPd metallised pads. The organic CSP’s were mounted on FR4. The reliability tests included drop tests. The conclusion was that the no-flow products resulted in reliable performance surviving more than 1.000 thermal cycles and shocks. The study was based upon eutectic SnPb solder.

Loctite presented a work on snap cure underfills for fine pitch flip chips. It has been found that for fine pitch flip chips (pitches below 200µm) a new failure mode is introduced. Shorting between the solder balls happens due to solder extrusion into underfill cracks arisen from the thermal shock tests.

Loctite presented another paper on Anisotropic conductive materials as underfills. A newly developed ACF with ordered particles has been shown to have better properties than the “normal” randomly dispersed particles when it comes to fine pitch applications. The new product results in good reliability for fine pitch flip chips.

For smart card applications where normally only 2 contacts with coarse pitch to the antenna have to be made, and where cost is an issue, ACF’s with stripes of conductors at the right locations are more economical than the gold particle filled ACF used for fine pitches.

From the MEMs and Special Applications sessions, the following topics were addressed:

Bosch, Germany, had a paper on European MEMS foundry services. Here the AMICUS (A MIcrosystem Manufacturing Cluster for European USers) was described together with the Bosch silicon surface micromachining activities for airbag accelerometers, peripheral acceleration sensors and angular rate sensors for navigation and roll over. The foundry service and the MPW (Multi Project Wafer) runs, prices vs. volume were discussed. It is planned to extend the foundry service to silicon bulk micromachining. With target applications as biological and medical devices with needs for channels, capillaries and grooves.

AB Mikroelektronik from the TT Electronics group presented a paper on thick film sensors for automotive under-hood applications. For the electronic oil-level sensors mounted on the motor block, the requirements are quite tough, meeting continuous operating temperatures at 150C and reliable functions for more than 15 years. AgPtPd conductor pastes and SnAgCu solder alloys for these tough demands were discussed. A high level of automation for all processes was shown to meet the economical constraints.

Nihal Sinnadurai presented a joint paper with Harry Charles on environmental conscious initiatives in Europe and USA. Product life cycles, energy savings, environmentally friendly materials, cleaning, lead-free joining, bio-compatible microcircuits to product disposal all have an impact on how to make electronic products more “green.”

IMEC, the Belgian research institute, presented flip chip assembly of RF GaAs modules. The technology is based upon gold stud bump bonding for the flip chip bump formation, and thermo compression bonding when the flip chips are joined to the substrates. Underfill is not required for the specific RF modules due to quite good TCE match between GaAs dies and the glass based MCM-D substrates.

Integrated components in LTCC structures were the focus for papers presented by Heraeus and MSE, Germany. High-k tapes and high-k pastes respectively were discussed for the possibilities of producing embedded or buried capacitors.

The final afternoon, a quite interesting “Market Watch session” took place.

For this session key industrialists were invited and after their individual presentations a panel discussion took place.

The Chairman of IMAPS-UK, Nihal Sinnadurai, introduced the session and the speakers. For the introductory paper- Packaging roadmaps for MEMS & Microsystems Technology - IMAPS-UK had invited Malcolm Wilkinson, TFI. Malcolm described the technology life cycles with its bell shaped curves. He described several MEMS applications and potential huge markets for these.

As an example, the drug delivery market was estimated to be a 19 billion USD market with its electronic dosage systems and its implementations requiring MEMS devices.

Paul Palmer from Loughborough University presented the PRIME Faraday Partnership and David Topham from Arts & Science gave a special overview of the UK microelectronics business. The impact of NEC to close down its wafer fab in Scotland and the influence of this for the total supply chain could result in future microelectronics development and manufacturing to be outsourced. The key message to the UK political leaders were very clear, that they have to act now, in case the want to utilize the facilities with the high class clean rooms for e.g. microsystems and if they want to keep the former specialists from this site and this area, before the expertise and possibilities vanish.

Paul Collander, Nokia Networks, described in his presentation the trends in packaging & interconnection in the telecom market with its many new products in the frequency range from 1.8-38GHz and beyond.

The Nokia statements were that even a superior technology might be questionable if no second sources exist. That MCM now sees a renaissance due to passive integrated substrates. That flip chips still are tomorrow’s technology due to availability and the behaviour of underfills at µ-wave frequencies. That integrated RF functions greatly add value as filters, couplers, dividers and baluns. That ceramics are very promising substrates for the integration of R, L and Cs.

The threat to the telecom exponential growth, is the lack of skilled RF engineers. Paul said that in year 2001, Nokia would have been able to absorb 2,000 RF engineers worldwide – had they been available and around!

SN

Italy:

Meetings Programme:

• 4-day course September 24th- 25th and October 8th-9th
  

Following the demands for high frequency (Microwave & Optoelectronics) systems and products that have been growing at a rapid pace, the 2nd IMAPS-Italy course will focus on the following aspects: EMI, Testing and Technology Assurance.

The courses are designed for production Engineers or Engineer managers and for university students from scientific areas who want to understand more about technologies and trends in rapid changing areas of microelectronics

It will concern particularly the following: EMI, Testing and Technology Assurance. For more information call IMAPS-Italian Chapter - Dr. L.Guizzetti (P.O. Box 210 - 27100 PAVIA – Italy

Tel. +39 0382 302859 - Fax +39 0382 27697 -E-Mail: pragmapv@tin.it or visit the web site: www.imaps-italy.org

News from the Chapter:

Please visit the new web site: www.imaps-italy.org

Benelux:

Meetings Programme:

IMAPS Benelux will hold its Spring event on May 31th, in “het Pand” in Gent, Belgium. The topic of this one day seminar is Optical Interconnect & Optical Sensing. For more information e-mail imaps.benelux@chello.be

Business Trade/Industry News:

Custom Silicon Configuration Services (CS2) - CS2 has filed for bankruptcy after the agreement of December 5th on a bridge-loan failed to materialise.

France:

Meetings Programme:

• 12th “Forum de la Microélectronique”
  

For its 12th issue, the annual event of Imaps France “Forum de l’Interconnexion et du Packaging Microélectronique”, will be held for the first time in the congress hall of Versailles (3-5 June 2002).

Cosponsored with new partners, ADEMIS (Association pour le DEveloppement des Microtechnologies et l’Intégration des Systèmes) and NEXUS, a European network for microsystems, the 12th Forum will be widely opened to the MEMS technologies and the related packaging solutions.

Before the opening of the usual conference cycle and exhibition, Monday 3rd of June will be devoted to R&D workshops. Several cooperative projects will be presented, which are supported by European Governments in the frame of two major EUREKA programmes:

PIDEA (Packaging; Interconnection)

www.pidea.com.fr

EURIMUS (Microsystems)

www.eurimus.com

Both of the workshops will be organised on the same frame:

• Presentation of the trends in the respective domains of PIDEA and EURIMUS (Telecom, Automotive, etc.)
  
• Presentation of R&D results in the current or starting projects
  
• Open discussions with potential partners in order to build new proposals.
  
  

News from the Chapter:

“Microelectronique en Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur“ a successful technical meeting.

The regional event of IMAPS France, this year, was “Microélectronique en Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur.” The 2002 issue was held, January 24th, on the technopole Sophia Antipolis near Nice, in the premises of “Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.”

The morning was dedicated to an outstanding technical session with six papers.

First, Augustin Coello Vera (Alcatel Space) helped the attendees understand the technology orientations, in the space industry, for both the giants telecom satellites and the smaller scientific or observation machines.

The talk of Guillaume Seroux (Cybernetics) described a European cooperative R&D project, dedicated to the development of specific conductive adhesives, for antenna integration into smart cards.

The third speaker, Henri Boccia (Gemplus), explained the impressive expected evolution of the smart cards, from the monochip memory to a multichip microsystem, with electric power, sensors, calculation capability and contact-less communication.

Jean-Marc Bureau (Thales Microsonics) presented a road map of the packaging solutions, for size and cost reduction of the SAW filters, from the traditional ceramic packages to Chip Scale and Wafer Level packaging.

The next paper by Christophe Brunel (Supratec) was a survey of resins and adhesives with short curing cycle thanks to UV activation.

Finally the session was closed by Alain Baroni (Framatech), who exposed the strategy of his company, for offering technology survey services, based on data bases, Internet and worldwide correspondents.

After a friendly lunch, the attendees were gathered in two groups, for the visit of the industrial facilities of Schneider Electric (manufacturing of printed circuit boards and control modules) and Thales Microsonics (SAW filters).

IMAPS France has to thank its local partners CARMA (Centre d’Animation Régional en Matériaux Avancés) and CREMSI (Centre Régional d’Etude de Microélectronique sur Silicium) for the perfect organisation of the event.

CARMA, a non profit society, offers technical support to its members, for advanced materials, including assistance, training, expertise.

CREMSI’s mission is to facilitate the transfer of microelectronics technologies to SMEs and to disseminate information thanks to conferences, data bases and networks.

More information? On IMAPS France? Events? Membership? Please contact:

Florence Vireton, Secrétariat IMAPS-France, 49 rue Lamartine - 78 035 VERSAILLES cedex

Tel.: +33 1 39 67 17 73 - Fax: +33 1 39 02 71 93

E-mail :

IMAPS.FRANCE@imapsfrance.org

New web: www.imapsfrance.org

The web site of IMAPS France has been recently restructured and improved. You will find short news, main events, IMAPS France membership registration on line and an open discussion forum.

Nordic:

Meetings Programme:

• 39th annual Conference 2002
  

The 39th conference will take place in Stockholm at Hotel Globen, September 29-October 2, 2002

The conference topics are:

Microelectronics applications; Trends in telecommunications; Ceramics for future electronics; Unique materials, encapsulation, and underfills; Microvia, HDI laminates; CSP, flip chips, area array packages; Bare die, MCM and 3D packaging; Future electronics, strategies, and R&D; Reliability assessment; Advanced interconnect; Integrated passives and System in Package (SiP); System cost assessment; Pb and halogen free electronics; Assessing environmental impact; MEMS, MOEMS, opto, medical, harsh environment applications; High frequency packaging; Break-through achievements in the Nordic countries.

The conference will this year be slightly changed from previous conferences. Still there will be excellent sessions of interest for the Nordic OEMs but as something new a special session for the important subcontractors with their “New Product Introduction” centers will be organised. The title of this special session is: “Introducing new technologies to the production floor.”

Furthermore a Workshop is planned titled: “Workshop on microelectronics R&D management” Monday, Sept 30. The plan is to have a panel of representatives from national R&D, financing institutes like NUTEK and TEKES, some top company R&D managers and EU representatives for the large Technology Funding Programmes. Discussing topics would include:

Very short statistics of microelectronics and packaging R&D volumes in the Nordic countries, public and private; Industry impact on guiding the R&D, big and small companies; Level of innovation in different types of projects (long term guiding contra innovation); The role of Europe and the Nordic countries; Global networking, R&D loosing boarders? Transfer of R&D results to production; Actual programmes and how to join.

Please find more info - at

www.imapsnordic.org

Business Trade/Industry News:

• ASPOCOMP AND PERLOS TO START A RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
  

Aspocomp Group Oyj and Perlos Corporation have agreed on founding a joint research and development company. The new company has been named Asperation Oy and its ownership will be shared equally between Aspocomp Group Oyj and Perlos Corporation.

Asperation Oy will focus on research and development of integrated components for the telecommunications and electronics industry. The objective is to produce innovations that both companies can use in their own operations. Moreover, the cooperation aims to cut down the time to market of development process and innovations. Already during its first year of operations, Asperation Oy is expected to produce commercially significant and value-adding solutions for the customers.

Asperation Oy means a new industrial approach in which combining various technologies and cooperation between companies brings new kinds of solutions for the increasing requirements of the electronics industry. With the help of Asperation, the owner companies are seeking to strengthen their position in the supply chain and to improve their ability to meet the challenges of a changing industry.

The new company will operate in the high tech community of the Helsinki area, and it will work in close cooperation with universities as well as research institutes both in Finland and abroad.

Both Aspocomp and Perlos will continue their own research and development activities. Aspocomp R&D will continue to focus on finding new ways to make use of new PWB (Printed Wiring Boards) technologies and materials in production as well as technical customer service. The main focus of Perlos’ research and development will be the further development of material, production and radio frequency technologies.

Aspocomp Group is one of the leading high-tech printed wiring board (PWB) manufacturers in the world. Besides PWBs, Aspocomp manufactures hybrid circuits and mechanical assemblies for mobile handsets, telecommunication infrastructure as well as the automotive and other industries. Production facilities are located in Finland, France, China and Thailand. In 2001, the company´s net sales amounted to EUR 220 million. The number of personnel at the end of 2001 was 3178. www.aspocomp.com.

Perlos focuses on the mass production of small and technically-challenging components and partial assemblies that must meet stringent accuracy, quality and finishing requirements. The company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of precision plastic and metal components, electromechanical connectors injection moulds, antennas and assembly automation.

Perlos´ subsidiaries Moteco and gigaAnt design and manufacture antennas for mobile phones as well as short-range antennas that are used in Bluetooth and WLAN equipment and similar applications.

Perlos offers its customers product development support, mould design and manufacturing services, automated assembly lines for use in production, and value-adding post-moulding services, such as painting, printing, protection, surface-treatment, automated assembly and handling and procurement operations. Perlos Group´s net sales in 2001 amounted to EUR 431.6 million and the number of personnel at the end of 2001 was 3334. The Group operates in Finland, Sweden, the UK, the United States, Hungary, China, Malaysia and Singapore. www.perlos.com

• Elcoteq strengthens its NPI services
  

Elcoteq is strengthening its network of NPI (New Product Introduction) centers in response to increasing demand for the services they provide. Elcoteq’s NPI centers specialize in engineering, industrialization and new product introduction, supporting Elcoteq’s network of electronics manufacturing plants on three continents.

Elcoteq has been building up its NPI service portfolio for the past two years. In recent months the company has decided to speed up their development through a special project. This will define the services offered by the NPI centers, their locations, the schedule for their expansion, and the competencies that they require to fulfill their role.

Within this context Elcoteq decided last autumn to convert its Lohja plants, which previously concentrated on high-volume production, into a NPI center focusing on product lifecycle management, design-for-manufacturability, engineering and repair services. The Lohja NPI center is also able to serve local customers with low-volume manufacturing needs. The same change was put into effect at the Überlingen plant in Germany. Elcoteq has decided to turn the Tallinn NPI center into a separate business unit from the Tallinn plants and at the same time to increase and broaden the unit’s range of NPI services. It has also been decided to build NPI centers in Beijing, China to meet the rapidly rising demand for NPI services in the Chinese market and in Monterrey, Mexico.

Appointments in the NPI network: Mr. Temmo Pitkänen MSc (Eng.), has been appointed Project Manager, NPI Development Project, reporting to President and CEO Mr. Lasse Kurkilahti. In addition to this new post he continues as Director, Engineering Services in the Terminal Products business area, reporting in this capacity to Mr. Christer Härkönen, head of this business area.

Germany:

Meetings Programme:

• German IMAPS Conference, October 7-8, 2002, Munich
  

Call for Papers

As tradition the German IMAPS-Conference 2002 will take place at the Technical University of Munich. You are welcome to submit a paper (approx. 20 min.) covering one of the following topics of microelectronics, packaging or interconnection technology:

• Materials & Technologies (Thick/Thin film, LTCC, Advanced PCBs, MCMs, FlipChip, CSP, COB, SMT)
  
• Design & Modelling (DFM, thermal/electrical/mechanical simulations, CAD-tools)
  
• Manufacturing & Processes (HDI-Processing, Large Area Processing)
  
• Applications (RF/Microwave, Pow- er Packaging, Automotive, Avionics, Advanced Packages, Medical)
  
• Quality & Reliability (Test and Inspection techniques, 1st/2nd level package reliability, qualification standards)
  
• Environment (Green materials, Lead free products, Product Recycling, Waste Recycling)
  

Please send your abstract (approx. 200 words) until May 31, 2002 to:

Dr. Jens Müller, c/o MSE GmbH, Schlegelweg 17, D-95180 Berg

Phone: +49(0) 9293 78 64, Fax: +49(0) 9293 78 41. E-Mail:

Jens.Mueller@IMAPS.de

You can also use the online service at: http://www.imaps.de!

• 14th EUROPEAN MICROELECTRONICS AND PACKAGING CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
  

Friedrichshafen / Germany, June 23-25, 2003

Please see the separate invitation and Call for Papers in this magazine.

Please visit the website: www.empc2003.de

Poland:

Meetings Programme:

• European Microelectronics Interconnection and Packaging Symposium,
  

IMAPS-EUROPE CRACOW 2002 - June 16 – 18th

Please see the separate pages in the magazine.

Please visit the website: www.itme.edu.pl/imaps.cracow2002/index.html

• 26th IMAPS-Poland Conference, Warsaw, 25 –27th September
  

We have the pleasure to inform you that XXVI International Microelectronics and Packaging Conference IMAPS-Poland 2002 will be held in Warsaw on 25-27 September.

This year’s meeting is organized by the Technical University of Warsaw and Institute of Electronic Materials Technology with participation of the Polish Society of Sensor Technique (PTTS) and the Section of Microelectronics of Committee for Electronics and Telecommunication of Polish Academy of Science.

The Conference topics include:

Hybrid and Semiconductor Technology; Design Methods and Computer Simulations; Electronics Materials and Components; Microcircuits Applications; Thick-Film and Thin-Film Sensors; Packaging and PCB; Quality and Reliability Evaluation; Thermal Management; Optoelectronics; Education in Electronics

The Conference presentations will be made in the form of:

Invited lectures; Poster Sessions for presentation of contributed papers; Exhibition of microelectronics circuits, materials, technology and measurement equipment

The Conference language is English.

All additional information concerning the Conference, you can find on our WEB pages, which are under preparation:

http://www.elka.pw.edu.pl/IMAPS-PL-2002

If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The address for correspondence:

Dr Ryszard Kisiel, Technical University of Warsaw, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warszawa

Tel.: +48-22-6607852, Fax: +48-22- 628 87 40, E-mail: kisiel@imio.pw.edu.pl

or Dr Magorzata Jakubowska, Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, ul. Wolczynska 133, 01-919 Warszawa

Tel. +48-22-8353041 ext.457, Fax: 48 39 12 07 64, e-mail:

maljakub@itme.edu.pl

So please note this event in your calendar. You are cordially welcome.

Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Magorzata Jakubowska

Hungary

News from the Chapter:

• Second International IEEE Conference on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and Photonics
  

You are cordially invited to attend Polytronic 2002, the 2nd International Conference on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and Photonics to be held in Hotel Balaton, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary, June 23 - 26, 2002. The IEEE Component Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society, the Hungarian-Romanian Joint CPMT Chapter, the Committees of Polytronic 2002 and the City of Zalaegerszeg look forward to sharing with you a program that that is hoped to exceed your expectations.

The Polytronic Conference series was launched by the CPMT Society and Fraunhofer IZM in 2001 with the aim to continue the successful series of IEEE workshops and conferences on adhesives and polymers. The new annual conference incorporates Polymeric Materials for Microelectronics and Photonics Application (POLY), Adhesives in Electronics, and Polymeric Electronics Packaging (PEP), making the Polytronic Conference the biggest event on polytronics world-wide.

Israel:

Meetings Programme:

• IMAPS - Israel bi- annual International Symposium, June 13
  

The IMAPS - Israel management team has decided that the IMAPS-Israel bi- annual International Symposium will be held in the Daniel hotel located in Herzeliya On Sea on June 13.

This date has been decided based on the scheduling reasoning used successfully for the previous two symposiums in years 1998 and 2000 - to hold the symposium basically during the week before the European Annual Symposium and thus most or all foreign visitors - especially overseas presenters - can combine these two events within practically one week of travel abroad.

Russia:

News from the Chapter:

• New web site
  

A new web site has been launched: www.imaps.ru; it is a bilingual English/Russian site with updates etc.

Slovenia

Meetings Programme:

• 38th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials, October 9-11, Lipica, Slovenia
  

The MIDEM 2002 Conference is organised by MIDEM - Society for Microelectronics, Electronic Components and Materials. The conference will be held in Hotel Klub, Lipica, Slovenia, October 9 – 11, 2002

Call for papers within the following areas are out:

Novel monolithic and hybrid circuit processing techniques; New device and circuit design; Process and device modelling; Semiconductor physics; Sensors and detectors; Electromechanical devices; Microsystems; Optoelectronics; Photovoltaic devices; New electronic materials and applications; Electronic materials science and technology; Materials characterization techniques; Reliability and failure analysis; Education in microelectronics, devices and materials.

LANGUAGE: The official Conference language is English.

IMPORTANT DATES: Abstract deadline : June 1st

ACCOMMODATION: The Conference will take place in the Hotel Klub, Lipica

Programme and Organizing Committee, MIDEM 2002 Conference:

MIDEM at MIKROIKS

Mrs Meta Limpel, Stegne 11, 1521 Ljubljana, SLOVENIA

tel.+386 (0)1 5112 221, fax. +386 (0)1 5112 217, email : Iztok.Sorli@guest.arnes.si

Contact person for the Workshop on OPTOELECTRONIV DEVICES AND APPLICATIONS

Mr. Darko Belavic, workshop chairperson, c/o Jozef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Phone: +386 1 477 3900, Fax: +386 1 426 3126, E-mail: darko.belavic@ijs.si

For more information on Slovenia, Lipica and how to reach the conference site, please see the following www sites:

http://www.matkurja.com (for Slovenia)

http://www.lipica.org (for Lipica)

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