Welcome to IMAPS 2006 in San Diego, California. While you are here, take some time to enjoy the sunny beaches, attractions, culture and culinary delights of this city as well as the intellectual and interactive opportunities provided by this International Symposium.

We have a full Technical Program with over 250 papers covering current and future trends in electronic packaging. The papers have been organized into 29 technical sessions, a translated Japanese to English session, two Interactive Poster Sessions, and a Student Poster Session. In addition, we are offering an expanded selection of the excellent Professional Development Courses for which IMAPS is widely recognized.

This year we are introducing three sessions focused on rapidly evolving industries that are vital to the San Diego area: RF and Wireless Packaging, Packaging for Military Applications and Biomedical Packaging. The remainder of the Technical Program is organized into Technology Tracks for System/Design, Materials, Reliability, Interconnect and Advanced Technologies. Specific session topics include Nano Materials, Cu/Low-k, Flip Chip Interconnection and Reliability, 3D Packaging, Sensors and MEMS, Thermal Management, Electrical Design/Modeling, High Density Boards, Advanced Ceramics and Metals, ROHS Compliance and Outsourcing, Integrated Passives, Pb-Free Solders, LED/SiC Packaging, Wire Bonding, Photonic/Optoelectronic Packaging, and Emerging Technologies. The Japanese to English translated session on Tuesday afternoon will focus on the nano technologies for next generation packaging.

While you are at the conference, please plan on speaking with the authors and reviewing some of the interesting papers that will be presented in the Interactive Poster sessions on Wednesday and Thursday morning, and the Student Poster Session on Wednesday afternoon. On Wednesday evening, the Global Business Council (GBC) has again organized the popular session on business issues in the packaging industry. With authors from Europe, the Pacific Rim and the Americas, this is truly an International Symposium. We believe you will enjoy and be enlightened by this Technical Program. We take great pleasure in presenting it to you.

We would like to thank the IMAPS National Technical Committee for an outstanding job of reviewing abstracts and setting up sessions. It was a difficult task; this year there were more excellent abstracts submitted than we could accommodate at the symposium. Andy Strandjord, our Technical Vice President, has greatly improved the infrastructure and process for reviewing, selecting, and organizing sessions. We would also like to thank our Session Champions who have been instrumental in identifying experts in their fields and soliciting abstracts, as well as chairing many sessions. Finally, none of this could happen without the invaluable help from our IMAPS staff members, in particular Brian Schieman and Jackki Morris-Joyner. Thank you all. We hope you enjoy the Symposium.

Rajen Chanchani
Sandia National Laboratories
chanchr@sandia.gov

Ronald Jensen
Honeywell Solid State Electronics Center
ronald.jensen@honeywell.com