European Microelectronics
New Year, New activities
Happy New Year to all readers of AM, and welcome to the European IMAPS editorial.
IMAPS-Europe
Year 2000 was a busy but successful year for IMAPS-Europe. For the first time we have had a symposium in between the traditional biannual conferences. We introduced the IMAPS-Europe Symposium with a full technical conference and a well-integrated table top exhibition. The first Chapter to organise this new event was the Czech & Slovak chapter. The Symposium took place in Prague, Czech Republic, and it was in detail described in the September/October issue of AM. 186 people attended the conference and 36 exhibitors displayed their products. Encouraged by this success, the next Symposium is already planned. It will be organised by the Polish IMAPS Chapter and will take place in another historical city, the European City of Culture year 2000, Cracow, Poland. The Symposium will take place June 16-18, 2002.
No doubt it will be a similar success. The ELC, European Liaison Committee, had the pleasure in October to combine a regular meeting with a visit to Cracow to inspect the facilities. Indeed we were again astonished by the beauty and charm of this old historic city, once the capital of Poland. Now on the UNESCOs list of World Cultural Heritage, the cradle of Polish culture, art and science. Cracow has one of Europes oldest universities and it is a city with one-hundred thousand university students.
More info on Cracow will certainly follow when it is time for abstracts, etc.
The ELC has now a programme of annual European International events in place:
May 30 - June 1st, 2001. 13th European Microelectronics and Packaging Conference, Strasbourg, France
June 16 - 18, 2002. 2nd European Microelectronics and Packaging Symposium, Cracow, Poland.
June 23 - 25, 2003. 14th European Microelectronics and Packaging Conference, Friedrichshafen, Germany
For 2001 the main event is of course the Strasbourg conference. Strasbourg has a very attractive location, very close to Switzerland and Germany, and placed in the Alsace wine district. Strasbourg has excellent restaurants and hotels and you can enjoy the picturesque scenery not only in the city but also in the surroundings. The Technical Programme committee has just finished the voting for the technical papers, and we can promise you again a most rewarding event.
The ELC is also actively involved in promoting the creation of new chapters in Europe. Presently ELC is helping the possible foundation of IMAPS chapters in Russia and Spain. ELC is also welcoming IMAPS-Israel to participate in the European activities.
Peter Barnwell, Chairman of ELC, has full support to actively work on development of International activities and will work together with IMAPS NA and the International Liaison Committee for future closer cooperation and coordination.
EMS
The Electronic Manufacturing Services, EMS, industry is a very fast growing market. The EMS industry was in 1998 valued at 90 billion US$ and is expected to grow 26% per year, which will result in a 283 billion US$ market in the year 2003. Most of the largest EMSs are all U.S. based but again most of them have now European operations and are taking advantage of also the European outsourcing trends. In Europe most of the established EMSs have now been acquired by these largest EMSs, except for Elcoteq Networks, based in Finland. Elcoteq is the leading full European EMS ranging in the top 10-15 EMS companies in the world. Based in the Nordic housing some of the worlds largest manufacturers of mobile phones, Nokia and Ericsson, Elcoteq has focused on this Nordic specialty and is now the largest EMS manufacturer of mobile phones in the world.
Telecommunications play also an increasingly important role for Solectron, SCI, Celestica, Jabil, Sanmina, etc. Soon will we see or already now see these EMSs to enter and master microelectronics technologies like flip chips, micro-via boards, etc.
Here IMAPS should play a role and market well its offers. We therefore welcome all the EMSs to our world of microelectronics and hopefully we will see them at our conferences not only as delegates but hopefully also will we benefit having their presentations, learning about their manufacturing, quality, TTM and cost expertise and experience.
Søren Nørlyng
noerlyng@micronsult.dk
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