European Activities & Calendar of Events:
News from CII-Europe:
The European branch of the Ceramic Interconnect Initiative, CII, was founded at the IMAPS Europe Conference in Strasbourg, France, May, 2001, with the objective to organise the activities of the Ceramic Interconnect Initiative in Europe. The organisation is formed by volunteers from a wide variety of backgrounds and company affiliations with the goal of promoting ceramic technology towards solutions in electronic interconnection. The CII has been working successfully in the USA for several years and its active members have organised a great number of advanced technical workshops and other presentations to the electronics industry with the purpose to create awareness of the possibilities that ceramic technologies can offer to electronics.
Promote your company and ceramic interconnect technologies by joining us! In the near future a list of companies, research and educational institutes active in ceramic technologies will be published on our web page. If you are interested to present your company on this page, all you need to do is to send a reply mail with your contact information.
There are no member fees or other commitments involved. CII is an open society to anyone from research to service providers and end users having common interest in promoting ceramic technologies on win-win basis. However, active participation, e.g., in ceramic workshops and other occasions to promote ceramic technologies is greatly desirable and is rewarded by visibility to you and your company.
To learn more about the CII, please visit our web-page at www.imaps.org/cii.
For the CII Europe,
Terho Kutilainen
Chairman
UK:
Meetings Programme:
• Advanced Manufacturing - September 12, 2002, Location - Kingston University.
This joint one-day meeting with the SMART group will cover many aspects and implications of advanced manufacturing techniques available to industry.
• Automotive Technology and Applications - Autumn 2002, Location — Silverstone. Date to be announced.
This one-day meeting will bring delegates up-to-date with the latest applications and technologies employed in the highly competitive automotive industry.
Please check the details at the web: http://www.imaps.org.uk/
News from the Chapter:
LAND HO?
Becalmed for days then there is a tiny ripple on the water, is there a breeze to follow? So hopes the anxious sailor as he thinks he just might find land before he falls lifeless into the bilge. Some in our industry say they can feel a tremor in the market, others say we must wait till the third quarter, some see an earlier recovery, some find the rises and falls quite normal, others say the industry will never be the same again. So what should we believe? Certainly the casualties continue to come. Simoco Digital Systems went into administration, PowerX Networks laid off 90% of its staff. Esat and Alcatel in Ireland are shedding 280 staff between them. Smiths group while remaining strong in communications has made about 500 more redundancies due to the decline in civil avionics.
Fortunately it’s not all gloom. Filtronic expects to expand its workforce in 2003 as they start chip production for BAe Systems and M/A COM whilst shipments of 3G products provide important income at the present time. In spite of nearly half the UK electronic design companies running at a loss through 2001, they predict a 1.8% growth in 2002. Start-ups particularly in the Opto sector continue to appear. Latest recipient of venture funding is Scottish based Essient Photonics whose product is a transponder that brings together an optical transmitter, receiver, serialiser and deserialiser where power is saved by a transmitter switched by 100mV. Another start-up, Polatis that makes optical switches, gained further funding and the Welsh Development agency started construction work on its £14m OpTIC project, which will open in 2003. Frontier Silicon is another start-up with potential as it launches low cost system-on-chip products for the digital radio and TV markets.
We have commented before on the lack of investment in R & D by UK companies but nevertheless the DTI puts the UK at the top of the league in high-tech manufacturing; its share of high-tech manufacturing exports heads the list of top seven industrialised nations. This has perhaps encouraged the government’s approach to the US Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) to play a key role in the DTI manufacturing advisory service, which hopefully will lead to greater competitiveness. New initiatives are about nevertheless another start-up 20/20 speech launching a text to speech software product aimed at handhelds and PDAs. Infinite Data Storage a start-up in Scotland will design its own chips to give it a better chance of licensing new products such as its CD-RW device for easing transition to DVD-ROM and DVD-RW. We even have three universities looking at a nose replacement in the form of odour sensors combined with signal processing components on a single chip. These are good times to be thinking of production costs and the leaflet produced by Environwise should be useful to PCB manufacturers who wish to save water. This guide is free by phoning 0044 800 585794.
Finally in the Hybrids area we note that Apta the new name for Hybrid Memory Products (HMP) is to offer a high speed substrate design and assembly service to include custom thin film circuits based on a low cost substrate technology and veteran Peter Ongley previously with Cookson and others in the industry is to head up Electronics Technology Services, the IC packaging company based in Bristol.
So it seems we must get the boat ship-shape and wait for the wind.
BCW
Business Trade/Industry News:
Morgan Advanced Ceramic, Ceramic Heat Sinks.
Morgan Advanced Ceramic announces the availability of ceramic heat sinks that far out perform parts made from Aluminium Oxide. Using advanced powder forming, CNC grinding and laser machining techniques, aluminium nitride components can economically be batch produced to very close tolerances and can be metallised and brazed. Aluminium nitride, which can be made into substrates as thin as 100 microns, has a thermal coefficient of 180W/mK and a coefficient of linear expansion 30% lower than alumina.
Italy:
Meetings Programme:
4-days 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 area who want to understand more about technologies and trends in rapid changing areas of microelectronic.
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:
PRESIDENT & BOARD ELECTION:
March 20th the election of the Italian Chapter Board took place with the following composition:
President, G. Carcano (Siemens ICN)
Vice-President, F. Cereda (IBM)
Secretary, J. Reina (Hybritec)
Treasurer, R. May (Microtel)
Ordinary Members:
GP. Calligarich (Electonmec)
C. Cognetti (ST)
G. Confalonieri (Ingramatic)
R. Dell’Acqua (Miteco)
G. Delrosso (Pirelli Labs)
C. Fossati (Mitel)
A. Gandelli (Politecnico of Milan)
E. Gramegna (DuPont)
R. Tiziani (ST)
Please visit the new web site: www.imaps-italy.org
Benelux:
Business Trade/Industry News:
IMEC -
IMEC is Flanders’ independent research center in microelectronics. At IMEC more than 1,200 employees and visiting scientists perform challenging, key technology R&D. With an annual research budget of currently 120 million EURO, IMEC has become a world class R&D and training center. In 2001, IMEC’s self-generated income rose by 22% to 91.1 million euro indicating that more and more companies tend to outsource or perform research and development in partnerships with other companies or research institutes to share cost, risk and knowledge. IMEC has recently opened a business development office in Shanghai, China, to ease the interaction with Chinese companies.
France:
News from the Chapter:
More information? On IMAPS France? Events? Membership? Please contact:
Florence Vireton, Secrètariat 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
Web: www.imapsfrance.org
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 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 will be held Monday September 30, titled: “Workshop on microelectronics R&D management.” 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 will 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 losing boarders? Transfer of R&D results to production; Actual programmes and how to join.
Please find the complete programme at: www.imapsnordic.org
Business Trade/Industry News:
Imbera Electronics Oy
Aspocomp and Elcoteq establish technology development company. Aspocomp Group Oyj and Elcoteq Network Corporation have today founded a joint venture that will focus on the development and commercialisation of IMB (Integrated Module Board) technology. The ownership of the new company is split evenly between Aspocomp and Elcoteq. This collaboration will enable the owner-companies to strengthen their respective market positions in the electronics industry supply chain and meet the challenges created by structural change in the sector.
Imbera Electronics’ objective is to develop an innovative production process where active components are integrated inside the printed wiring board (PWB) structure. This new production process will allow for an entire product or some of its functional parts to be integrated inside a PWB. The process combines Aspocomp’s high-tech PWB expertise with Elcoteq’s specialized electronics manufacturing and testing know-how. The new technology is expected to be applied in prototype production within a year. The use of IMB technology in demanding consumer electronic applications is expected to start up within three years.
Risto Tuominen, M.Sc. Engineering, Research Manager of Aspocomp Group Oyj, has been appointed Managing Director of the company, which operates out of Finland’s Espoo.
ASPOCOMP.
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 3,178. Further information at www.aspocomp.com.
ELCOTEQ.
Elcoteq Network Corporation is the largest European electronics manufacturing services company and one of the global leaders in its field. Elcoteq provides engineering and manufacturing services, supply chain management and after-sales services to international high-tech companies. The company has three business areas, which are terminal products, communications network equipment and industrial electronics. Elcoteq has manufacturing services plants in Finland, Estonia, Russia, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and China, as well as customer service centers in Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, Japan and Hong Kong. Elcoteq’s consolidated net sales in 2001 totaled MEUR 1,862 and the company has approximately 8,000 employees. Elcoteq Network Corporation was listed on the Helsinki Exchanges in 1997. More information about Elcoteq at www.elcoteq.com.
Germany:
Meetings Programme:
• German IMAPS Conference, October 7-8, 2002, Munich
According to tradition the German IMAPS-Conference 2002 will take place at the Technical University of Munich.
For programme details, please visit 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.empc 2003.de
Poland:
Meetings Programme:
• 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 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.
Please find all details at www.elka.pw.edu.pl/IMAPS-PL-2002
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
Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Magorzata Jakubowska, maljakub@sp.itme.edu.pl
Slovenia
Meetings Programme:
• 38th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials, October 9-11, Lipica, Slovenia
