Title
Microelectronics Assembly and Packaging (MAP) workshop 2008 review
Joe Fjelstad
Microelectronics Assembly
and Packaging (MAP)
workshop 2008 review
The 8th International workshop on The event shuttles back and forth between surprisingly, on 3D technologies and
microelectronics assembly and packaging two venues, Fukuoka and Kitakiyushu through silicon via (TSV) solutions from
technologies was held in late November cities. The locations are very different, but around the world. The first technical talk
of last year and continues to be one of the both are picturesque, and the residents was, in fact, presented by Dr. Peter Ramm
best-kept open secrets of the IC packaging of both are quite friendly and a bit more of Fraunhofer, IZM Munich Germany, on
industry. The conference was the brain- relaxed than those in Tokyo. The cities are fabrication and reliability issues for TSVs,
child of Professor Hajime Tomokage of also a good bit less expensive than Tokyo based on work done for the European
Fukuoka University. Professor Tomokage as well. Commission’s ‘e-CUBE’ project. Dr.
is one of the most charismatic individuals Because the workshop is attended by Ramm reported that while there was still
one is likely to meet in this industry and is delegates from around Asia, the official work to be done, there were no foresee-
the engine the drives the event. He is also language of the conference is English, able showstoppers in the road ahead. His
a key person at the Asia Semiconductor making it embarrassingly easy for a native presentation was followed by one from Dr.
Trading Support Association (ASTSA) and English speaker to attend and participate. Wei-Chung Lo of ITRI in Taiwan. Dr. Lo
in that role has been successfully building The quality of the presentations is quite indicated that ITRI is making good strides
bridges around the Pacific Rim to help high, though there was a sprinkling of in their efforts and have been stacking
encourage the exchange of technical ideas some rather commercial talks, but even wafers and chips down to 50 microns. They
and concepts as well as market information they generally conveyed good information. also expect to successfully stack chip TSV
and opportunities through various memo- The invited opening talks centered on eco- solutions.
randa of understanding with other univer- nomic and business issues, with presenta- There were also, of course, presenta-
sities and associations in other countries in tions on the Indian semiconductor market, tions on the state of the art in Japan,
the region. The opening event this year, as the effect of the economic turmoil on with presentations by JEITA committee
in years past, included an opening signing the Asian IC market and the challenge of members Hirohisa Matsuki of Fujitsu and
ceremony of a memorandum of under- higher profitability in Japan, presented by Hirofumi Nakajima of NEC providing a
standing between the India Semiconductor Ms Shenoy, ISA; Colley Hwang, Digitimes, very thorough review of the development
Association, represented by its president, Inc; and Fumiaki Sato, Merryl-Lynch, and production status of TSV and stacking
technologies in Japan, including chip on
“The official language of the conference
chip (CoC), chip on wafer (CoW) and
wafer on wafer (WoW). They pointed out
is English, making it embarrassingly easy
that there is a cost element to these tech-
nologies that needs to be fully understood
for a native English speaker to attend and
but also held out the promises, which
could include a potential 35% reduction
participate.”
in power and a potential doubling of clock
frequency, which are not insignificant
considerations.
Ms Poornima Shenoy, and ASTSA, repre- respectively. The talks were interesting but There were other excellent presenta-
sented by Professor Tomokage, expanding not overly optimistic near term. tions on this topic, but there is need to
into South Asia the exchange. However, for the IC packaging profes- touch briefly on the other major topic of
This was my fourth year of participa- sional, the event was rich in content. This the technical conference, photovoltaics,
tion, and it is an event that I expect to con- year a substantial amount of the informa- which anyone who attended SemiCON
tinue taking part in, in the years to come. tion presented was focused, perhaps not West will attest was the major attraction of
4 – Global SMT & Packaging – January 2009 www.globalsmt.net
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