Happy New Year! If things shake out as most analysts expect, 2008 may turn out to be a good year for the semiconductor industry after all. We're seeing more analysts approach their forecasts with "cautious optimism," as Pete Singer points out in "2008: A Year of Cautious Optimism," based on a wide variety of socio-economic factors. You can read all about it here, and keep up with all the latest packaging news and events on our Semiconductor Packaging Technology Channel:

Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Editor
scolejohnson@mac.com

Interconnect Conference Expands Scope
Laura Peters, Lead Technical Editor — Semiconductor International, 1/2/2008

After celebrating its 10th anniversary, the International Interconnect Technology Conference (IITC) committee decided to return to its roots, according to Mike Shapiro, member of the technical staff at IBM (White Plains, N.Y.) and IITC publicity chair. "We've gotten a lot of feedback from participants indicating that they'd like a greater focus on the science behind the processes themselves, so we've added a section on individual unit processes, where researchers can compare material properties, different tools or planarization results, for instance." More

Inventors Develop PCB Mounting Member
US Fed News, 1/2/2008

Engineers at NEC Corp. (Tokyo) have developed a semiconductor package. According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Electromagnetic waves leaking from a power distribution circuit provided on a printed wiring substrate or in a semiconductor package are suppressed, and degradation of the waveform of a signal generated by a high-speed digital circuit." More

SPIL Develops Package With Heat Spreader
US Fed News, 1/1/2008

Researchers from Siliconware Precision Industries Co. Ltd. (SPIL, Taichung, Taiwan) have developed a semiconductor package-making method. According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method is provided of making a semiconductor package with a heat spreader in which a chip carrier module plate consisting of a plurality of array-arranged chip carriers is mounted with at least one chip on each of the chip carriers. A heat spreader module plate is attached to the chips, with an interface layer formed on a top surface of the heat spreader module plate." More

ASAT's Cash Flow From Operations Hits Two-Year High
CashFlow News, 12/26/2007

Cash flow from operations for ASAT Holdings Ltd. for its 12 months ended July 31, 2007, was $6.3M, a 7.7% increase over the year earlier for the same 12 months when ASAT generated $5.8M in cash flow from operations. More

Merrimac Sells Filtran Microcircuits to Firan Group
PR Newswire, 12/31/2007

Merrimac Industries Inc., a designer and manufacturer of RF microwave components, subsystem assemblies and micro-multifunction modules, announced that it has sold substantially all of the assets of its wholly owned subsidiary, Filtran Microcircuits Inc., to Firan Technology Group Corp., a manufacturer of high-technology/high-reliability PCBs. More

November Orders for Japanese Equipment Fall 0.5%
Jiji Press Ticker Service, 12/26/2007

Global orders in November for chipmaking equipment manufactured by Japanese makers fell 0.5% from a year before to 146.9 billion yen, down for the ninth consecutive month, an industry group said. More

Investments Pledged for India's Chipmaking Plans
Siddharth Srivastava -- The Business Times Singapore, 12/28/2007

India Inc. has responded to the new national policy on semiconductors with investment commitments of over $25B. The Federal Department of Information Technology estimates that investments of over $6B are already committed, with a further $20B being discussed. More

Carsem Offers Strip Test for Sawn MLPs
PrimeNewswire, 12/27/2007

Carsem now offers the ability to do strip testing of their Sawn Micro Leadframe Package (MLP) family using the TESEC 3270IH Film Frame Handler. More

Explosives on a Chip: Copper Used as Fuze
Staff — Semiconductor International, 12/27/2007

Tiny copper structures with pores at both the nanometer- and micron-size scales could play a key role in the next generation of detonators used to improve the reliability, reduce the size and lower the cost of certain military munitions. Developed by a team of scientists from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI, Atlanta) and the Indian Head Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (Indian Head, Md.), the highly uniform copper structures will be incorporated into ICs, then chemically converted to millimeter-diameter explosives. Because they can be integrated into standard microelectronics fabrication processes, the copper materials will enable MEMS fuzes for military munitions to be mass-produced like computer chips. More