Chip Scale Review asked top executives at 10 leading assembly and test suppliers to share their visions of the new century with our readers. Since the beginning of the semiconductor industry, more than 50 years ago, change has been the only constant (if you don't consider declining chip prices and increasingly complex chips). A quick read of executive opinion about 2000 and beyond, here and elsewhere, will indicate that we should look for more of the same. As Sir Isaac Newton observed in his first law of motion, an object at rest tends to remain at rest, and an object in motion tends to continue in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. In the past, the assembly and packaging industry has advanced far more slowly than the front-end lithography/wafer-fabrication segments. Finally, however, thanks largely to the non-stop growth of chip-scale packaging-and the increasing push for wafer-level packaging-the backend is catching up. Today, the inertia once so common to the assembly and packaging industry has been replaced by a vibrant, unstoppable drive to new heights of sophistication and performance. And ATE suppliers are rushing to keep up with the tough new demands from test providers-and the providers-customers. You may have seen the bumper sticker that proclaims, "Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way!" Look for the packaging industry to assume a natural leadership position in the semiconductor industry’s future, with chip-scale electronics at the helm.
Ron Iscoff Editor |
