I've found that the most difficult task in my professional career as an engineer, marketer, company founder, publisher and forecaster has been to write a few hundred words while working against a deadline. I guess I'm not alone in that respect. We all have deadlines; our advanced interconnect world is filled with them, since time-to-market has become the call to arms in the high-tech world. Yet, without these self-imposed deadlines (ours and our customers'), we would not be riding the wave, at the beginning of the new millennium, making our lives more entertaining (and more complex). The impact of our efforts, because of the speed with which we are creating, developing and introducing products, hardly seems to leave time to look over our shoulders to see "if anyone is gaining on us," as baseball legend Satchel Paige said, about 50 years ago. This issue is devoted to forecasting our industry's future-an ancient but relatively uncertain art. I want to thank the contributors for their insight and for their bravery in prognosticating. Forecasts like theirs help provide the roadmap to the future. But without the follow-through and feedback, it's like hitting a baseball: Keep your eye on it or you won't get to first base. It's the follow-through that creates legends (and businesses) that surpass the ability to predict what tomorrow will bring. The follow-through makes them happen! In the nearly four years that Chip Scale Review has been in existence, we have seen miracles occur in assembly and packaging technology. We are now seeing the closing of the ranks between the front end and the backend. Moore's law has led the way into the evolution of shrinking die size that has carried our industry to new levels of performance, cost reduction and applications. A tip of the hat to those of you involved with chip-scale packaging, flip-chip and wafer-level packaging and assembly, because you are the Olympians who will carry this country (and yourselves) to greater glory than you ever dreamed possible. Keep the dream alive and keep those technical breakthroughs coming. Best wishes for the new year! 
Gene Selven, Publisher |
