Forget the Disneyland Sidetrip - NEPCON 2002 Selects San Jose! Norwalk, Conn.-The sponsors of February's forgettable EtroniX show, successor to NEPCON West, are resurrecting the once-successful NEPCON event and bringing it to San Jose next year. The Reed Exhibition Companies (REC), NEPCON West sponsors, recently announced that EtroniX/NEPCON will abandon Anaheim, Calif., a popular convention spot and the home of Disney-land, in favor of San Jose's McEnery Convention Center. NEPCON West exhibits will be presented in San Jose from December 4-6, while the conference runs from December 3-5. For decades, NEPCON West was one of the largest and most popular electronics manufacturing shows. In 1999, however, a contingent of the largest equipment makers-including Cookson and Philips-pulled out of NEPCON West, citing its high cost of $38/square foot. Under the sponsorship of IPC's SMEMA council, the former NEPCON exhibitor group began the highly successful APEX show in 2000 in Long Beach, Calif., moving it this year to San Diego. Ironically, Long Beach was also the first site of the NEPCON West shows, beginning in 1965. "We think this move to San Jose is a positive one-not only for the event but also for the industry," said Pete DiLeo, the show's marketing director. REC will co-locate NEPCON with Assembly West and the Fiberoptic Automation Expo. [nepcon.com] IBM Predicts a Tubular Future for Transistors Yorktown Heights, N.Y.-IBM researchers have demonstrated the world's first logic-performing computer circuit within a single molecule using technology based on carbon nanotubes. The technology is seen as a true breakthrough in the development of smaller, faster and lower-power computer chips. The circuit is a "voltage inverter," one of three fundamental logic circuits that are the basis for all modern computers.
The inverter is fabricated from a carbon nanotube, which is a tube-shaped molecule of carbon atoms some 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. The research was disclosed recently at the 222nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago. The IBM researchers formed the "NOT" gate by encoding the entire inverter logic function along the length of a single carbon nanotube, thereby forming the world's first intra-molecular (single molecule) logic circuit. Top Candidate to Replace Silicon "Carbon nanotubes are now the top candidate to replace silicon when current chip features just can't be made any smaller, a physical barrier expected to occur in about 10 to 15 years," according to Dr. Phaedon Avouris, IBM's lead scientist on the project. In April, the same IBM researchers disclosed a technique to produce arrays of carbon transistors, bypassing the need to separate metallic and semiconducting nanotubes. Depending on their size and shape, the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes can be either metallic or semiconducting. The problem scientists faced earlier, according to IBM, was that all synthetic production methods yielded a mixture of metallic and semiconducting types. The two stuck together to form ropes or bundles. The utility of the nanotubes was compromised, however, because only semiconducting nanotubes can function as transistors. When stuck together, the metallic nanotubes overpower the semiconducting type. 'Constructive Destruction' The IBM researchers say they overcame the separation problem by using "constructive destruction." This is a technique that allowed them to produce only semiconducting carbon nanotubes, where desired. "The demonstration of gain in carbon nanotubes by Dr. Avouris and his team at IBM is a significant advancement in device physics, with potential for use in the march toward smaller and smaller devices," says Dr. Tom Di Stefano, San Jose, a former IBM manager and a pioneer in chip-scale electronics. He cautions, however, that one-dimensional devices, like the nanotube, are "still a long way from practical use. Low gain, in combination with its temperature and gas sensitivity, means that the device will face difficulty in meeting the tight margins needed in computational electronics." Dr. Di Stefano recalls the decades-long Josephson Computer project at IBM, which suffered from tight operating margins that ultimately rendered superconducting technology impractical.
Far-Reaching Consequences The development of carbon nanotube transistors will have far-reaching consequences for the semiconductor industry, says Prof. Guna Selvaduray, Chemicals and Materials Engineering Dept., San Jose State University. "When this technology matures and is employed on a commercial scale, the fabrication equipment will most probably be vastly different from what one sees in semiconductor foundries today," he adds. Dr. Selvaduray believes the assembly, interconnection and encapsulation requirements will also change markedly. New Issues "We have to begin the search for entirely new ways of interconnect and encapsulation. A new series of issues not faced thus far, such as thermal isolation or insulation, can be expected to surface. The materials sets can also be expected to change." SEMI's Dr. Dan Tracy views the IBM work as "exciting from the standpoint that advanced technologies, such as carbon nanotubes, will allow the semiconductor industry to follow Moore's Law in the decade ahead. "Obviously, molecular computers are many, many years away and much more fundamental work is still required." Dr. C.P. Wong of the Packaging Research Center at Georgia Tech, notes that in the "near future, when the lower limit on feature sizes (<0.01 µm) is reached, the requirement for a silicon alternative, such as carbon nanotubes, will arise." The new development shows "much promise in terms of research potential, but a lot of work must be done before it eclipses the advantages of using silicon. "Nevertheless, the IBM work will have significant application in the semiconductor field, as well as for interconnecting next generation ICs, which is a key problem for electronics packaging." - Ron Iscoff
Tessera Nixes Its IPO; Names Colella Senior Vice President San Jose-Pioneer CSP developer Tessera recently withdrew its SEC registration for an initial public offering. Mike Forman, Tessera's CFO, said "market and industry conditions" were responsible. Tessera filed for SEC registration in September 2000, with J.P. Morgan Chase as lead underwriters. The company also announced that Dr. Nicholas Colella has joined Tessera as senior vice president of operations, reporting to Dr. Bruce McWilliams, president and CEO. Earlier, Dr. Colella was chief technical officer and vice president of PolyStor, a lithium-ion battery company. He earned a doctorate in physics from Carnegie Mellon University. [tessera.com] Sponsors Cancel HDI Expo Atlanta-CMP has cancelled the HDI Expo, scheduled for September 24-27 in Phoenix, Ariz. The media company cited "the tragic events of September 11, as well as the inability of our exhibitors and attendees to travel." [hdiexpo.com] NEMI Launches Opto Initiatives for Electronics Assembly Herndon, Va.-The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) consortium has announced several initiatives to implement the use of optoelectronic components in electronics assemblies. The consortium is currently organizing an Optoelectronics Technology Integration Group (TIG), which will be headed by Alan Rae, vice president of technology for NEMI member Cookson Electronics. Projects, according to Rae, are still being defined, but are expected to focus on design rules for large, high-frequency circuits; test equipment and fixtures; accelerated reliability testing; and package standardization. Those areas were identified by a number of leading OEMs, EMS providers and suppliers who participated in a NEMI-sponsored meeting in Toronto in May. NEMI also recently launched two optoelectronics assembly projects. The first project is termed "Optoelec-tronics Level 2 Assembly Automation." This project will evaluate alternative attachment techniques, and will consider reliability, cost and yield. The project is expected to consider such attachment methods as laser selective soldering, low-temperature solders, conductive adhesives and Z-axis films to attach opto packages to circuit boards. The project is targeted at producing specifications for an attachment standard and developing cost models that reduce attachment cost by 10x. A second project is designated "Optoelectronics Level 2 Assembly Procedures." This project will develop cleanliness standards and guidelines for fiber handling-including cleanliness, splicing and connecting. The goal is to reduce fiber-handling process costs by a factor of 10. The project will deliver a handbook for fiber handling. [nemi.org] Asymtek Promotes Lewis to Director of Aps Engineering Carlsbad, Calif.-Alan Lewis has been promoted to Asymtek's director of applications engineering, responsible for managing the Customer Application Labs in Carlsbad and Amherst, Ohio. Lewis, who was most recently Asymtek's applications technology manager, joined the company in 1994 as a senior member of the technical staff in mechanical engineering. He earned a BSME and an MSME from the University of Missouri. [asymtek.com] Katraro Joins Shellcase as VP-Engineering/Technology Jerusalem, Israel-Reuven Katraro has been appointed vice president of engineering and technology at Shellcase, a provider of wafer-level CSPs. Katraro joined Shellcase from AVX, where he was an engineering manager. [shellcase.com] Unitek Miyachi Acquires Benchmark International Monrovia, Calif.-Unitek Miyachi Inter-national Ltd. has acquired Benchmark International (BI), a supplier of hermetic sealing systems, Goffstown, N.Y. Terms were not disclosed. Recently UMI also announced the formation of Axia Systems, dedicated to providing equipment and process help to photonic device makers. [unitekmiyachi.com] Asymtek/ESE Opens Demo, Training Center in Shanghai Shanghai-Asymtek and its distributor in China, Electronic Scientific Engineering, have opened a demonstration and training center. The 6,000-square-foot facility is sited in the Wai Gao Qiao FTZ in Pudong. The new center joins Asymtek's nine existing customer support labs, five of which are located in Asia. [asymtek.com]
NEXX Systems Formed in MBO of Former ASTeX Systems Wilmington, Mass.-NEXX Systems LLC has been formed through a management buyout of the former ASTeX Systems group from MKS Instruments Inc. MKS acquired ASTeX in January. For the immediate future, NEXX will lease space within MKS' Wilmington facility. The new company will market and manufacture ASTeX's Nimbus and Cirrus product lines, which include tools for under-bump metallization, backside metallization and the manufacture of high-density substrates and opto-electronics devices. NEXX is headed by Dr. Richard S. Post, former CEO and co-founder of ASTeX. [nexxsystems.com] Dow Corning Files New Patent Suit vs. TOK Midland, Mich.-Dow Corning Corp. has filed a second lawsuit against Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd. (TOK) for allegedly infringing three patents related to the use of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HDQ) resin technology and its use in fabricating ICs. The suit was filed in Korea with the Yeoju Branch of the Suwon District Court and charges TOK with infringing Korean patents 95925, 95931 and 282685. An original action by Dow Corning, filed in Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, is scheduled for trial in April 2002. [dowcorning.com]
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The location of Greatech Automation SDN Bhd, an equipment vendor based in Penang, Malaysia, was incorrect as printed on page 30 in the August-September issue.Copyright © 2001