Current Issue The International Reference for Chip-Scale Electronics, Flip-Chip Technology, Optoelectronic Interconnection and Wafer-Level Packaging January - February 2002 Email the editor

Gene Selven Publisher

A year of uncertainty and opportunity has begun with a degree of anxiety never felt before.

It's not back to business as usual, anymore. Since last year, budgets have been cut. Companies have been downsized. And restrictions have been placed on travel and spending-not to mention the uneasiness we feel through the continuing stream of terrorist and war news.

Where are the opportunities in the middle of all this? Where do we go from here?

Obviously, we have to find new ways to do more with less. There are many ways to reach your customers and the markets you serve. For example, the launch of new products-or new applications for old products-represents new opportunities to reach your customers in 2002.

These products can be communicated to the customer through many avenues: product press releases, direct mail, the Internet, trade show exhibits-and the way closest to my heart-through print advertising in a leading trade journal, such as Chip Scale Review.

It never ceases to amaze me how few product announcements we receive from companies in a down market. What a great opportunity to tell people that your company is moving forward!

This issue will be passed out in San Diego at APEX 2002, January 20-24. APEX is the kickoff event for the New Year and will provide us with the year's initial measure of attitudes and opportunities.

I would also like to invite those of you with a creative bent to get to work on original technical articles for us. While we review article contributions some 4-6 months prior to publication, we're always looking for good material.

An original article published under our imprimatur imparts the credibility of Chip Scale Review to your contribution-which has been edited, peer reviewed and edited again, before it goes to press.

The sad truth is that we have to poke, prod, cajole and even beg people to develop worthwhile articles for us. Please contact Editor Ron Iscoff today with your article ideas, or send an abstract to him at chipscale@cs.com.

In closing, let me welcome Terry Thompson to the Chip Scale Review staff. As editor-at-large, Terry will help us expand our coverage of people, products and processes, while he brings to readers the expertise he's developed in more than two decades as a trade journalist.

[gselven@ChipScaleReview.com]