NEPCON Roundup

NEPCON West's Spectacular Exhibits Delighted and Dazzled;
Conference Program Underscored CSP's Mainstream Arrival

ANAHEIM, Calif. - From the skyscraper-like exhibits of Europe-based giants Philips and Siemens to the Northstar solder reflow ovens at floor level baking chocolate chip cookies for visitors, NEPCON was a grand event, as big and as noisy as ever.

While some exhibitors said the floor traffic seemed busier last year, there was no apparent shortage of visitors to the exhibit floor. Almost 1,000 exhibitors were packed into nearly 300,000 square feet of space in the Convention Center this year, compared to last year's 848 exhibitors filling 284,000 square feet.

To the organizer's credit, booth locations were dispersed - either by design or by accident--to ensure that exhibitors from one end to the other of the massive building were kept busy with a continuing supply of interested visitors.

Although his small booth was in the demonstration area, discretely away from the main throng and across from Giovanni, the Lord Technology magician, Farhad Banisalam, vice president of sales and marketing for Winslow Automation, San Jose, was a happy man. "I am amazed at the number of inquiries we've had here," a tired but contented Banisalam said.

Craig Lazinsky noted "a great deal of interest" in developments concerning flip chip, BGA and *BGA packages. Lazinsky, marketing manager for Speedline Technologies'Fluid Dispensing Systems in Haverhill, Mass., was an attendee as well as an exhibitor who kept a post at the mammoth Speedline Technologies' booth.

While many veterans have been to decades of NEPCONs, it was the first time for Ed Caracappa.

"As a first time participant at NEPCON, I was pleasantly surprised," said Caracappa, semiconductor industry manager for Acuity Imaging Inc., Nashua, N.H. "Competition in the SMT industry is driving suppliers to provide ever-improving capabilities. These have become the enabling factors in emerging technologies, such as chip-scale and flip-chip devices - which was readily evident in the equipment on display this year."

While show statistics weren't available at press time, NEPCON management predicted an increase over last year's 30,840 visitors.

The exhibits basked in the glow of visual appreciation, the real, but certainly more subdued star of the show, was the extensive technical program, most of which was held at the nearby Hilton and Hyatt hotels.

The program featured no less than 43 technical sessions, with two specifically targeted at chip-scale packaging--and many more of interest to the chip-scale electronics community..

Jean-Paul Clech, EPSI Inc., chaired a session on, "Quality and Reliability of Flip-Chip and Chip-Scale Package Assemblies, while Don Spigarelli, SRT, presided over "BGA/CSP/Flip-Chip Rework.

Beginning with last year's NEPCON, chip-scale packaging earned mainstream status at the conference. In addition to the technical sessions, one Professional Advancement Course (PAC) was devoted to chip-scale electronics, as were no less than five of the 48 half-day workshops.

Dr. John H. Lau of Express Packaging Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., chaired a NEPCON special event examining the roadmaps to chip-scale packaging and direct chip attach. In addition to Dr. Lau's talk, "DCA versus CSP," Dr. Elke Zakel of Pac Tech GmbH and Dr. Leo Higgins III of Motorola were invited speakers.

NEPCON West returns to Anaheim next year from February 21-25, with exhibits open from February 23-25. For more on NEPCON, see the Web site at nepcon.reedexpo.com.