Amkor Buys Silicon Valley-based Test Development House Chandler, Ariz. - Amkor Technology Inc. has acquired Integra Technologies, a privately held test software development company with 150 employees split between San Jose and Wichita, Kan. Integra, formed two years ago through a management buyout of the former Lucent Technologies Com-ponent Evaluation Technology Center, operates a 23,000 sq. foot facility in San Jose and a 20,000 sq. foot site in Wichita. The company specializes in developing and converting IC test software for most major platforms. Integra, according to Amkor, has aggressively expanded into test programs for mixed-signal and wireless communications devices to meet growing industry demand. Integra recently acquired Test Heads, a small Silicon Valley-based specialty test company. That company will be incorporated into the San Jose Integra facility when the agreement is finalized, expected to be mid-summer. Industry observer Harvey S. Miller, Palo Alto, noted that the planned acquisition appears to be a move to extend Amkor's reputation for IC assembly into the test area. "While Amkor has offered extensive final test options for many years, the company has never been known for-nor has it pushed - test in the past." Amkor said Integra management, headed by President Joe Holt, is expected to remain in place. Bruce Freyman, an Amkor corporate vice president, said the acquisition will enable customers to move seamlessly from test program development and verification to high volume test production in our Korea and Philippine facilities." [amkor.com] SEMICON West Celebrates 30th Anniversary San Jose - This year's SEMICON West, presented from July 10-14 in San Francisco and San Jose, marks the exposition's 30th anniversary. According to sponsor SEMI, all available space has been taken at the exposition's two venues, San Francisco's Moscone Center, and the San Jose Convention Center. San Francisco, home of the wafer processing segment, will host more than 2,800 booths from 1,100 companies. San Jose, site of the test, assembly and packaging segment, July 12-14, will showcase more than 1,300 booths from 580 exhibitors. SEMICON West also features nine days of technical and business offerings, as well as more than 140 SEMI International Standards committee and task force meetings. [semi.org] SEMI Pledges $1M to Technology Education Mountain View, Calif. - Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International has pledged $1 million to Silicon Valley organizations that are helping bridge the digital divide by working with local schools and teachers to prepare students for careers in technology. Five organizations will benefit equally from SEMI's gift. They are Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education, Synopsis Outreach Foundation, Jose A. Valdes Summer Mathematics Institute, Workforce Silicon Valley and the Charitech Civic Venture Fund. SEMI will award the grants to each organization at its 30th anniversary benefit gala, July 12, at Moffett Field.[semi.org] PackCon Expo Will Include Several Shows Mountain View, Calif. - PackCon, the SEMI-sponsored successor to Chip Scale International (CSI), is scheduled for the Santa Clara Convention Center from October 2-4. In conjunction with the exposition, the 25th IEEE/CPMT International Electronics Manufacturing Technology Symposium will be held October 2-3. MEPTEC's Microelec-tronics Packaging Technology Symposium is slated for October 4. The CSI replacement "has been refocused and expanded to include full silicon-to-system packaging and testing solutions, a recognition of the expanding breadth of new packaging and testing technologies," according to SEMI. Detailed information is available at the SEMI web site or by calling SEMI at 650.940.6905. [semi.org] Hestia Granted Underfill Process Patent Santa Clara, Calif. - Hestia Technologies Inc. has been awarded a U.S. patent for providing molded underfill for flip-chip packages. The technology enables complete underfill when using peripheral, partial or full array bumped die for flip-chip packages. The process allows users to mold BGAs and CSPs using a conventional transfer molding process.[hestia.com] IPAC Founder Named President and CEO of Taiwan's Apack Santa Clara, Calif. - IPAC founder Victor Batinovich has been named president and chief executive officer of Apack, Taiwan. Apack specializes in wafer redistribution, under-bump metallization (UBM), bumping, wafer-level packaging (WLP), CSPs and flip-chip assembly technologies. Batinovich reports to Richard Chuang, chairman of the Hsinchu Science Park-based company, which employs about 160 within a 250,000 square foot manufacturing area.
Meanwhile, Batinovich has also started Advanced Interconnect Solutions (AIS), a U.S.-based company that is currently looking for a manufacturing headquarters in Silicon Valley. Batinovich, who also founded ASAT and Swire Technologies, is temporarily working from offices in Santa Clara.
E.C. Ong has joined Batinovich as AIS co-founder and vice president of operations. Ong was also an ASAT and IPAC co-founder and was earlier director of U.S. operations for Swire. Y. Shimada, another AIS co-founder, is an AIS vice president and president of AIS Japan. He is also an Apack vice president. Funding for AIS, Batinovich says, is coming from several private and corporate sources including Apack's Chuang. The patented technologies employed by AIS are the result of a two-year development cycle, and are based on UBM and "the technology of the future-flip chip," Batinovich says. "Our Japan-based office and design center are near various key equipment and material suppliers with whom we have co-developed technologies that will allow us to compete with the wire bond cost structure," according to Batinovich. AIS will open its manufacturing facility during the third quarter. Initially, Ong reports, the company will occupy between 50,000-100,000 square feet with about 100 employees. [vbatinovich@icassembly.com] Valtronic Honored for Ultra-Miniature Packaging Les Charbonnieres, Switzerland - Valtronic, a multinational firm specializing in electronic miniaturization, was recently honored by the Swiss Omega foundation for its development of a unique process used to make ultraminiature electronic circuits.
The recognition was for applying Valtronic's patented "Minext" process to the creation of electronics for the world's smallest digital hearing aid, which measures only 4.5 x 4 x 3 mm. The hearing aid contains three ICs and 18 discretes. Minext (for extreme miniaturization) combines assembly and packaging techniques that result in component-dense, three-dimensional electronic modules. Populated circuit boards can be folded in many configurations to conform to very small product volumes. A flip-chip process, which uses a non-conductive adhesive to bond leadless ICs directly to rigid or flex circuits without soldering, is an integral part of the Minext process. [valtronic.ch] HD International Conference Plans Move to Silicon Valley Denver, Colo. - The HD International Conference, which met here recently, announced that it will hold next year's conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center from April 17-20. Exhibits are scheduled for April 18-19. [hd-international.com] Amkor, ST Microelectronics Install AkroMetrix Systems Atlanta - AkroMetrix has delivered package inspection systems to Amkor Technology, Buchon, Korea, and STMicroelectronics, Milan, Italy. Amkor has installed the AkroMetrix LineMoirÚ automated flatness inspection system, model PS16, a high-speed production unit for measuring the coplanarity of package substrates in trays or in BGA strips. ST has installed a model PS88 TherMoirÚ in-process warpage analysis system. The company will employ the unit to evaluate thermally induced mechanical behavior of packages. The unit is targeted at package reliability and PWB device interconnect. [warpfinder.com] Semiconbay.com Opens 'B2B' Site Sunnyvale, Calif. - semiconbay.com has opened a business-to-business platform enabling semiconductor suppliers and buyers to conduct procurement over the Internet in a "safe, efficient manner." Semiconbay's site provides a realtime link, permitting customers and suppliers to complete a transaction with a few clicks, according to the company. Suppliers can set up a system for each customer with individualized product, pricing, approval, payment and delivery options. Customers can also search the site for product information. "Our new B2B e-commerce marketplace makes the transaction process seamless for the customer and supplier. It is a neutral exchange that provides the technical content necessary to make a buying decision," according to Jim Peterson, semicon bay.com's vice president of e-commerce. Semiconbay.com's e-commerce site brings buyers and sellers together for online transactions. CS2 Readies Second Plant and Adds EVG Aligner Kortenberg, Belgium - Packaging Foundry CS2 has started construction of a second area-array packaging foundry a few miles from its existing facility in Zaventem. The site is expected to be in operation by autumn and ready for cleanroom qualification in November. The new location will house a 12,000 square meter (39,370 square feet), purpose-built structure, which will more than triple the company's cleanroom area to 6,000 square meters. The Kortenberg site will eventually accommodate 15 automated packaging lines, with a possible expansion to 25 lines. CS2 also announced that it will install the EV Group's model EV640 production mask aligner in its existing facility to increase its bumping and packaging capabilities. [cs2.be]
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