SMTA Oregon Event Spreads Its Wings

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Later in the morning, Prabjit “PJ” Singh, a researcher at IBM and a member of the iNEMI task force on Tin/Bismuth electromigration, discussed his most recent research.

Singh and his team have devised some creative testbeds to quantify the mechanisms and amounts of electromigration. Of particular interest was his discussion on doping Sn-Bi with other metals, such as silver.

Wrapping up the day was a panel discussion on the topic of “Emerging Trends in EMS.” Panelists represented Indium, Axiom, Intel, Cascade Systems, and Prasad Consulting. 

Packaging trends took up the largest portion of the session time in this rather lively session. Discussion included the acceleration in growth rate for BGA packages. One claim was that 90 mm x 90 mm BGA packages would, in a few years, be considered small. The merits of the Bottom Terminated Component package (BTC) were also a topic of much discussion, with a great deal of audience interest in what exactly a BTC package was.

For both of these very large packages, BGA and BTC, board planarity and package planarity are crucial to ensure first-time, every time, solder bonding. These planarity requirements, of course, have knock-on implications for PCB fabs, solder paste printing, package manufacturers, and assemblers who must ensure manufacturing temperatures do not trigger warpage.

The expo was well attended; the new event space allowed for plenty of space for exhibitors and attendees to mingle.

Given the caliber of the folks in attendance, the conversations were undoubtedly deeply technical and equally enlightening. SMTA Oregon is slated to return to the Wingspan Center in 2025.

• < Previous Page