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SMTA International 2003 Show Preview
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
SMTA International will be held September 21 through 25, 2003, at the Donald Stephens Conventional Center in Rosemont, Ill., in conjunction with Assembly Technology Expo (ATExpo).
SMTA International is a world-class conference organized by the SMTA, featuring five days of technical sessions, tutorials, workshops, special events and symposiums on topics such as contract manufacturing, lead-free soldering technology, doing business in China, and emerging technologies.
Conferences and Tutorials
This year's conference features 36 full- (7 hour) and half-day (3.5 hour) educational courses led by industry professionals with extensive experience in the subject area of the course. Course leaders deliver focused, in-depth presentations on topics of current importance to the industry, based on their research and industry experience.
Tutorials are application-oriented and structured to combine field experience with scientific research to solve everyday problems. Tutorials are offered on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, providing the opportunity to attend the conference sessions as well as visit the exhibit floor.
Topics for Sunday include manufacturing and assembly, advanced packaging, substrates, soldering, process control, and contract manufacturing/business issues. On Monday, process control is added to the mix. Finally, on Thursday, topics covered include test, inspection and quality, as well as process control.
Technical Sessions
Organized by track and by day within each track, the SMTA International Technical Sessions are 1.5 hour programs in which three technical papers are presented under the direction of a chairman. Each paper is presented by the author on a topic related to the main subject of the session, and is followed by audience questions. The objective of a technical session is to bring new scientific and technical developments to light. Emphasis is placed on original, previously unpublished papers.
Topics for Tuesday and Wednesday sessions include manufacturing and assembly, advanced packaging, substrates, and process control.
Symposiums
The Emerging Technologies Summit, as well as three symposiums will take place during SMTA International. These feature paper sessions and panel discussions organized by industry experts, and are included with either a VIP or Technical Conference registration.
The Summit is a full-day event taking place Monday, while the Contract Manufacturing Symposium is a half-day event taking place the same day. Manufacturing Migrations to China is a half-day event on Wednesday, and the Lead-free Soldering Technology Symposium runs on Thursday as a full-day event.
Monday's Summit topics include: SiP/3-D, MEMS, laser dicing and singulation of MEMS devices, emerging technologies, wireless, DFN, stacked multi-device packaging, electronics manufacturing services, low-cost computing, bill of materials, and more.
Wednesday's topics include business and technology issues surrounding electronics manufacturers moving operations to China. The session will be followed by a panel discussion.
Thursday's topics include: lead-free and tin whiskers consortia activities, advanced materials for innovative soldering applications, process optimization for lead-free solder and conductive epoxy, and lead-free soldering reliability studies.
Workshops
Two workshops during SMTA International, both taking place on Thursday, are half-day (3.5 hour) courses taught by electronics industry professionals with extensive experience in the subject area of the program. The courses present current information and review existing theory and practice on a specific topic. Workshops are free to all technical conference and VIP Conference registrants, and are applications-oriented and serve as both a primer for those new to a technology and as a refresher course for those who need to review and update their knowledge. The first workshop discusses creating reflow soldering profiles for convection-dominant ovens and the second explains flex circuits and flex-based packages.
Special Events
SMTA Certification Programs. The SMTA recently launched two certification programs, one for SMT Processes and one for SMT Systems that are intended for engineers with at least one year of SMT experience and competence in engineering math. Both SMT Processes and SMT Systems will be offered September 22 to 25. The SMT Processes curriculum (September 22 to 24) covers SMT materials, SMT components, stencil printing, dispensing, component placement, reflow soldering, wave soldering, test and inspection, and line balancing. The SMT Systems curriculum (September 23 to 25) covers statistical process control (SPC), design for manufacturability (DFM), design of experiments (DOE) and problem solving/failure analysis. Each program is a three-day workshop consisting of refresher topics and course materials on the first two full days and examinations on the third day.
Emerging Technologies Summit. Held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, the Summit will discuss the world of emerging technologies. New players to the ET cast include nanotechnology. The nearly $1 billion National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is producing unexpected results in materials, circuitry, optoelectronics, computing and the new carbon-based electronics. Structures are so small that quantum mechanics takes over and new, valuable and unusual phenomena are being discovered every month. MEMS is still on the hot list as it moves into more areas and achieves greater success. MEMS technology is everywhere — in cars, toys, aircraft, cinema and even HDTVs. But hot new devices have no value unless they can be packaged and harnessed. Packaging is now in its final revolution as it moves to multichip systems. The package is achieving a new level of density resulting from stacking as many as 10 die in an efficient chip scale footprint. Experts will describe the latest packaging designs and tell why they are gaining popularity. Discussions on system-in-package (SiP) as well as much more will be included in the Summit.
Job Clearance Center. Taking place Tuesday through Thursday, the First Annual SMTA Job Clearance Center will be held in conjunction with SMTA International. The Job Clearance Center is soliciting local and national companies for job openings in the electronics manufacturing and supply industry. The Center will provide companies the opportunity to reach many technology and electronics industry professionals.
SMTA Annual Meeting/Keynote Luncheon. On Tuesday, from noon to 1:30 p.m., Brian E. Swiggett, co-founder and managing partner of Prismark Partners, will present "Prospering in a Reshaped Electronics Industry," which discusses how the reshaped regional and structural landscape of the electronics industry continues to challenge those companies that have not adapted to current market conditions. However, emerging technologies will open up a new world of materials, processes and equipment, and present the industry infrastructure with a whole new set of technical and business opportunities.
Panel Discussion. On Tuesday, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., SMT and Advanced Packaging Editor-in-Chief Gail Flower will present the panel "Predicting the Future for SMT Practices." The panel discussion will feature short presentations by industry experts discussing pick-and-place, solder, printing, reflow, test/inspection, and rework. The presenters will look toward the future, knowledge and experience-based speculation on how today's hot issues in electronics manufacturing will affect lead-free materials, optoelectronics, MEMS, Bluetooth, integrated manufacturing, process control software and EMS activity in China.
Networking Reception. The reception takes place Tuesday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and is ideal for networking with colleagues. This is a great opportunity to continue unfinished business, or just relax and unwind after a busy day at the conference.
NEMI Technology Roadmaps. "Guides For Manufacturing Competitiveness in a Changing World's Electronics Environment" will be presented on Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. until noon. The presentation will go into more detail about what makes up individual roadmapping chapters and how the process works to culminate in a complete document. The roadmap forecasts from 2002 out 10 years into the future on any gaps in projected needs of the OEM "Product Sector Champions" and the projected capabilities of the service providers tasked with supplying the requested capabilities. The information is timely because the 2002 Roadmap was formally released to the industry in April.
These and many more events are available — most free of charge — to conference attendees and exhibitors. Be sure to visit www.smta.org/smtai for more information on SMTA International, and www.assemblytechnologyexpo.com for more on Assembly Technology Expo.