Strategies in Light 2012 brought out the "who’s who" in Solid-State Lighting (SSL) technologies and capabilities.  Palomar Technologies exhibited among the 5000+ attendees (almost double the attendees of 2011) at the 13th annual Strategies in Light conference, held in the heart of Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention, February 7-9. Many attendees were just beginning to enter the market place and seeking answers to available materials, assembly process methodologies and challenges including cost reduction, power supply and heat removal.

New products, new materials and new approaches in the high-frequency electromagnetic spectrum seemed to be the common theme at the Feb 7-9 IMAPS RF and Microwave Packaging workshop. Held in San Diego, the IMAPS workshop hosted about 90 attendees and dozens of exhibitors.

Arrayed laser print heads, arrayed ink jet print heads, P-side-down laser and multi-channel optical communication products all require ultra-high placement accuracies of 1um to 5um.

As a Vermont resident, business travel is always welcomed this time of year. The sub-zero temperatures as of late certainly helped me head for the southern climates for IMAPS Southeast in Florida. The conference was held at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando—very nice facility, and great weather.

Der Gedanke einer Rund-Um-Versorgung endet bei Palomar Technologies nicht beim Kauf bzw. Installation und Abnahme des Fertigungsequipments, sondern ist angelegt auf eine langjährige, erfolgreiche Partnerschaft.

The rapid increase in the LED market (for notebook backlights, LED TVs and automobile headlights) is spurring heavy capital investments by LED manufacturers, primarily in the Asian regions: Korea, Japan and China. Nearly 135 billion high-brightness LEDs (HB LEDs) units shipped and 30 billion backlight LEDs units shipped in 2011, up from 100 billion and 20 billion in 2010, respectively.

I would like to take a moment and thank you for your subscription to the PTI Blog. I hope you have found each weekly post both insightful and thought provoking as the semiconductor industry continues to thrive and develop leading-edge technologies. This year generated a long list of timely topics, ranging from Hi-Rel Wire Bond Reliability to Pull Testers; Eutectic Wafer-Level Packaging to Gold-Tin Solders; and "Elemental Basics" for Interconnect Processes to simply staying on the “Technology Treadmill”.

Although there is continued effort in the semiconductor packaging industry to reduce package size along with the never-ending pursuit of cost savings, there remain a significant number of applications requiring a wildly different set of capabilities for die and wire bonding.

Since the early 1990s, halogen or xenon HID (high intensity discharge) lamps have been the most widely chosen light source in motor vehicle headlamps. Although a great advancement since the design of reflector optics, HID lights come with mixed reviews: an appreciation for the improved nighttime visibility combined with a concern of the produced glare. HID lamps also require a relatively significant energy source, putting vehicle owners at possible financial risk for replacing car batteries and burnt-out bulbs more frequently.

With the increased demand for improved functionality and miniaturization in portable hand-held devices—such as cell phones, PDA, digital cameras and laptop computers—original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrated device manufactures (IDMs) have joined forces to ensure enhanced chip performance without sacrificing valuable board real estate. Rather than use conventional single chip or multiple-chip type packaging, chip designers have turned to the assembly houses for multiple die stacking solutions. Stacking of die, such multiple memory chips, not only provides a reduction in overall package footprint, but a substantial improvement in electrical performance through quicker transmissions requiring less energy to drive the signals. This extends Moore’s Law and enables a new generation of tiny but powerful devices.