Here the main figures in short: 688 (last year 608) exhibitors from 27 countries presented their solutions in electronics production (mainly board assembly and technologies along the shop-floor line), and to a lower extent in test, inspection and packaging technologies. According to organizer Mesago’s survey, 38% of the 25,000 exhibitors (same number as last year) came from outside Germany, but most of them from other European countries. For companies from the US and Great Britain, two national pavilions were provided. Despite the heat records in the smoldering, unclimatized halls, the exhibitors were reportedly satisfied with the number and quality of their contacts in general. There was even hardly any traffic between the stands after 3pm, because of the extraordinary high temperatures (felt like a pre-heating soldering procedure). Some of the quicker reacting exhibitors punctually provided their guests the comfort of cooling fans on their boths. A very much appreciated relieve in the soaring heat of these three SMT days. The R&D institute VDI/VDE IT with its 20 partners from industry and research showcased two production lines. One under the motto “Miniaturiza-tion in Microsystem Technology and Electronics”, the other titled “Sys-tem in Package & 3D-Integration”. The next SMT will be held in Nuremberg from May 6 to 8 in 2003, hopefully not under similarily high-temperature conditions. (gbw)
At the SMT, Phil Garrou of Dow Chemicals was honored for his role in the introduction of packaging materials, namely thin-film polymer BCB. The use of this material has enabled or accelerated advances such as wafer-level packaging, flat-panel displays and GaAs chips. Dr. Garrou and his team together with scientists at the Fraunhofer institute IZM/Berlin have developed low-cost wafer-level packaging into a worldwide standard.
