IEEE/CPMT Dinner Meeting:

"Why Outsourcing IC Assembly is a High-Growth Industry" --
Tom Tarter, Director of Packaging Technology, AIT, Inc.

Wednesday, March 8, 2000
Subsidized buffet dinner ($15 if reserved before March 5; $20 after & at door) served at 6:30; Presentation (no cost) at 7:30.
New Location: Embassy Suites Hotel, 2885 Lakeside Drive (101 at Bowers Ave), Santa Clara -- see map.
PLEASE RSVP (for dinner and/or meeting) by email to Tom Tarter, or call our CPMT hotline at 800-686-9366.

OVERVIEW:

Penetration of the world IC packaging market by package subcontractors is still under 30% at over $8B/year. As semiconductor shipments grow, outsourcing will grow even faster. The reasons include: (1) new packages with need for capitalization, (2) time-to-market pressures, (3) growth of fabless IC companies.

One "new" package is the TBGA (Tape Ball Grid Array). Growth has been constrained by lack of 2-metal tape supply. Now expansion of 2-metal tape production is about to end that constraint. In the meantime, subcontractors such as AIT, ASAT, ChipPac, and Amkor have developed the specialties needed to fabricate and assemble this very cost-effective package.

Considering the pressures on IC companies to ship, to maintain and grow their market shares, outsourcing non-core competencies increasingly makes economic sense.

Speaker Biography:

Tom Tarter knows the assembly world from both the captive and subcontractor sides. He spent 15 years at AMD, recently as Supervising Engineer, Package Characterization Group. He is chairman of the JEDEC JC15 Committee on Package Characterization Techniques and past chairman of SEMI-THERM, which will be held in the Santa Clara Valley March 21-23.