Note: first priority for lunch seating is for registrants in the one-day seminar, "SOP vs SiP vs SOC: Technology Directions for Systems Implementation", being held concurrently at the Ramada on May 4. Consider registering for the full day of talks from Georgia Tech staff -- then your lunch is included!

Register & Prepay for lunch ($15) in one step from your PayPal account or Credit Card!

PLEASE RESERVE IN ADVANCE --

OVERVIEW:

IC and Systems Packaging has been a stepchild in the electronic landscape in the US for decades. This led the US to concentrate on ICs and Systems in design and, in some special cases, fabrication and assembly. The so-called packaging which includes IC packaging, component fabrication, system-level boards and assembly, therefore, became the focal point of Japan in the past, Taiwan and Korea in the recent past, and China currently. So what is the future of this technology in the US and elsewhere?

Most industry experts foresee fundamental limits to computing and integration limits to consumer and medical electronics. This has led industry and the research/design community to look for alternatives both in the short and long runs. In the short term, System-in-Package (SIP) and System-on-Package (SOP), which depend on "Package", unlike in the past, seem to offer potential solutions to the above challenges, thus changing the technology landscape from its stepchild mentality. But US companies have gotten used to not investing in packaging but rather to depend on the Far East. So, what is changing, if anything?

Currently, packaging is almost as big as ICs in total market size. Yet, most universities think of this subject as manufacturing and assembly, and without having a science base. The SIP and SOP technologies are fundamental and science-based and include RF, digital, optical, MEMS sensors, fluidics, nano and bio. Given this new perspective, who will educate the new breed of engineers necessary to keep the industry competitive?

Speaker Biography

Professor Rao Tummala is the Joseph M. Pettit Chair in Electronics Packaging, and Director, NSF Packaging Research Center at Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his B.E. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India and his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois. In 1968, he earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Tummala began a 25-year career at IBM (East Fishkill, NY), where he was awarded the IBM Fellow designation. At IBM he pioneered the industry's first multichip module and the gas discharge display, Ink Jet printing and magnetic storgage technogies. he received a total of 67 U.S. patents for these pioneering developments.

Dr. Tummala came to Georgia Tech in 1993 and wrote the proposal for, and was awarded, an NSF grant to establish and develop an Engineering Research Center in Microsystems Packaging called the Packaging Research Center (PRC). He is considered the pioneer of SOP Technology that is sweeping the Microsystems industry today. An internationally recognized leader in his field, Dr. Tummala is sought out as a keynote speaker for conferences held around the world. He is the author of four widely used Microsystems Packaging handbooks and has received countless awards and honors - - both internal and external to Georgia Tech.