Voted 2nd Top Tourist destination for 2017 by CNN, Penang was the Asian center of the packaging universe in the month of September 2016. Its multicultural and picturesque historical setting coupled with its reputation as having Asia’s best street food proved to be an added bonus for conference participants and organizing committee alike. Amongst the clatter of Asam Laksa bowls, Nasi Kandar plates and abundant clinking of Teh Tarik glasses, rife conversations were on- going about the future of the globally connected world via numerous type devices in terms of security and possibilities. Packaging these devices at an affordable cost is a major challenge facing members of the Components, Packaging and Manufacturing technology (CPMT) society.

Since 2006, the IEEE CPMT Malaysia chapter was the main advocate of International Electronics Manufacturing Technology (IEMT) conferences, in conjunction with co-sponsor CPMT Santa Clara. The organizing committee members were volunteers from local multinational semiconductor companies such as Intel Technology, Infineon, ON Semiconductor, Carsem, Lumileds, Unisem, NXP, Peters, Indium and semi-governmental body CREST. The local universities members in this year’s organizing committee were from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). This year, the 37th International Electronics Manufacturing Technology Conference was jointly organized in concurrent with the 18th Electronic Materials and Packaging (EMAP) Conference on the beautiful city of Penang, a UESCO World Heritage site. G-Hotel was the elegant sea-front venue of the combined conference.

The conference was proud to have invited industry-leaders to share the latest industry trend and technology in its 5 short courses, 8 keynotes and 16 invited papers. There were 80 abstracts accepted for oral papers as well as interactive poster papers. The conference had always attracted >60% of the total abstracts from the industry and 30-40% of those were from abroad. This has served well for the conference as a platform for technology and knowledge exchanges within the electronic manufacturing community. Back in IEMT2014, the focus was on Internet-of- Things (IoT) and its application. This year conference’s theme was “Packaging the IoT”, an extension of the 2014 topic. This round, the focus was more skewed to the fundamental technologies that drive the development and enabling of IoT hierarchy. The conference provided insights into core technologies such as wire bonding material and processes, chip-to-package interconnection, solder materials and other materials development trends, and new reliability requirements. The new entrant to IEMT-EMAP conference series this year was the inclusion of LED packaging and the optical characteristics. All in all, this was the first time that the Conference had more than 450 participants, a major achievement in terms of attendance. Kudos to the core organizing team, especially the Publicity and Publication Team! Furthermore, there was a total of 21 table top exhibits and a record-breaking sponsorship this year – Fabulous job by the Sponsorship & Exhibit Team. Logistics and management of last minute changes, walk-ins, change of players were handled magnificently by the Secretariat team headed by Wee Teck and Hafiza! Not forgetting the excellent Program Book designed by the Program Chairs. Under the strong leadership of Dr Hin, all these various teams coalesced to handle a much larger crowd than expected.

The three-day event started with four short-course workshops for 144 people on the initial day. These courses were given by renowned technical experts invited from overseas. The courses were Chip to Package Interconnect Technology: Fundamentals and Future Trend by Mr. Charlie Lu Tsung-Hsing (Taiwan Printed Circuit Association), Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging (FO-WLP) – Innovative and Novel Solutions of Advanced Packaging by Dr. Seung Wook Yoon (Director of Products & Technology Marketing STATS ChipPac-JCET, Singapore), Copper Ball Bonding Materials, Intermetallics & Reliability by Dr. Christopher Breach (ProMat Consultants, Singapore), Achieving High Reliability for Lead-Free Solder Joints by Dr. Ning-Cheng Lee (Vice President of Technology, Indium Corporation) and Trends in Material Development – Upcoming Requirements concerning Reliability by Dr. Klaus Mueller (Senior Principal Infineon Germany).

The remaining two days comprised keynote speeches, invited talks, paper and poster presentation sessions from leaders of the industry. The conference was opened with a short address given by the IEEE CPMT President representative Dr. William T. Chen (ASE Group USA) who spoke on Heterogeneous Integration, expounding on the Roadmap to the Brave New Interconnected World. It was then followed by a series of excellent keynotes, namely the Development in Internet of Things (IoT) and Opportunities for “Packaging the Iot” by none other than Mr. Eric Chan (Intel Corporation Malaysia), Panel Level Embedding for Power and Sensor Applications by Dr. Rolf Aschenbrenner (Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability, Microintegration Berlin (IZM), Germany), Anisotropic Conductive Films(ACFs): Interconnection Technology for Wearable Electronics Applications by Professor Kyung Wook Paik (KAIST, Korea) and The Future of Power Device Packaging: Materials and Assembly Processes by Dr. Andrew Christopher Mackie (Indium Corp, USA) on Day 2 of the Conference. Final day of the conference witnessed additional exceptional keynotes such as Material Challenges for Optoelectronic Packages in Lighting Applications by Dr. David Lacey (R&D Director of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Malaysia), Technological Challenges and Market Trends for Power Packaging by Dr. Pierric Gueguen (Yole Dévelopment, France) and the closing keynote address Packaging and Integration Technologies for the Era of Internet of Things by Professor Ricky Lee Shi-Wei (HKUST Hong Kong). Dr. Lacey’s keynote was especially interesting to the participants coming from the LED industry as it was clear, simple and the futuristic work displayed was very impressive.

The conference’s four-track oral presentation sessions consisted of 64 selected papers and 16 invited papers from prominent guest speakers. Eighteen posters were presented by industry technologists at the main hall along with the exhibitions. The conference provided an opportunity for the participants to mingle and build network in various areas of electronic packaging.

IEMT has always been the battle ground for its prestigious awards. There are 3 Award categories – Best Industry Paper Awards, Best Student Paper Awards and Best Poster Paper Awards. The judges for these awards were experts in the areas of electronic packaging – Dr. Rolf Aschenbrenner, Dr. Klaus Mueller, Mr. William Chen and Dr. Sung Yi. The Best Industry Paper Award went to K.H. Loh et al of Carsem for “Qualification and Application of Pressure-less Sinter Silver Epoxy” with the runner up being Min Fee Tai et al from Atotech and UTeM with their submission, “EMI Shielding Performance by Metal Plating on Mold Compound”. The Best Student Award went to Robin Ong & Kuan Yew Cheong from USM for their work on “Non-Destructive Electrical Test Detection On Copper Wire Micro Crack Weld Defect In Semiconductor” with the Merit Award going to Nadhrah Murad et al for their submission “Effect of Sintering Parameters on Properties of Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Ni Solder Alloy”. The Best Poster was awarded to Chong Seng Foo & Jui Ang Tan from Intel Malaysia for their poster “Cost Savings Through Innovative and LEAN Engineering Approach for Wireless Modules”. The runner-up Poster Award was bestowed to Cheng Guan Ong et al from Infineon and UTem for their poster entitled “Effect of Cu Based Complexes on EFTECH64 and C194 Cu Alloy”. Congratulations to all the award winners!

No conference was complete without a Gala Dinner. The participants were treated to a sumptuous Buffet Seafood dinner at the 59Sixty situated at the pinnacle of Komtar, the tallest building in Penang. The Penang Heritage scenery was an eye-opener with view of the city layout, the old heritage buildings and the winding quaint Penang lanes. During the dinner, the participants were entertained with a Lion Dance, which was a challenge, given the space constraints, and cultural dance show from the diverse tribes and racial mix. A few of the participants were invited on stage to dance the bamboo dance where the participants had to jump between bamboo poles and not get entangled in the poles. Dr. Chee led our visitor volunteers in demonstrating this – the Malaysian equivalent of pole dancing! Bravo Dr. Chee! Many thanks to all our participants and visitors who made this event a major success!! We’ll see you all in the 2018 IEMT Conference!