MEPTEC, the MicroElectronics Packaging and Test Engineering Council, formally announced it will hold its 3rd Annual Thermal Management symposium titled “The Heat Is On: Thermal Management in Microelectronics: Challenges and Innovations.”   This one-day technical event will be held on February 15, 2007 at the Holiday Inn San Jose (formerly the Hyatt San Jose).
 
The first MEPTEC thermal symposium in 2005 detailed the issues from all levels – device, package, board, and system.  The 2006 symposium focused on high-end microprocessors and video graphics processors, two key drivers of thermal management technology.
 
For 2007, MEPTEC will bring together many influential speakers from a range of organizations to discuss thermal management challenges and innovations which are important to companies throughout the entire product supply chain. The objective of this event is to help attendees understand the reasons for thermal challenges, as well as the technology that will provide solutions and enable the electronics industry to continue down the path of ever greater performance.
 
MEPTEC is pleased to have Jerry Bartley of IBM as the keynote speaker for this event.  In his presentation, “The Future of Thermal Engineering: Far from a Stand Alone Discipline”, Mr. Bartley will discuss the thermal engineer’s role in today’s product development cycle as calculations for non-uniform power dissipation and transient temperature swings have become much more important with the high power densities of today. Intimate interaction and cooperation with other disciplines such as electrical performance and reliability may make the competitive difference for a product.  The introduction of much higher processor capability into hand-held devices, games, and the like only serves to complicate the challenge.
 
Mr. Bartley has been with IBM since 1977 and is currently a Distinguished Engineer guiding first-level packaging teams at IBM’s Engineering and Technology Services organization in Rochester, MN.  Bartley is widely recognized as an expert on packaging and design trade-offs at all levels of integration.   
 
MEPTEC’s Symposium Advisory Committee has segmented the remaining program into the following focus areas:
 
Thermal Management Overview: Trends & Technology
Session Chair, Jeff Demmin, Director of Advanced Programs, Tessera, Inc.
In this session, leaders from a range of organizations will give their views on overall trends and challenges in thermal management from a variety of perspectives.  Roadmaps, case studies, new developments, and emerging technologies will illustrate where we are today, and what we need to do to meet upcoming requirements.
 
Issues in Design and Analysis of Advanced Packages
Session Chair, Thomas Tarter, Principal Engineer, Neophotonics Corporation
This session will discuss how thermal design and analysis techniques are being addressed to ensure satisfactory thermal performance for complex package structures and die level thermal issues (hot spots) which may also extend to system level thermal design work.
 
Thermal Effects and Solutions in the Back-end Operation
Session Chair, Mark Murdza, Director of Marketing, Antares Advanced Test Technologies
In this session we will highlight the nuances that thermal issues imply upon back end operations, how they impact costs, and the strategies that have been implemented within the industry in order to overcome these issues within various levels of back-end test operations.

Thermal Management in Challenging Product Applications
Session Chair, Nick Leonardi, VP Sales and Marketing, CMC Interconnect Technologies
This session will focus on the thermal perspective of a selected group of challenging products such as server racks, gaming, High Brightness LEDs and Opto-Electronics.
 
To register for or learn more about the symposium, please contact Bette Cooper at 650-714-1570 or bcooper@meptec.org or visit MEPTEC at www.meptec.org.