July/August 2003

News and views for members of the ESD Association THRESHOLD TM News bits Symposium insights ..................... 1 Symposium program ................... 3 NARTE certification. ..................... 4 Symposium registration and fees 5 Exhibits. ........................................ 6 New program manager certification. .............................. 7 S20.20 seminar. ............................ 8 Symposium promotion opportunities ............................ 8 Calendar of events ....................... 8 Standards license ......................... 9 New standards documents .......... 9 Letters to the editor. .................. 10 Institutional listings .............. 11-12 In this issue ANSI/ESD S541 on Web site Packaging standard ANSI/ESD S541- 2003: Packaging Materials for ESD Sen- sitive Items is now available from the ESD Association. The new standard can be downloaded at no charge from the ESDA Web site, www.esda.org , or it may be purchased by contacting Association headquarters. The document defines the packaging properties needed to protect electrostatic discharge susceptible (ESDS) electronic items, discusses application requirements, and references the test- ing methods for evaluating packaging and packaging materials. Exhibit at the EOS/ESD Symposium Over 50 exhibitors have already com- mitted to the 2003 EOS/ESD Symposium. There is good space available, but it’s going fast. For information on exhibiting, contact Scien-Tech Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 2097, Banner Elk, NC 28604-2097; Tel: 828-898-6375, Fax: 828-898-6379. Volume 19, No. 4 July/August 2003 The 25 th anniversary edition of the EOS/ESD Symposium opens in Las Vegas in just a couple of months. For an “insider’s” view of what this year’s event has to offer, we talked with four of the individuals responsible for overseeing the 2003 Symposium: Joe Bernier, Inter- sil Corporation, general chair; Christian Russ, Sarnoff Corporation, technical program committee chair; Leo G. Henry, ESD/EMI/TLP Consultants, national tuto- rial chair; and Larry Ting, Texas Instru- ments, workshops chair. Here’s what they had to say. Threshold : Twenty-five years seems to be an impressive run for a technical confer- ence such as the EOS/ESD Symposium. What are some of the factors that help the Symposium continue to attract techni- cal presentations as well as attendees year after year? Bernier: The Symposium is the best source for ESD information and solutions across the board. For 25 years we have brought together the experts in the field to share their knowledge, understand- ing, and ideas. Our university outreach helps attract leading edge papers from academia. The Symposium Pro- ceedings are refer- enced frequently and people want to contribute to this knowledge base. Attendees want to be here for the presen- tations by the leading authors in the field, and they want to talk to and work with our vendor community at the exhibits. Threshold: What are some of the highlights this year that follow the Symposium’s past traditions or that attendees might find are totally new? Bernier: As in past years, we have a full slate of tutorials on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. This year, many of them earn credit towards the new Program Manager certification that the ESDA has announced. ( Editor’s note: see story on page 7) The tutorials are always very popular, so be sure to register early to reserve a space. We have a welcome reception in the exhibits area on Monday evening where you can get a head start at checking out the exhibits in a relaxed atmosphere. The awards breakfast on Tuesday morning is always a good kick-off to the technical sessions. We have parallel technical ses- sions plus a new plenary session that fea- tures a talk on electronic packaging and ESD. This session should be of interest to people in all of our traditional “tracks”. We also have some newworkshops as well as some returning favorites. Threshold: The technical papers are a primary focus of the Symposium. What general topic areas are covered in the tech- nical sessions this year? Which areas are new or expanded this year? Russ: We have received and selected papers from literally every area with an ESD concern. The range of topics starts with electrostatic control and preven- EOS/ESD Symposium Insights from those in the know Joe Bernier continued on page 2