SeptemberOctober 2004

THRESHOLD TM News bits News and views for members of the ESDAssociation Volume 20, No. 5 September/October 2004 Symposium ........................... 1-4 A Look at Dallas ........................ 3 S20.20 Seminar ....................... 3 Call for Papers 2005 ................ 4 From the President .................. 5 New secretary appointed .......... 5 Professional certification .......... 6 Calendar ................................... 7 Sept. meeting schedule ............ 7 From the Threshold Chair ........ 8 New Volunteer Spotlight ............ 9 And the survey says ............... 10 New standards available ........ 10 Institutional listings ............ 11-12 In this issue 2004 EOS/ESD Symposium Gathering in Grapevine, Texas Continued on page 2 Website Review We are beginning a review of the ESDA website. The ESD Association website ex- ists to provide you updates and informa- tion. We will assess the usability of the website and make improvements where needed. We welcome any comments you, as the user, may have about the website. Comments can be directed to Katie Connor at kconnor@esda.org, with “website review” in the subject. Grapevine, Texas, near the Dallas-Forth Worth area, is hosting the 26 th annual EOS/ ESD Symposium. This symposium pack- ages research, technology, education, pro- tective materials, and peer networking into the premier international ESD event Sep- tember 19-23, 2004, at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center. The Symposium program is organized in three special interest tracks, and attend- ees will be able to customize their Sympo- sium experience along their specific ar- eas of interest. This year’s tracks are: ESD Test, Failure Analysis, and Systems; Fac- tory, Materials, and ESD Control; and De- vice, Design, and Technology. Education Three days of in-depth tutorials provide training and education. Internationally rec- ognized instructors will present a total of 20 basic, intermediate, and advanced courses. Many of the tutorials earn credit for one of the professional certification pro- grams sponsored by the ESD Association: ESD Certified Professional-Device/Design and ESD Certified Professional-Program Manager. Other tutorials will assist attend- ees in preparing for the NARTE certifica- tion exams for ESD Control Engineer and/ or ESD Control Technician, scheduled this year for Friday, September 24. Also included in this year’s Symposium is the two-day seminar, ESD Program De- velopment and Assessment (ANSI/ESD S20.20) , on Sunday, September 19, and Monday, September 20. Several new and expanded tutorials are included in the program this year. The com- plete list of tutorials and abstracts may be viewed in the Symposium program on the ESDA website at www.esda.org/ symposia.html. This year’s Symposium also features 51 technical papers to be presented in 10 sessions featuring the latest technologi- cal issues and research on ESD and EOS. The papers will be offered in parallel ses- sions to allow attendees to concentrate on those sessions of greatest interest to them. The technical sessions scheduled for Tuesday, September 21, through Thurs- day, September 23, include: MR Heads – Processing; RFIC and Novel Protection Devices; System Level and Other ESD Is- sues; On-Chip Protection Strategies, Phys- ics and Modeling; Tester – Device Effects; Analysis and Modeling of ESD Design Fail- ures; Factory and Materials; Characteriza- tion of On-Chip Protection; Novel TLP Testers; and Magnetic Recording Heads. A special plenary session on The Evo- lution of Failure Analysis to Keep up with the Semiconductor Industry will be fea- tured Tuesday morning, September 21. The technical sessions also feature the award winning invited paper from the 2003 RCJ EOS/ESD Symposium-Japan: ESD Protection Design Using a Mixed-Mode Simulation for Advanced Devices by H. Hayashi, S. Kuroda, K. Kato, K. Fukuda, S. Baba, and Y. Fukuda of Oki Electric Indus- try Co., Ltd. Detailed descriptions of the technical pa- pers may be found in the Symposium pro- gram, available on the ESDA website. Exploration Eight interactive workshops on Wednes- day afternoon, September 22, provide at- tendees with the opportunity to explore specific topics in depth. The workshops encourage discussion, questions, and audience interaction and participation. Workshop session topics for this year: Sili- con Technology Scaling and ESD Reliabil- ity – Roadmap and Reality; Common Au- diting Issues; ESD in Cleanrooms; Can New Registration for Free Downloads When downloading free standards from the website, users will now be prompted to register and create a login profile. Please take a few minutes to register and create a username and password the next time you take advantage of the standards avail- able for free download. Members please note that your member login and pass- word are not profiles for this section. To download standards, members will also need to register through the new pop-up window. Any questions or difficulties can be directed t o info@esda.org.