The 73rd ECTC (IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference) was held in Orlando, Florida from May 30th to June 2nd, 2023. With a new format (more on this later) and a new venue (JW Marriott Grande Lakes), the conference brought together more than 1,600 industry professionals, academics, and students in attendance from 22 countries. This is the second highest conference attendance, and with larger session rooms, we achieved record attendance during our special sessions and our technical sessions. As the esteemed Bill Chen, ASE, mentioned during the presentation of an award named after him, ECTC is a family, and we want to thank all of you for your great support. ECTC is sponsored by the Electronics Packaging Society (EPS) of IEEE.
Preparation for the 73rd ECTC started one year ago and was strongly supported by over 250 experts from 15 countries, members of 10 technical committees. The technical committees critically reviewed 618 submitted abstracts from industry (56.1%) and academia (43.9%), resulting in 369 technical papers. The papers, organized in 41 sessions, including five interactive presentation sessions, one of which was dedicated to students, were presented by speakers from 22 countries.
What Were the Hottest Topics at the 73rd ECTC?
The most attended topics reflected interests in wafer/panel-level and advanced substrate technologies, next-generation high-performance computing architectures, innovations in copper chip-to-wafer bonding, large formfactor dense system integration by fan-out, heterogeneous chiplet integration, and advancements in copper/silicon-oxide hybrid bonding. There were six talks with more than 400 attendees, ten with more than 300 attendees, and fifteen with more than 200. Additionally, our presenters during the five Interactive Presentation sessions were very busy as traffic was very high. These attendance numbers unmistakably communicate the importance of ECTC in the packaging industry and the criticality of packaging in the overall electronics industry.
Supplementing the technical program and co-located with the IEEE ITherm Conference, ECTC offered 13 CEU-approved professional development courses (PDCs), a series of Special Sessions starting Tuesday, an Exhibition with over 110 companies, and plenty of networking events throughout the conference (luncheons, Gala reception, Exhibit reception, etc..).
Keynote Featured Quantum Computing
We were honored to have Michael Manfra, Bill and Dee O’Brien Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University, and Scientific Director of Microsoft Quantum Lab West Lafayette, as our Keynote Speaker. Prof. Manfra described the current state of quantum computing from a hardware perspective, listing the challenges and opportunities ranging from the basic choice of qubit platform, through scalable control and readout, to system architecture. He focused on what the packaging community can now innovate to make this revolutionary technology a reality. Following the keynote speech, a substantial Q&A session was led by ECTC 2023 General Chair, Prof. Ibrahim Guven. Prof. Manfra’s talk was inspirational and intellectually stimulating.
Very well attended and with international participation of experts and executives across the supply chain, the special sessions and panel discussions brought deep-dive discussions on technology developments, emerging applications, different perspectives, business and industry insights, and trends, as well as career, diversity and workforce development topics:
- IEEE EPS President’s Panel
- Co-chaired by IEEE EPS President Kitty Pearsall of Boss Precision, US and David McCann of Lyte, and moderated by Amr Helmy of the University of Toronto on “How can Photonics Enable the Bandwidth Densities with Lower Energy per Bit in Emerging SIP”
- ECTC Plenary Session
- Co-chaired by Kevin Gu of Metawave Corp. and Ivan Ndip of Fraunhofer IZM / Brandenburg University of Technology on “Digital Transformation – The Cornerstone of Future Semiconductor and Advanced Packaging Growth”
- IEEE EPS Seminar
- Co-chaired by Takashi Hisada of IBM and Yasumitsu Orii of Rapidus, Japan, on “The Future of High-density Substrates – Towards Submicron Technology”
- ECTC Materials & Processing and Thermal/Mechanical Simulation & Characterization Technical Sub-Committees Special Session
- Co-chaired by Tanja Braun of Fraunhofer IZM, Germany, and Przemyslaw Gromala of Bosch, Germany on “Advanced Packaging and HIR for Harsh Environment – Current Status and Opportunities”
- ECTC Interconnections Technical Sub-Committee Special Session
- Co-chaired by Thomas Gregorich (Infinera) and Chaoqi Zhang (Qualcomm), and moderated by Jan Vardaman of TechSearch International on “Copper Hybrid Bond Interconnections for Chip-On-Wafer Applications”
- ECTC Photonics Technical Sub-Committee Special Session
- Co-chaired by Stéphane Bernabé of CEA Leti, France, and Hiren Thacker of Cisco that covered “Photonic Integrated Circuit Packaging: Challenges, Pathfinding and Technology Adoption”
- ECTC CHIPS Act Special Session
- Co-chaired by Nancy Stoffel of GE Research, Jan Vardaman of TechSearch International, and William Chen of ASE on “Advanced Packaging Manufacturing in North America: Building the Ecosystem”
- ECTC/ITHERM Diversity Panel
- Co-chaired by Kim Yess of Brewer Science, Nancy Stoffel of GE Research, and Cristina Amon of University of Toronto, Canada, on “Diversifying our Technical Workforce to meet National Needs including the CHIPS Act Initiative”
- ECTC Young Professionals Networking Panel
- Chaired by Yan Liu of Medtronic, Inc., a networking panel focusing on career development for young professionals with the participation of IEEE EPS Board of Governors
- Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap Workshop
- Sponsored by the IEEE EPS and chaired by William Chen of ASE, Bill Bottoms of MTS, US, and Ravi Mahajan of Intel, took place at our conference with another packed audience this year as well. Thank you to the HIR committee for bringing another excellent workshop to ECTC.
The Technology Corner at the 73rd ECTC
The 73rd ECTC hosted a sold-out lineup of 117 exhibitors in the Technology Corner and attracted a record level of industry support with 49 sponsorships and 13 media partners. This indicates the growing interest in Advanced Packaging and the vital role ECTC plays in this industry. Thanks to our new venue, the Exhibition provided a lot more opportunities for the companies to highlight their latest and greatest products in a much-nicer-looking setting. The lounge area was also a great space to meet and greet old and new friends.
ECTC is well known for being a premier and flagship conference of the Advanced Packaging industry and has successfully maintained its status. This year’s event delivered even more diversified content. Besides the highly technical content of this conference and several opportunities to learn and get insights into the latest developments and trends in microelectronics packaging, ECTC is also well known for its excellent networking events. The 73rd ECTC offered over 10 receptions, gala, luncheons, and networking events.
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive from our attendees: They loved the new venue with larger conference rooms and networking areas, and easier access to our Exhibition. The new format, which consisted of a conference-wide morning session followed by our 6 parallel technical tracks, was also very well received, as highlighted by the high attendance to all sessions throughout the conference.
On behalf of the entire Executive Committee, we would like to thank all our participants and contributors for their strong and continued support. Special thanks go to the Executive Committee and IEEE EPS sponsoring organization for their strong commitment and support in making this year a fantastic event.
Looking forward, the 74th ECTC will be held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver, Colorado, between May 28 and 31, 2024 The Call for Papers can be found at www.ectc.net. Abstract submission will close on October 9, 2023. Plan to attend in-person sessions, get to know new people, learn where this industry is going, and network with your colleagues!
