Search results

Low labor costs and market access are no longer competitive differentiators; increasingly companies are looking to design and develop new products and services as a crucial source of competitive advantage. As the pressure to innovate increases, so does the tension between shorter-term exploitative development and longer-term exploratory innovation activities. We explore this tension using interview data from software SMEs and venture capitalist firms who invest in technology-driven companies. Findings indicate that, despite firm’s having established solid innovation plans, short-term exploitative demands crowd out their longer-term exploration innovation during the development phase. Agency and resource dependence theories are used to start to explore some of the reasons for this shift. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on through‐silicon via (TSV), with a new concept that every chip or interposer could have two surfaces with circuits. Emphasis is placed on the 3D IC integration, especially the interposer (both active and passive) technologies and their roadmaps. The origin of 3D integration is also briefly presented.

This design addresses the electronic packaging of 3D IC integration with a passive TSV interposer for high‐power, high‐performance, high pin‐count, ultra fine‐pitch, small real‐estate, and low‐cost applications. To achieve this, the design uses chip‐to‐chip interconnections through a passive TSV interposer in a 3D IC integration system‐in‐package (SiP) format with excellent thermal management.

A generic, low‐cost and thermal‐enhanced 3D IC integration SiP with a passive interposer has been proposed for high‐performance applications. Also, the origin of 3D integration and the overview and outlook of 3D Si integration and 3D IC integration have been presented and discussed. Some important results and recommendations are summarized: the TSV/redistribution layer (RDL)/integrated passive devices passive interposer, which supports the high‐power chips on top and low‐power chips at its bottom, is the gut and workhorse of the current 3D IC integration design; with the passive interposer, it is not necessary to “dig” holes on the active chips. In fact, try to avoid making TSVs in the active chips; the passive interposer provides flexible coupling for whatever chips are available and/or necessary, and enhances the functionality and possibly the routings (shorter); with the passive interposer, the TSV manufacturing cost is lower because the requirement of TSV manufacturing yield is too high (>99.99 percent) for the active chips to bear additional costs due to TSV manufacturing yield loss; with the passive interposer, wafer thinning and thin‐wafer handling costs (for the interposer) are lower because these are not needed for the active chips and thus adds no cost due to yield loss; with the current designs, all the chips are bare; the packaging cost for individual chips is eliminated; more than 90 percent of heat from the 3D IC integration SiP is dissipated from the backside of high‐power chips using a thermal interface material and heat spreader/sink; the appearance and footprint of current 3D IC integration SiP designs are very attractive to integrated device manufactures, original equipment manufactures, and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) because they are standard packages; and underfills between the copper‐filled TSV interposer and the high‐ and low‐power chips are recommended to reduce creep damage of the lead‐free microbump solder joints and prolong their lives.

The paper's findings will be very useful to the electronic industry.

Coors Ceramics GmbH, subsidiary of Coors Ceramics Company's Electronic Products Group, has appointed Mr Viktor Fronz as its German National Accounts Manager. Mr Fronz assumed responsibility for all of Coors Ceramics' electronic products accounts in Germany on 1 July 1994.

The purpose of this paper is to present a diffusion-controlled healing model for predicting fused deposition modeling (FDM) bond strength between layers (z-axis strength).

Diffusion across layers of an FDM part was predicted based on a one-dimensional transient heat analysis of the interlayer interface using a temperature-dependent diffusion model determined from rheological data. Integrating the diffusion coefficient across the temperature history with respect to time provided the total diffusion used to predict the bond strength, which was compared to the measured bond strength of hollow acrylonitrile butadiene styr (ABS) boxes printed at various processing conditions.

The simulated bond strengths predicted the measured bond strengths with a coefficient of determination of 0.795. The total diffusion between FDM layers was shown to be a strong determinant of bond strength and can be similarly applied for other materials.

Results and analysis from this paper should be used to accurately model and predict bond strength. Such models are useful for FDM part design and process control.

This paper is the first work that has predicted the amount of polymer diffusion that occurs across FDM layers during the printing process, using only rheological material properties and processing parameters.

Companies that supply libraries with automation technology are part of the computer‐industry marketplace. However, vendors that serve the library component of this marketplace face problems not typical of the industry as a whole. Significant and unique problems include the protracted selection processes employed by libraries, the very slow and drawn‐out payment cycles, the dependence of the libraries on vendors, and the adversarial relationships that frequently exist between the libraries and vendors. These, and related issues, are discussed by representatives of eight prominent automation firms: Joseph R. Matthews (INLEX), James J. Michael (Data Research Associates), Harry Porteous (Geac), Gene Robinson (CLSI), Stephen R. Salmon (Carlyle), Stephen Silberstein (Innovative Interfaces), Phyllis Bova Spies (OCLC Local Systems), and Harriet Valázques (Utlas).

Egghead Software, Inc. was a successful computer software and hardware multi‐channel retailer in the USA until the mid 1990s. Then, in 1998, they closed down their retail operations and Egghead Software, Inc. became Egghead.com – an eCommerce only retailer. This paper presents the key decisions, management changes, and environmental factors resulting in Egghead.com’s ultimate demise. Conclusions are made that can help retail and other sales channel managers and executives learn from Egghead’s mistakes, so that they can increase their market presence, strengthen their relationship with customers, and increase their power in the supply chain.