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The use of technical terms to communicate accounting information can lead to misunderstandings when the meaning of such terms is not fully appreciated by the recipient of the information. The discipline of translation studies suggests that full equivalence in translation between languages is rare. This suggests that the risk of misunderstanding is exacerbated when technical terms are translated into another language. This paper examines the implications of mistranslations of technical terms in the context of theories from linguistics, which suggest that language influences the way we think. It uses three examples of accounting terminology to illustrate these problems. It concludes that the choice of an inappropriate label in the translation of accounting terminology is detrimental to international accounting communication and creates problems for users and preparers of translated financial statements as well as for researchers in, and students of, international accounting and for those involved in harmonisation and standardisation of accounting.

The hermetically sealed ceramic chip carrier package and the plastic small outline (SO) IC package are both now widely used in hybrid microelectronics. These packages are currently being applied with other discrete surface mount devices to PWB technology in order to increase circuit density and reduce weight. This paper discusses the evaluation of two soldering techniques for the attachment of the chip carrier and SOIC packages to epoxy glass PWBs: the first by solder cream printing or pretinning of the circuit board and subsequent attachment by solder reflow, and the second by a novel jet soldering technique. The thermally induced expansion mismatch between epoxy glass and ceramic chip carriers and the strain induced fatigue this causes in the solder joints are now well documented, and results are presented for the effects of temperature cycling ceramic chip carriers soldered onto PWBs. Various PWB materials have been assessed including FR4, elastomer coated FR4, polyimide kevlar, and epoxy glass laminated copper clad invar. Reliability of these assemblies is discussed in terms of the appearance of micro‐cracks in the solder fillets and the occurrence of electrical discontinuity in the solder joints during temperature cycling.

The problems associated with the direct attachment of leadless ceramic chip carriers (LCCCs) to conventional PWB structures subjected to ambient thermal and power (on/off) cycling are now widely documented. The reliability of LCCCs mounted on various novel substrate materials has been assessed here during ambient thermal cycling from −55° to 125°C and −20° to +70°C and during power heat cycling. Polyimide Kevlar material was rejected on the basis that microcracks, formed in the laminate during thermal cycling, propagated to the surface and resulted in copper track breakages. A flexible laminate interconnection structure for strain relief was found to be too cumbersome for most applications and gave only a small reliability improvement. Polyimide quartz and copper‐invar‐copper cored materials were both found to give a high degree of reliability in thermal cycling. The metal cored laminate is preferred because it is also a more rigid structure with the better thermal conductance needed for many high performance and reliability applications. An elastomer coated FR4 material also performed well during lower temperature thermal and power cycling tests and represents a reduced cost option for less severe environments.

The screen printing and reflowing of solder paste is compared with wave soldering for the attachment of surface mounted devices to PCBs. Both techniques have advantages and disadvantages which are fully discussed. The method chosen for a particular application will depend upon the production facilities available, the principal package types involved in the design, and the anticipated cost. The main advantages of the screen printing process have been found to be a relatively low soldering temperature, freedom from device orientation and package design constraints, and few proximity effects, while those for the wave soldering process have been found to be compatibility with present mass soldering operations, the ability to combine both through‐hole devices and SMDs on the same board, a single soldering operation, and a solder joint volume defined by the joint design. It is concluded that in the long term screen printing and reflow is likely to become the dominant technology, but in the intermediate term wave soldering is likely to remain attractive while manufacturers move from the established through‐hole technology to the more space‐efficient surface mounted technology.

The advent of Surface Mounting Technology (SMT) has led to concern about the long term reliability of solder joints during environmental thermal cycling, power cycling and PWB mechanical flexure. This paper describes the results of testing PWB assemblies of both through hole and SM components in a mechanical flexure jig in which the amplitude and frequency of cycling were varied. The apparent degradation of through hole solder joints (particularly to DIL devices) was often found to be worse than the SMT joints. Lower flexure cycle frequencies were much more damaging to all solder joints than higher frequencies. The results indicate that most SMT solder joints survive realistic flexure cycling very well but that poorly formed joints, which may appear visually to be acceptable, can fail prematurely. Solder joints to leadless ceramic chip carriers are the most susceptible to flexure stresses and special precautions should be taken in their application to substrates which are not entirely rigid, such as PWBs.

Telecom equipment is subject to thermal cycles caused by both variations in temperature between day and night and variations in the telephone traffic. To simulate such thermal excursions, accelerated thermal cycle testing between — 10°C and 100°C has been established as a standard method within Ericsson Telecom. Thermal cycle tests have been carried out for frequencies ranging from one cycle per day to 30 cycles per hour in order to cover the different thermal excursions that occur in telecom equipment. It has been found that the life of a surface mounted PWB assembly can be predicted from the accelerated testing results using a frequency modified Coffin‐Manson relation. Factors which influence the fatigue life of solder joints such as solder material, compliant leads, compliant surface layers and mismatch between package and board are discussed. Based on results from accelerated testing it is suggested that the optimal PWB design for leadless ceramic chip carriers should be a moderate TCE matching combined with a compliant surface layer.

Against the background of the fact that solder joints crack owing to thermal cycling, the method of predicting the lifetime of a solder joint is critically discussed. The conclusion is that the working conditions of the solder joints have to be carefully analysed and to be brought into agreement with the material properties. On the basis of experimental values, it is shown how this can be done. Creep, relaxation and fatigue of solder joints are discussed.

Drawbridging or Stonehenge Effect of leadless components (i.e., the standing up on their end faces) has been investigated. An explanation is offered based on a straightforward theoretical model considering surface tension, sustained by a great amount of experimental evidence. The phenomenon is strongly associated with condensation reflow soldering, whereas the dimensions of the metallisation at the underside of the leadless components and the size of the solder lands on the board are major influencing factors. Practical hints are given to overcome the problem.

Social‐cultural and structural arguments have been used to explain why Japan's legal culture is different than other industrialized nations; however, both arguments lack data about client usage. This paper examines the use of Japanese lawyers by businesses in Japan. Senior executives from 572 Japanese and foreign businesses responded to a survey about their use of legal services. Japanese businesses are found to retain lawyers more frequently for legal action and corporate procedural matters, but foreign businesses are more likely to retain lawyers for government compliance activities. While both theoretical arguments help to explain Japan's legal culture, the common denominator is the small number of Japanese lawyers.

The Royal Scot Hotel, Edinburgh, provided the venue for the 6th Annual Northern Symposium on 17th November, 1983, organised by the ICT in conjunction with the ECIF, the Northern (UK) Circuit Group and the IMF (PC Group). In welcoming some 60 delegates to the day's proceedings, Mr J. B. Walker, an Executive Member of the ICT Council, explained that this was the third occasion on which this annual event was being held in Edinburgh and that, as such, it was clearly going from strength to strength. Mr Walker then introduced Mr S. Jones, an ICT Council member, as Session Chairman for the morning.