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ISHM invites papers for the above Conference, to be held on 29–31 May 1991 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Papers should cover areas such as: design, manufacturing, packaging and interconnection, materials and processing, applications, reliability, components, new technologies, marketing and economics, optoelectronics. Summaries should be in English, length 200–300 words. The deadline for receipt of summaries is 30 September 1990. (For full details, see announcement on pp. 54–55.)

ITS: Intertrade Scientific Ltd, the UK based manufacturer of the MCT/Browne InfraRed Reflow Soldering Systems for SMT and Hybrid applications, as part of their aggressive drive into Europe, has announced the signing of a distributor agreement with Maquinaria Suiza SA of Spain. Under the agreement, Maquinaria Suiza will be the sole supplier of the highly successful product range to Spain and Portugal.

LeaRonal (UK) plc of Buxton, Derbyshire, specialists in plating and allied services to the printed circuit board industry, has appointed John Flynn to their technical staff. Mr Flynn, who will be based in his native Scotland, brings with him a decade of experience in electroless copper, hard gold plating and photoimageable processing in the PCB industry.

ISHM‐Benelux has recently set up a permanent secretariat at the following address:

The Center for Industrial Research (SI), the University of Oslo (UiO) and a group of Norwegian companies have collaborated between 1990 and 1992 in the research programme ‘Industrial Microelectronics’ with a total cost of 30 MNOK. The programme was sponsored by the Norwegian Scientific and Industrial Research Council (NTNF) as one of the twin programmes constituting a national research initiative in microelectronics. The motivation for the programme is the recognition of microelectronics as a key technology commanding the performance and market success of many of the electronics systems from the Norwegian electronics industry towards the year 2000. The main objective is to stimulate industrial innovation by developing, transferring and exploiting knowledge and methods based upon advanced microelectronics. Focused activities are silicon sensor technology, combined analogue/digital design of application‐specific integrated circuits, large scale instrumentation, sensor packaging and thermal management of electronic systems. SI is focusing on applied research, UiO on education, and collaborating Norwegian companies are using the results in their own R&D projects. It is anticipated that the research results will be fully industrialised within 3–5 years. The programme is co‐ordinated with other Norwegian government‐sponsored research activities as well as European research programmes based on microelectronics. The programme is organised in projects and monitored with a set of milestones strongly indicating the achievement of successful industrial innovation, research results of international standing and high‐quality education of key personnel for the industry. Several successful examples of the research results are highlighted: Design and process methodology for double‐sided microstrip silicon radiation sensors for detection of high energy elementary particles, silicon‐to‐silicon and silicon‐to‐thin film anodic bonding processes for sensor fabrication, combined analogue/digital application‐specific integrated circuits for front‐end instrumentation applications, packaging of radiation sensors and thermal management of electronic systems by evaporation cooling. It is concluded that the programme has successfully achieved results in harmony with the objective.

The International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics invites the submission of technical papers for presentation at the above event. All original unpublished papers on microelectronics related topics are welcomed.

President Bush recently announced that Northern Telecom had received a presidential award recognising innovation and leadership in protecting the environment. Fulfilling a pledge made in 1988, Northern Telecom became the world's first large electronics company to meet a public commitment to eliminate ozone‐depleting CFC‐113 solvents from its 42 worldwide manufacturing operations. The goal was achieved nine years ahead of the mandate set by the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement signed by 68 nations that calls for the elimination of CFCs and other ozone‐depleting substances by the year 2000.

For most of us in the industry, and certainly the members of CEMA, 1992 could have been much better. To look back over the black spots would serve only to remind us that we are not yet out of the woods. Despite the continuing recession with its attendant gloom and despondency, the Association has had some high points during the past year.

During the first half of this year the Association has continued to expand its exhibition programme by increasing its presence at overseas shows. Two DTI sponsored joint venture groups have been formed, one to Nepcon West, the other to Nepcon Beijing. Anaheim saw the biggest UK group for over 10 years, with CEMA taking three separate blocks in different sectors of the show. There is no doubt from the reception we received that CEMA is now firmly established at Nepcon West. We enjoyed tremendous support from both the British Consulate and the British‐American Chamber of Commerce with their President making several visits to the CEMA booth.