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As announced in the May issue of Hybrid Circuits, ISHM‐Benelux is organising a one‐day conference on applications of hybrid circuit technology.

On 20 April ISHM‐Benelux held its 1988 Spring meeting at the Grand Hotel Heerlen. This meeting was totally devoted to implantable devices, in particular to the technologies used for these high reliability, extremely demanding devices. For this meeting ISHM‐Benelux was the guest of the Kerkrade facility of Medtronic. Medtronic (headquartered in Minneapolis, USA) is the world's leading manufacturer of implantable electronic devices. Apart from the assembly of pacemakers and heart‐wires, the Kerkrade facility acts as a manufacturing technology centre for Medtronic's European facilities.

The International Electronic Components Show in Paris in November, 1983, provided the occasion for a very successful meeting of ISHM‐France which attracted 170 attendees. The following presentations were given:

ISHM (UK) presented a technical meeting on this topic on the 23rd October 1982 at the Cunard International Hotel, London. The meeting was attended by some 50 engineers, both those involved in the field of hybrids and potential users. It was generally felt that this was a useful meeting but more especially that it would have appealed to many potential users of hybrids, had the right people been able to be contacted.

The ISHM CAN‐AM Chapter recently organised a half‐day programme of paper presentations followed by a tour of a local hybrid facility. The event took place on 26 April at the Holiday Inn, Montreal (Pointe Claire), Quebec, with the theme of the papers concentrating on advances in hybrid manufacturing processes and some coverage of SMT.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesise and characterise nano‐alumina hybrid polyimide (PI) films.

PI nano‐composite films containing definitive contents of Al₂O₃ were prepared by the sol‐gel process of aluminum isopropoxide in the N, N′‐dimethylacetamide solution of polyamide acid. The films were characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscope, atomic forced microscope, and X‐ray fluorescent spectroscope (XRF). The thermal stability of the composite films was tested by TG.

PI nano‐Al₂O₃ films were prepared by the sol‐gel method. The XRF is an effective way to detect the inorganic phase of the composite films and measure the content of nano‐Al₂O₃.

There are seldom reports about the PI composites containing Al₂O₃ through sol‐gel process.

PI has been widely used in the fields of aviation micro‐electron and less costly dyes.

Improved electricity insulation property of the PI films. Al₂O₃ particles were distributed homogeneously in the PI in nano‐scale by means of sol‐gel process.

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.)

In order to identify and quantify the size and shape of the rapidly changing complexion of the market for hybrid microelectronics, in 1987 ISHM launched a survey in Europe of the market for thin‐film, thick‐film and surface‐mount‐on‐PCB hybrids for the periods 1980, 1986 and 1990. The survey aimed to obtain a hierarchical breakdown of the markets also into technology and application sectors. The general findings are reported. The credibility and quantity of the survey are considered in the context of the market for electronic equipment in Europe for 1987 and 1990. In electronics there is a continuing pressure to reduce prices and therefore adjustments should not be made for inflation. A growth in market value is thus a true reflection of a larger growth in market volume and a continuing increase in complexity. Thus, the 11% CAGR for 1986–1990 reflects a growth in equipment volumes of 20% over the 4 year period. Manufacturers will have to design and build increasingly complex circuits at a higher throughput and lower cost, at an increasing pace. It is not a business for faint hearts. Clearly the growth potential for the hybrid microelectronics market should be considered in the context of the equipment market, in order to judge the relative growth. In order to distinguish between the hybrid and PCB industries, the survey has aimed to estimate the growth in the developing market for hybrids using substrates up to 6 in. × 4 in. (Eurocard), not including the larger SMAs on PCBs for which there is a huge market growth potential. The immediate opportunity is from miniaturisation and cost reduction using hybrid microelectronics. The major push in technological emphasis in modern hybrids comes from the need for high‐density interconnection to support increasingly complex VLSI in high‐pin‐count surface‐mount micropackages and high‐performance substrates to support VHSIC and high‐performance circuits. Hence there is a major shift in hybrid microelectronics technology emphasis towards high‐density surface‐mount assemblies on PCB and other organic substrates. The total hybrid market sub‐divided among the basic three technologies reveals this emphasis. The portents are clear, and those who intend to succeed, or even simply survive, need to be aware of the shift in emphasis and prepare to diversify or establish strengths in niche applications.

Rapid advances in silicon, including ever higher complexity and easier access to customised approaches, are forcing dramatic changes in electronic equipment design and manufacture. This paper examines the developing role for hybrid microcircuits and concludes that hybrid technology, often thought of as optional, should now be regarded as an essential partner for monolithic silicon technology.

Drive east from Frankfurt, upstream along the valley of the River Main, and in 25 kilometres or so you will reach Hanau, where once the brothers Grimm lived and collected the folklore which we now know as the famous Tales. Here too, in 1856, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus, a chemist and pharmacist, proprietor of the pharmacy which had carried the family name for many generations, succeeded in producing temperatures approaching 2000°C from an oxy‐hydrogen flame, temperatures sufficiently high to achieve the melting point of platinum and to allow him to melt substantial quantities of this metal for the first time. Hanau was then a centre for the jewellery manufacturing industry (and remains so today) so the smelting of platinum and other precious metals had an immediate commercial relevance.