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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.

Dates: 29–31 May 1991 Venue: De Doelen Conference Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands The Benelux Chapter of the International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics will be organising the 8th European Microelectronics Conference. The event will take place at ‘De Doelen’, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1991.

The increase in semiconductor integration level has led to complex Integrated Circuits (ICs) characterised by an increasing number of I/O, such that dies with 40 to 84 metallised pads are currently manufactured and frequently used in modern electronic systems. The advent from 1980 onwards of these LSI‐VLSI semiconductors requires new economical micropackages to be devised that can be adapted to surface mounting techniques on Hybrid Integrated Circuits (HICs) and Printed Circuits Boards (PCBs). Plastic encapsulation using a transfer moulded epoxy resin is a widely used method for packaging silicon devices because of the reduced manufacturing cost for large volumes. This economic criterion, which is considered with widespread interest in the electronics industry, has recently led the major semiconductor manufacturers to produce Plastic Leaded Chip Carriers (PLCCs) with up to 84 J bend connections on 1·27 mm pitch, and Mini Quad Packs with 40 to 84 Z bend pins on 0·75∼0·80mm centres. However, until now, a significant number of ICs, such as full custom circuits, are not yet available in any packaged form. Thus, in order to take advantage of the compactness offered by micropackages without being under component manufacturers' constraints for packaged LSI needs, it was decided at the Microelectronics Division of CIT‐Alcatel to develop a flexible semiconductor encapsulation technology which does not require any moulding equipment. The process involved has led to the development of a small economical package with 52 peripheral Z bend leads on 0·75 mm centres which has been evaluated. This original LSI carrier, named Plastic Composite Package (PCP) because of its special feature, is perfectly suited to the specific needs of multilayer HICs for all non‐military applications. In addition, another PCP format with 68 pins on 0·635 mm centres, designed for LSI Industrial applications, has been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to explain the specific needs in the hybrid industry and to give the authors' views on trends in LSI‐VLSI plastic encapsulation. Moreover, the PCP manufacturing process is described, the evaluation results being discussed as well as the economic aspect.

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.)

The venue for this year's ISHM‐Benelux Autumn Conference and ‘table‐top’ display meeting on 12 October will be the Institut Supérieur Industriel de l'Etat, Mons, Belgium.

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.

At the Annual General Meeting of ISHM‐France, held on 12 June 1991, the following were elected:

‘Soldering and Cleaning in Electronics’ international conference, including an exposition, took place in Brno on 12–13 October 1993. The conference was organised by SMT‐Info, together with the ISHM‐Czech and Slovak Chapter. The purpose of this common action was to bring together the professionals in surface mount technology and thick film technology. In the framework of the conference, in which 130 home and foreign delegates participated, the annual meeting of the ISHM‐Czech and Slovak Chapter took place.

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

The ISHM‐Benelux Chapter will organise a one‐day conference at the Antwerp Crest Hotel, on Thursday 29 October 1987. The conference will be aimed at applications of hybrid circuits rather than technology.