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

The Benelux chapter has made a habit of organising meetings with a scientific and commercial accent more or less alternately. This approach has proven to be successful in the past three years. The 1986 Autumn meeting will be another display meeting. A number of papers will be presented by suppliers of materials and equipment for the hybrid and surface mounting industry. In a 300 m2 exhibition room about 25 companies will display their products. The programme of the day leaves ample opportunity for meeting colleagues and suppliers. The meeting will be held in the ‘Jaarbeurs Vergadercentrum’ in Utrecht on 16 October from 9.30–17.00. The annual ISHM‐Benelux general membership meeting will precede the lectures.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the behavior of different lead-free solders (95.5Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu, i.e. SAC387 and Sn7In4.1Ag0.5Cu, i.e. SAC-In) in thermomechanically loaded non-collapsible ball grid array (BGA) joints of a low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) module. The validity of a modified Engelmaier’s model was tested to verify its capability to predict the characteristic lifetime of an LTCC module assembly implementable in field applications.

Five printed wiring board (PWB) assemblies, each carrying eight LTCC modules, were fabricated and exposed to a temperature cycling test over a −40 to 125°C temperature range to determine the characteristic lifetimes of interconnections in the LTCC module/PWB assemblies. The failure mechanisms of the test assemblies were verified using scanning acoustic microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission SEM investigation. A stress-dependent Engelmaier’s model, adjusted for plastic-core solder ball (PCSB) BGA structures, was used to predict the characteristic lifetimes of the assemblies.

Depending on the joint configuration, characteristic lifetimes of up to 1,920 cycles were achieved in the thermal cycling testing. The results showed that intergranular (creep) failures occurred primarily only in the joints containing Sn7In4.1Ag0.5Cu solder. Other primary failure mechanisms (mixed transgranular/intergranular, separation of the intermetallic compound/solder interface and cracking in the interface between the ceramic and metallization) were observed in the other joint configurations. The modified Engelmaier’s model was found to predict the lifetime of interconnections with good accuracy. The results confirmed the superiority of SAC-In solder over SAC in terms of reliability, and also proved that an air cavity structure of the module, which enhances its radio frequency (RF) performance, did not degrade the reliability of the second-level interconnections of the test assemblies.

This paper shows the superiority of SAC-In solder over SAC387 solder in terms of reliability and verifies the applicability of the modified Engelmaier’s model as an accurate lifetime prediction method for PCSB BGA structures for the presented LTCC packages for RF/microwave telecommunication applications.

This paper aims to find proper technological parameters of low-temperature joining technique by silver sintering to eventually use this technique for reliable electronic packaging.

Based on the literature and author’s own experience, the factors influencing the nanosized Ag particle sintering results were identified, and their significance was assessed.

It has been shown that some important technological parameters clearly influence the quality of the joints, and their choice is unambiguous, but the meaning of some parameters is dependent on other factors (interactions), and they should be selected experimentally.

The value of this research is that the importance of all technological factors was analyzed, which makes it easy to choose the technological procedures in the electronic packaging.

Eighty‐five participants attended the 4th ISHM Display meeting at the Jaarbeurs Congress Centre in Utrecht on 16 October, 1986. The programme of the day started with the annual general membership meeting of the Benelux Chapter. The chairman, Mr T. Kwikkers, gave a short review of the state of affairs of ISHM‐Benelux and of the activities of the last year. He mentioned the temporary enlargement of the executive committee to give a new generation a chance to gain experience in the ISHM organisation and to take up some new activities. In order to raise publicity for ISHM and Hybrid Circuits a new brochure has been designed and a set of material for demonstration purposes was collected. With the material every member of the chapter can easily set up a presentation for schools or customers. This year ISHM‐Benelux has grown from 85 to 100 members and enjoys a healthy financial situation. Next year again emphasis will be put on public relations. Professor R. Govaerts signified that he was no longer available for a position in the executive committee. As Prof. Govaerts has been very active and stimulating for the ISHM‐Benelux Chapter from its foundation in 1976 up to now, the general membership meeting decided to appoint him as (the first) honorary member of this chapter. Except for Professor Govaerts, the sitting executive committee, consisting of 15 members, was re‐elected for another year. After the European conferences in Bournemouth and Hamburg the ISHM‐Benelux chapter is asked to organise the 1991 Conference. The executive committee is already looking out for candidates for a function in the organising committee, which must be formed in the coming year.