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Silver has been known to mankind from time immemorial. It was one of the prized possessions of kings and nobles. From earliest times, it has been known for its intimate association with (i) monetary system, (ii) use as a silverware for household purposes and (iii) beauty and elegance when shaped into ornaments. Now, an increased understanding of the properties of silver results in its application in the rapidly developing technologies, namely communications, electronics, space explorations, etc.

It is reputed that PCBs worth approximately £83 billion were produced worldwide by about 7,000 manufacturers with 200,000 employees in 1987. The United States accounted for about 33% of the market and Japan 28%. Well down the list in third place was West Germany with 77%, but by comparison they produced more PCBs than the UK, France and Italy together. However, there is a shift of production facilities for complete PCBs from the high wage‐earning European countries to low‐wage earning South East Asia, i.e., Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea, where substantial capacity is under construction.

After 50 years in the electronics industry, Bert Child, Manager of Alpha Metals Ireland, is preparing to hang up his soldering irons and will retire later this year.

At the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Institute of Circuit Technology held on Tuesday, 20th November 1979, a resolution was passed which allowed companies trading in the circuit technology industry to become affiliated to the Institute. To mark that historical decision the Council decided to organise a trade exhibition to be held concurrently with the Annual Symposium, Brunel 80.

WHAT a wonderful lady is Dr. Lillian Gilbreth. Whatever her age it can be discounted since years have little or no effect on one so youthful in spirit.

The Oxford Moat House was the venue for a Dinner Dance on Saturday 23rd March, organised by Mr John Russell of the ICT Council. This, the first, hopefully, of many such gatherings, was well supported with about 100 attending. Mr Russell intends to organise next year's social evening at the same venue.

The effect of gold (Au) on the reliability of 0.65 mm pitch surface mount solder joints between plastic quad flat packs and Cu‐Ni‐Au FR‐4 printed circuit boards was investigated. Cu‐Ni‐Au is a desirable printed circuit board finish for multi‐chip modules or printed circuit boards that would otherwise require a selective Au finish, for example for edge connectors or wire bondable parts. However, Au is known to embrittle solder when it is present in sufficiently high concentrations, creating a concern that solder joint fatigue life in service will also be adversely affected. This paper reports the results of mechanical shock, mechanical vibration and thermal cycling testing of fine pitch solder joints containing varying amounts of Au. Tests were performed on as‐soldered joints and on joints that had been heat‐treated to evolve the microstructure towards equilibrium. The tests were designed to accelerate in‐service conditions in a typical industrial environment. Under these conditions, the Au concentrations tested did not promote solder joint failures. Microstructural characterisation of the distribution and morphology of the Au‐, Ni‐ and Cu‐Sn intermetallics in the joint before and after accelerated testing was also performed. On the basis of these observations it is recommended that the Au concentration in solder joints between plastic quad flat packs and Cu‐Ni‐Au FR‐4 printed circuit boards not exceed 3.0 wt.%.

The Institute of Circuit Technology held its 5th Annual Symposium on 12th and 13th June. The location was once again Brunei University at Uxbridge and a full and varied programme of papers was presented over the two full days.

The 7th Annual Symposium of the Institute was held this year on Wednesday and Thursday, the 6th and 7th of May to avoid clashing with the Second Printed Circuit World Convention scheduled to be held in Munich during June.

Alan Moore has been appointed Lead Engineer at surface mount subcontractors EDMS of Maldon. With extensive knowledge of both surface mount and conventional PCB design and production techniques, Mr Moore takes on responsibility to develop the company's manufacturing systems.