The 2’d Electronics System-Integration Technology Conference (ESTC-2008) was held at the magnificent buildings of the historic Old Royal Naval College on the banks of the River Thames in Greenwich, London. This premier international conference is held every two years in Europe and brings together scientists, engineers and managers in the field of micro and nano electronics, photonics, MEMS, and bio components, their integration and packaging.

ESTC-2008 was organised jointly by the University of Greenwich and the UK&RI Chapter of IEEE-CPMT and sponsored by CPMT-IEEE, the University of Greenwich, and supported by IMAPS-Europe. The conference compliments the corresponding CPMT global conferences ECTC and EPTC held in the USA and Singapore respectively and the European EMPC organised by IMAPS-Europe.

The Executive and Technical Programme committees of the 2nd ESTC extend their sincere thanks to all the authors, presenters, short course instructors, session chairs, exhibitors, sponsors and delegates, who helped make ESTC-2008 a resounding success.

Opening

Chris Bailey General Chair for the conference chaired the opening ceremony opened by notables such as Lewis Terman, Chief Executive and President of IEEE, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, Vice Chancellor, University of Greenwich, Bill Chen (President of CPMT), Nihal Sinnadurai the Executive Chair of ESTC-2008 and Rolf Aschenbrenner the Technical Programme Chair of ESTC-2008).

A truly international event
384 delegates. nine professional development courses attended by 67 participants on the preliminary day of the Conference added to the technical excellence of the event.

The strong technical range of the conference papers and courses covered the technical themes of Advanced Packaging, Emerging Technologies, Healthcare, Manufacturing & Test, New Materials and Processes, Modelling and Simulation, Optoelectronics, Reliability and special request topics such as Power Electronics and Assembly of Alternative Energy Sources. A themed technical exhibition with exhibits from 15 organisations, complimented the event and provided delegates with the opportunity to discuss commercial needs.

Special invited themes led and by international experts provided leading-edge insight in three technical themes on Prognostics and Health Management, Asia-Pacific Photo-Voltaics, and Standards, and a very special session on Greening the Blue Planet looked deeply into the impact and solutions that man and his technology has on the planet. ‘When ‘Technology Meets Market’ provided constructive business decision insights from special panellists and knowledgeable delegates.

When technology meets market

Keynote lectures by Dr Nakita Vodjdani on the European Programme for Ambient Assisted Living, Dr Jean- Marc Yannou on SiP technologies and Dr Stuart Strickland who described Building Mobile Connectivity gave a great start to each conference day.

The anchor Closing Session was chaired by Nihal Sinnadurai the Executive Chair of ESTC-2008 and Chair of IEEE-CPMT-UK&RI. The session was kicked off with the Challenging Keynote by Professor Peter Cochrane on ‘The Challenge of the Non-Linear’ during which he asserted that systematic, i.e. linear, approaches were inadequate for the complex technology challenges of the future.

Of course, this conference would not be complete without the awards of certificates and cheques from CPMT for the best papers and posters of the conference, and certificates to the organisers.

A great social ambienceWe aimed to establish a strong social ambience for ESTC and left a memorable impact, not least built on the wonderful World Heritage site. The Gala Dinner was in the fantastic historic Painted Hall with great atmosphere, great food and great entertainment – singers amongst the diners. Even the Exhibitors’ reception kept the delegates’ in the Exhibition Hall until the security guards had to encourage them to depart. The finale was the ‘River Cruise’ with the centrepiece the memorable journey on the panoramic ‘London Eye’.