In this issue of Intel Technology Journal (Volume 9, Issue 4) we focus on challenges in the area of package technology development.

Historically, the primary function of electronic packages has been to facilitate the electrical connectivity of silicon chips to a printed circuit board, while at the same time providing mechanical protection to the chip from environmental conditions. For several decades, Intel's microprocessor technology and performance has followed Moore's Law. Microelectronic package technology has facilitated this evolution by providing the required technology solutions that support the overall microprocessor performance treadmill.

Electronic products are pervasive in multiple consumer and business markets such as traditional PCs, enterprise servers, and communication devices. These markets require technical solutions that are extremely diverse as they support different products such as CPUs, chipsets, radios, flash memories, and embedded logic. Microelectronic packages have adapted to meet the diverse needs of these markets.

The advances in manufacturing of semiconductor devices and packages over the past few decades have resulted in faster, more powerful, and cheaper computing devices containing hundreds of millions of transistors. Cost pressures, increasing functionality, and market competitive pressures demand continuous innovation in package technology. Packages for current Intel products include innovative and advanced technology solutions such as the world's first high-volume land grid array (LGA) socket for organic substrates, ultra slim packages utilizing thinned Si chips, package-on-package stacking, novel power delivery, and advance heat dissipation architectures. Intel's development methodology focuses on the global optimization of the overall interconnect hierarchy including the silicon, package, socket, and board, rather than the local optimization of individual components of the platform. This methodology has allowed Intel's package solutions for microelectronic devices to lead the industry.

This November 2005 issue of Intel Technology Journal provides a broad perspective of the challenges and opportunities facing engineers working on microelectronic packages as they strive to offer cost-effective solutions for Intel products. Recent advances and future challenges will be discussed with reference to opportunities in electronic materials, polymer science, interfacial mechanics and fracture, computational and experimental methods, power delivery, signal integrity, and thermal sciences. Some of the papers will provide insight into recent technical advances in support of microelectronic packages at Intel, while others will focus more on anticipated future trends.

While one issue of a journal cannot cover all of the individual and cross-disciplinary areas of broad technologies like microelectronic packages, the intent of this issue is to provide some basic insights into Intel's solutions in this area. I hope the reader will enjoy and benefit from the exciting content of this issue!