Book Review: Neural Network Principles: R. L. HARVEY

Chapter 4 (61 pages) describes the assembly of chip packages and interconnect substrates to form useful electronic-subassemblies. Chapter 5 (100 pages) treats the special problems associated with plugs, sockets and cabling, met with in higher-level interconnect. It focuses on connectors for both signal and power applications. Chapter 6 (60 pages) describes manufacturing and test considerations for multichip modules and circuit cards, and it completes the first section. Chapter 7 (50 pages) opens the second half of the book with a theoretical and practical treatment of interconnection. Rent's rule and various heuristic wiring-models are discussed. The fundamentals of layout systems and algorithms are also presented. Chapter 8 provides a detailed treatment of factors which affect the electrical performance. At the operating frequencies of systems currently in design, transmission-line effects and parasitic elements inherent in chip-packaging and boardlevel packaging are of paramount importance, as well as the distribution of power. Chapter 9 (66 pages) tackles thermal design and control. The increasingly important aspect of analysing aircooled systems at the chip, package, board and system levels is examined. New frontiers, such as the use of heat pipes and thermosyphons and cryogenic cooling, are touched upon. Design and analysis techniques in various shock and vibration environments are considered in Chapter 10 (40 pages). Chapter 11(39 pages) is concerned with the analysis and understanding of the micromechanics problems resulting from microminiaturisation and new fabrication-techniques. Chapter 12 (93 pages) is packed with data on the materials commonly found in electronics-packaging systems with attention to key characteristics that make the materials valuable for particular purposes, and the drawbacks associated with their use. It would be hard to find such a compact and extensive survey anywhere else in the literature. The book ends with Chapter 13 (50 pages), written by one of the editors, which considers reliability issues. A sensible, rather than a naive, attitude is applied to the subject, which, as the author explains, is similar to weather forecasting. Both reliability and weather can be analysed after the event, and both reliability and weather predictions are considered beneficial in preparing for future events. Unfortunately, the goal of both weatherand reliabilityscientists is to be proactive rather than reactive. This is not easy when the prediction models consist of a large number of interacting variables, many of which are not easy to measure. There is a mature attempt in this chapter to discuss many of the major factors involved. This is an essential reference book for all those who work or teach in the microelectronicspackaging field. It does not, however, claim to be a book which is complete in itself, but the endof-chapter references (2-3 pages in most cases) go a long way to ease the search for more detailed up-to-date information. A minor, but important, point is that this book deserves better than a one-page contents-list, which lists only the titles of the chapters and the authors. In addition, there should be a contents section which refers to all paragraph headings, as well as a list of diagrams and tables. This is a lamentable omission to an otherwise well-presented book which has at least one diagram or table on most pages. PETER F. JACKSON Division of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Hertfordshire