0-7803-8906-9/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 2005 Electronic Components and Technology Conference International Collaboration in Packaging Education: Hands-on System-on-Package (SOP) Graduate Level Courses at Indian Institute of Science and Georgia Tech PRC Mahesh Varadarajan *@ , Swapan Bhattacharya † , Ravi Doraiswami † , G Ananda Rao * , N J Rao * , Gary May † , Leyla Conrad † and Rao Tummala † * Centre for Electronics Design and Technology, Indian Institute of Science, CV Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012 India, mahesh@cedt.iisc.ernet.in † Packaging Research Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, 813 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA @ Visiting Research Engineer at PRC, Georgia Tech, mahesh@ece.gatech.edu Abstract System-on-Package (SOP) continues to revolutionize the realization of convergent systems in microelectronics packaging. The SOP concept which began at the Packaging Research Center (PRC) at Georgia Tech has benefited its international collaborative partners in education including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The academic program for electronics packaging currently in the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (CEDT) at IISc is aimed at educating a new breed of globally-competitive engineers in the new SOP technology to meet the next generation workforce need of global as well as the Indian electronics industry. This has been possible with the hands-on electronics packaging course being taught at IISc. The first-ever fundamental systems packaging textbook from the PRC, and in which IISc has been a partner has brought awareness among the engineering students as to the need for better packaging in electronic products and systems. This paper will highlight the electronics packaging scenario in India, the first-of-its-kind electronics packaging course curriculum in CEDT at the IISc, explain the benefits of research integration with education and look at how SOP technology and packaging education has helped to enrich the engineering students at the graduate level. Introduction- System-on-Package (SOP) System-On-Package is a new and emerging electronics system paradigm with applications not only for electronic systems but also for bio-medical systems [1]. It goes beyond System-on-Chip (SOC) and System-In-Package (SIP) technologies that are widely practiced in the industry. It overcomes the fundamental limits to computing and integration limits to wireless communications and to consumer electronics that SOC and SIP present. It began at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Packaging Research Center in 1993, funded by NSF as one of 20 National Centers, to both explore and develop, as well as to educate a new breed of engineers in this new technology. Today this technology is pervasive as exemplified by many activities around the world and in many areas of research namely, mixed signal design, signal and power integrity, EMI, fabrication, integration and test of mixed digital , RF and optical functions as well as assembly, manufacturing, and reliability. The SOP paradigm is expected to change the current chip-centric system-on-chip (SOC) methodology to cheaper, faster-to-market IC-package-system co-design flow. The SOP concept (Figure 1) also has brought together universities and industries on common platform with the PRC, in research, education and long-term projects. Fig 1: SOP as compared to SOC, SIP and MCM Electronics Scenario in India During the year 2003-04, electronics and IT industry in India showed a phenomenal growth of 19 percent [2]. Although software and services industry in India continues to be the leading sector and shows a robust growth, hardware services are now into strategic areas including satellite based communication, infra-red based detection and ranging, GPS based vehicle tracking systems etc.. Microelectronics forms the core of hardware constituent of the IT, internet and communications revolution. The thrust of microelectronics and nano-technology development program initiatives is to build a strong microelectronics industry and R & D base in the country to cater to the needs of the human resource development, research base, entrepreneurship and healthy growth of the industry. This focus has led to major efforts on the part of the universities in the country to tune the academic program suited to meet the requirements of the thrust areas in science and technology. The presence of multinational companies and the establishment of R & D centers by these industries in India is an important step for the development of electronics manufacturing and services in India. 1930