Guest editorial

IMAPS 2018 Poland

The International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) Poland Chapter was established in September 1982. In the beginning, it was the ISHM-Poland Chapter, and from 1997, it became the IMAPS-Poland Chapter.

The IMAPS is a non-profit making organization which aims to spread knowledge relating to hybrid microelectronics, which is a key technology in the assembly and application of semiconductors, thin film circuits and printed circuit boards (PCBs) to form practical miniaturized electronic equipment. In 2008, the IMAPS joined with IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society, bringing into formation the IMAPS-CPMT organization.

The 42nd IMAPS Poland International Conference was held in Biały Dom Hotel near Gliwice and took place between 23 and 26 September 2018. This event was organized by the Silesian University of Technology. The scope of the Conference covered everything in electronics between the chip and the system. The conference was attended by 71 participants, including 14 guests from abroad. During the conference, 15 invited lectures and 42 posters were presented. The conference was supported by six international journals indexed in Journal Citation Report database and one journal indexed in Scopus.

This year, as in the previous year, two young Scientists have been awarded, winning the refund of the conference fee during the next IMAPS 2019 Poland Conference.

In the special issue of Circuit World, seven papers have been collected, covering the processes and procedures associated with PCB technology. All of them were subjected to the journal’s regular reviewing procedure.

The first four papers by Pietrikova et al., Krzemiński et al., Tomaszewski et al. and Dybowska-Sarapuk et al. describe different aspects related to the printed electronics.

Borecki et al. report about the piezoresistive effect in embedded thick film resistors.

In the sixth paper, Géczy et al. investigate the critical current densities in the solder joints of chip-size SMD components and BGA lead-free solder joints.

The last article, by Klepacki et al., deals with the signal integrity in microelectronic hybrid systems performed on metal substrates.

I would like to thank all the authors for their scientific work and contributions that have led to the development and publication of this special issue of Circuit World. I hope that it will be of interest to readers of the journal and that it will help them to find novel solutions, contribute to the creation of new ideas and initiate many varied discussions about PCBs and related interconnect technologies. I believe that this branch of science could be effectively developed in the future.