Francoise von Trapp (aka the Queen of 3D) has been following and reporting on the progress of 3D integration technologies since 2009. Francoise in 3D provides a high-level perspective of 3D industry events, offers executive viewpoints, and focuses on process and manufacturing aspects of 3D integration.
Passing the Torch: Reflections from SEMICON Europa 2025
While announcing my retirement after 20 years in the industry at IMAPS Symposium brought my career in advanced packaging full circle, wrapping up my 3D InCites career at SEMICON Europa brought closure. It was at SEMICON Europa 2007, held in Stuttgart, where my fascination with 3D integration and packaging first...
Francoise Unfiltered: Thoughts from IMAPS Symposium and SEMICON West
Maybe it’s my impending retirement, but I’m feeling a little salty these days. This my fifth draft about the highlights, low-lights and Aha moments of both IMAPS Symposium and SEMICON West. And I can’t get it right. All that comes up is my annoyance with carefully crafted messaging because nobody...
Changes at 3D InCites: Here’s What You Need to Know
I recently realized that IMAPS Symposium 2025 marks my 20th anniversary in the microelectronics industry. It was the first industry event I attended, as the Associate Editor of Advanced Packaging Magazine. My first SEMICON West was in 2006, and my first SEMICON Europa was in 2007. That was when I was first...
IMAPS Executive Summit: Advanced Packaging Comes to Silicon Valley
To celebrate the re-boot of Silicon Valley’s IMAPS Chapter, Chair Rozalia Beica, Rapidus, conceptualized and launched – with the help of the local committee and the IMAPS team – the first ever IMAPS Executive Summit. The theme was Advanced Packaging 2025: Market Momentum & Investment Outlook. According to Beica, what...
ECTC 2025 Celebrates Seventy-five Years of Pushing the Connectivity Scale
Seventy-five years is a long time. Fireworks often light up the sky to celebrate such significant milestones. How fitting it was, then, for the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the IEEE Electronics Component Technology Conference (ECTC 2025) to replace those fireworks with a drone show. After all, without the people in...
Arizona: The Epicenter of Semiconductor Resurgence
Whether we start calling it Chip Canyon, the Silicon Zone, or Silicon Diyógí (say Dare-yo-ghee), it looks like Arizona is on track for becoming the epicenter of semiconductor resurgence, not just in the U.S. but in all of North America. And we have the collective visions of Governor Katie Hobbs,...
A Tribute to Paul Werbaneth: Friend and Colleague
Earlier this month, in the middle of the IMAPS Device Packaging Conference Welcome Reception, I got an upsetting text from a fellow SemiSister, Jane Evans-Ryan, founder and principal of Genuity PR, telling me that she had just learned of Paul Werbaneth’s unexpected death on February 7. 2025 at his home...
Will the CHIPS ACT Be “DOGE’d?” And Other Musing from IMAPS Device Packaging 2025
There was a lot to be enthusiastic about at IMAPS Device Packaging 2025 (DPC2025). We presented the 2025 3D InCites Awards to eight deserving winners. We donated $70K to the IMAPS Microelectronics Foundation to establish a college fund for women and under-represented minorities seeking a career in microelectronics. Now in...
Announcing the Winners of the 2025 3D InCites Awards
As advanced interconnect and advanced packaging processes take the helm to drive advancements in next generation semiconductor devices, innovation and collaboration across the microelectronics supply chain becomes more important than ever. So, when the 3D InCites Member Advisory Board reviewed this year’s finalists for the 2025 3D InCites Technology Enablement...
Interconnectology Saves the World!
In 2007, when I was managing editor at the now defunct Advanced Packaging Magazine, we went out on a limb in our January Industry Forecast to declare, as our cover story: Advanced Packaging Saves the World! In 2008, we tempered that declaration to Advanced Packaging Drives the Industry! By 2009,...
