Happy Holden's HDI Handbook, now finally released, will likely become the high-density interconnection bible for future generations of electronic circuit design and manufacturing engineers, providing valuable advice and technical guidance for the road ahead in the field of interconnections.

Over the past decade or so, HDI has risen to become a cornerstone technology for advanced interconnections. An electronics industry veteran, technical guru and longtime friend, Happy Holden has put his formidable talents and energy into bringing together a text that is likely to serve as a technical resource for electronics design engineers from around the globe.

Holden's comprehensive knowledge and understanding of circuit manufacturing processes, computer science and electronics caused him to rise through the ranks to provide guidance for HP's global PCB manufacturing operations. At HP, Holden and his colleagues pioneered activity in HDI technology in the 1980s, and he never lost sight of HDI's benefits. Holden has been the industry's primary evangelist for HDI ever since.

The HDI Handbook is the culmination and codification of those years of knowledge under one cover. Helping Holden in this effort was an "A Team" of highly experienced and respected technologists from around the states and across the seas, including Dr. John Andresakis, Oak-Mitsui's VP of strategic technology and a 28-year manufacturing veteran; Dr. Eric Bogatin, of Bogatin Enterprises, a world-renowned expert in signal integrity; Michael Carano of OMG Electronic Chemicals, a widely known electroplating technology and printed circuit manufacturing expert; Karen Carpenter, president of CMTC Associates, highly regarded technologist and analyst who had earlier careers with IBM and EIT; Dr. Karl H. Dietz of DuPont, an imaging expert and author; Mark Laing, product marketing manager for Mentor Graphics' Systems Manufacturing Solutions and an expert in assembly, test and inspection; Dr. Christophe Vaucher, a widely known electrical test expert and inventor of laser direct testing (LDT); Per Viklund, director of IC packaging and RF at Mentor Graphics and 30-year electronic design veteran; and Matt Wuensch, Systems Manufacturing Solutions business development manager for Mentor Graphics.

This stellar group has created a handbook that fills a void in the world of electronic interconnection fabrication information, and it is a perfect companion to the other bible of circuit manufacturing, Clyde Coombs' venerated Printed Circuit Handbook.    

In 16 well-prepared and presented chapters, the reader is given a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art, from the opening chapter and Introduction by Holden to the final chapter that reviews SiP concepts. The text provides a sense of scope and opportunity, practical design guidelines and advice on signal integrity control, HDI materials and manufacturing processes. There are individual chapters on microvias, metallization, fine-line imaging and etching, as well as a complete chapter on via-fill, plating and circuit finishes.

Later chapters cover inspection, testing, quality, acceptability and reliability, concluding with chapters on assembly and test processes for HDI and a look at the future of embedded components and their unique challenges, as well as possible changes in advanced HDI and next-generation interconnections.

Like other books in the B&R Publishing stable, this book is available for free. It can be downloaded at www.hdihandbook.com. Because the HDI Handbook is free, one has no reason not to be fully informed on this pivotal technology.

"Fortune favors the prepared mind," said the renowned scientist Louis Pasteur and this text provides just such opportunity for HDI.

Don't miss it.