Book review

The problem of providing a reliable and cost‐effective interconnection system between semiconductor devices and other add‐on components and the film circuit has been central to the development of hybrid microelectronic technology since its inception. Many of the techniques used have been adopted from those developed primarily for the semiconductor industry, and not all of these have been entirely suited to hybrid microcircuit production. Thermocompression bonding using gold wire, for example, while acceptable as a process for lead attachment to discrete transistors or semiconductor integrated circuits, in which the duration of exposure to raised temperature is quite short, may be the cause of early or delayed failure when applied to the assembly of a hybrid of any complexity, when the time at temperature is necessarily much longer.