By Ning-Cheng Lee
Newnes
270 pages, 12 chapters, illustrations and photographs
List Price: $79.99

Ning-Cheng Lee is an industry veteran and has, for many years, worked for Indium Corp. of America (Utica, NY). I have always liked his presentation style and technical articles. His writing is similar to a lab report—detailed information is given on a problem, ideas on combating the problem are offered, and a result and final conclusion finalize the work. The material is always practical, easy to implement and easy to understand.

Chapters cover major topics of traditional surface-mount technology: ball grid array (BGA), chip scale packaging (CSP) and flip chip. Lead-free assembly is also addressed. Ning-Cheng provides a very practical chapter on underfilling and issues relating to in-circuit test probing. Some material suppliers may suggest that since Indium manufactures such materials, the book is a great way to promote those products—that is not the case in the text.

The book is packed with good illustrations and photos. A reader may find some of the photos and x-ray photos confusing—some are not actual photos, but artist impressions. Perhaps the true images could not be obtained for inclusion in time for publication. Nevertheless, this issue does not detract from the value of the text in any way. Overall, it's a great book and well worth the cost.