What Is the Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Society?

The Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Society (CPMT) is a technical society within the IEEE that focuses on the science and engineering of electronic components, their packaging, and the manufacturing processes used to produce them. Its field of interest spans materials science, chemical processes, reliability engineering, mathematical modeling, and the design and production of discrete devices, hybrid circuits, and electronic packages. The society provides a forum for technical exchange among researchers, engineers, and industry professionals working across the full spectrum from raw materials to finished electronic assemblies.

The society traces its origins to 1954, when the IRE (Institute of Radio Engineers) established the Professional Group on Production Techniques. Through a series of mergers and renamings over several decades, including the formation of the IEEE Parts, Hybrids, and Packaging Group in 1971 and its merger with the Manufacturing Technology Group in 1978, the organization took the CPMT name in January 1994. A detailed account of this history is available from the Engineering and Technology History Wiki entry on the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society.

Technical Scope and Publications

The society's technical scope reflects the interdisciplinary nature of electronic packaging, which must address electrical performance, thermal management, mechanical reliability, and manufacturing process compatibility simultaneously. Key topic areas include substrate technologies, solder and interconnect materials, flip-chip and ball grid array assembly, system-in-package and three-dimensional integration, and environmental compliance with regulations such as the European RoHS directive.

The flagship publication is the IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research across the full scope of the society's field of interest. The journal consolidated several predecessor publications when the CPMT society was formed and covers advances in materials, process engineering, simulation, and reliability testing for electronic systems.

Conferences and Professional Activities

The society sponsors the Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), which has been held annually since 1951 and is the primary international forum for publishing advances in component packaging, interconnect technology, and assembly processes. ECTC draws participants from semiconductor manufacturers, materials suppliers, contract assemblers, and academic research groups. The society also sponsors approximately 20 additional conferences and workshops covering specialized topics such as advanced packaging, thermal management, and flexible electronics.

In 2017, the IEEE Board of Directors approved a name change from CPMT to the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society (EPS), reflecting the evolution of the field toward a broader definition of electronic packaging. The renaming is described in a notice published by the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society.

Applications

The technologies within the CPMT Society's scope have applications in a wide range of fields, including:

• Consumer electronics assembly and miniaturization
• Automotive electronics packaging for high-temperature and high-vibration environments
• Aerospace and defense electronics for harsh-environment deployment
• Medical device manufacturing requiring hermetic packaging
• Data center and high-performance computing thermal management