One of the strongest trends in the design and manufacture of modern electronics packages and assemblies is the utilization of surface mount technology as a replacement for through-hole tech- nology. The mounting of electronic devices and components onto the surface of a printed wiring board or other substrate offers many advantages over inserting the leads of devices or components into holes. From the engineering viewpoint, much higher lead counts with shorter wire and interconnection lengths can be accommo- dated. This is critical in high performance modern electronics packaging. From the...