Electronic packaging is essentially a multidisciplinary technology with foundation that spreads across almost all scientific and engineering branches like physics, chemistry, materials, electrical, mechanical, and thermal engineering. It is all-encompassing in the product domains enveloping a wide spectrum of products, from those that enhance personal life to those which involve national defense and security. The impact of this technology is widespread and affects industrial, academic, business, governmental, military, consumer, automotive, and medical sectors. Electronics is by far the largest industry segment in the modern technological world as it touches almost every aspect of human life. It is a trillion-dollar industry growing at a rate of 6–7% annually. The consumer electronics market itself is growing at a phenomenal rate of 12–15% a year owing to the penetration of personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, notebooks, gaming devices, wireless communication gadgets, etc. The products range from cost-insensitive, highly reliable, mission critical mainframe or supercomputers to cost-sensitive, portable consumer electronics.
