Book excerpt: About five to six years ago, the words 'packaging and manufacturing' started to be used together to emphasize that we have to make not only a few but thousands or even millions of packages which meet functional requirements. The aim of this book is to provide the much needed reviews and in-depth discussions on the advanced topics surrounding packaging and manufacturing. The first chapter gives a comprehensive review of manufacturing chal lenges in electronic packaging based on trends predicted by different resources. Almost all the functional specifications have already been met by technologies demonstrated in laboratories. However, it would take tremendous efforts to implement these technologies for mass production or flexible manufacturing. The topics crucial to this implementation are discussed in the following chapters: Chapter 2: Challenges in solder assembly technologies; Chapter 3: Testing and characterization; Chapter 4: Design for manufacture and assembly of electronic packages; Chapter 5: Process modeling, optimization and control in electronics manufacturing; and Chapter 6: Integrated manufacturing system for printed circuit board assembly. The electronics-based products are very competitive and becoming more and more application-specific. Their packages should fulfill cost, speed, power, weight, size, reliability and time-to-market requirements. More importantly, the packages should be manufacturable in mass or flexible production lines. These chapters are excellent references for professionals who need to meet the challenge through design and manufacturing improvements. This book will also introduce students to the critical issues for competitive design and manufacturing in electronic packaging.