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Automotive electronics, after 1995, will be similar to aerospace electronics because there is a demand for low weight and volume together with very high speed and ultra‐high reliability. What is different is that automotive electronics must achieve all those properties at very low cost. It will be shown that when using ASIC chips the chip area is determined by the number of pins instead of the number of components of the active circuit. As ASIC technology proceeds towards line widths in the submicrometre range, the ratio of active Si area to total chip area is becoming much less than 1. This means that on the ASIC chip there is Si area which is ‘empty’. This ‘empty’ Si area can be used for designing self‐test circuits and redundant functions on the ASIC chip at a cost penalty slightly higher than the design cost. It will also be shown that these ASICs can work in the order of 100 MHz at the chip level. Such ASIC chips will therefore have a very high reliability at the chip level due to the inherent properties of the Si and the built‐in redundancy. At the same time they can work at very high speed. From a performance point of view the best solution should be a highly miniaturised packaging technology. With self‐test circuits on the chip, there is a good correlation between wafer test and final test. Therefore, from an economical point of view, working with chips will then have an economical advantage compared with working with packaged circuits. From a reliability point of view it will be shown that the solder joints are the limiting factor. A critical review is presented of the reliability problems plaguing the SMD and soldering technology of today. It will be shown that, if SMD technology is to meet the reliability demands in a future automotive environment, it will have to have solder joint failure rates better than 30 ppm over the life, 17 years, in automotive applications. The conclusion is that a multi‐ASIC chip approach has the best potential as the solution for the future, post 1995, automotive electronics, provided there is a highly reliable chip interconnection technology available at that time.

This study examines problems that may occur when conventional Value‐at‐Risk (VaR) estimators are used to quantify market risks in an agricultural context. For example, standard VaR methods, such as the variance‐covariance method or historical simulation, can fail when the return distribution is fat tailed. This problem is aggravated when long‐term VaR forecasts are desired. Extreme Value Theory (EVT) is proposed to overcome these problems. The application of EVT is illustrated by an example from the German hog market. Multi‐period VaR forecasts derived by EVT are found to deviate considerably from standard forecasts. We conclude that EVT is a useful complement to traditional VaR methods.

This study aims to examine the links between office types (cellular, shared-room, small and medium-sized open-plan) and employees' subjective well-being regarding cognitive and affective evaluations and the role perceived noise levels at work has on the aforementioned associations.

A survey with measures of office types, perceived noise levels at work and the investigated facets of subjective well-being (cognitive vs affective) was distributed to employees working as real estate agents in Sweden. In total, 271 useable surveys were returned and were analyzed using analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and a regression-based model mirroring a test of moderated mediation.

A significant difference was found between office types on the well-being dimension related to cognitive, but not affective, evaluations. Employees working in cellular and shared-room offices reported significantly higher ratings on this dimension than employees working in open-plan offices, and employees in medium-sized open-plan offices reported significantly lower cognitive evaluation scores than employees working in all other office types. This pattern of results was mediated by perceived noise levels at work, with employees in open-plan (vs cellular and shared-room) offices reporting less satisfactory noise perceptions and, in turn, lower well-being scores, especially regarding the cognitive (vs affective) dimension.

This is one of the first studies to compare the relative impact of office types on both cognitive and affective well-being dimensions while simultaneously testing and providing empirical support for the presumed process explaining the link between such aspects.

A misplaced reliance on value at risk (VaR) has been focused on in the media as one of the main reasons for the current financial crisis, and the recently published Turner Review by the UK Financial Services Authority concurs. The purpose of this paper is to present an introductory overview of VaR and its weaknesses which will be easily understood by non‐technical readers.

Simple numerical examples utilising real and simulated data are employed to reinforce the main arguments.

This paper explains that some of the main approaches employed by banks for computing VaR have serious weaknesses. These weaknesses have contributed to the current financial crisis.

Consistent with the introductory nature of this paper, the empirical research is limited to simple examples.

The evidence here suggest that if VaR is to play a major role under future financial regulation then research is required to develop improved estimation techniques and backtesting procedures.

This paper differs from many academic papers on VaR by assuming only a very basic knowledge of mathematics and statistics.

This paper sets out to understand the impact of the ambient environment on perceived comfort, health, wellbeing and by extension productivity in the workplace.

The research combined an occupant survey considering satisfaction with the ambient environment, health and wellbeing and workplace behaviour with the monitoring of ambient environmental conditions.

The paper demonstrates that the ambient environment can have a significant impact on occupant comfort, health and wellbeing, which in turn has implications for built asset performance. Within the ambient environmental factors considered, a hierarchy may exist with noise being of particular importance. Occupant behaviour within the workplace was also found to be influential.

The research was limited to a single commercial office building, and a wider range of case studies would therefore be of benefit. The research was also limited to the summer months.

The findings show that an active approach to asset management is required, by continuously monitoring internal environment and engaging with occupants. This must carefully consider how ambient environmental factors and workplace behaviour impact upon occupants’ comfort, health and wellbeing to ensure the performance of the built asset is maximised.

This paper demonstrates that both occupiers’ workplace behaviour and ambient environmental conditions can have an impact on occupant comfort, health, wellbeing and productivity. The paper strengthens the case for the active management of the workplace environment through environmental monitoring and behaviour change campaigns supported by corresponding changes to workplace culture.

ISHM invites papers for the above Conference, to be held on 29–31 May 1991 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Papers should cover areas such as: design, manufacturing, packaging and interconnection, materials and processing, applications, reliability, components, new technologies, marketing and economics, optoelectronics. Summaries should be in English, length 200–300 words. The deadline for receipt of summaries is 30 September 1990. (For full details, see announcement on pp. 54–55.)

There is an increased interest for introducing activity-based offices at universities. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge about the importance of the built environment for the psychosocial work environment within academia by analyzing how staff at a large Swedish university experienced the physical and psychosocial work environment before and after moving to activity-based offices.

A Web-based survey was distributed to all employees at two faculties at a university three months before (2015, n = 217, response rate 51 per cent) and nine months after (2016, n = 200, response rate 47 per cent) relocation to a new activity-based university building.

In the new premises, a vast majority (86 per cent) always occupied the same place when possible, and worked also more often from home. The social community at work had declined and social support from colleagues and supervisors was perceived to have decreased. The participants reported a lower job satisfaction after the relocation and were more likely to seek new jobs. No aspects in the physical or psychosocial work environment were found to have improved after the relocation.

The study had a two-wave cross-sectional design, which does not allow establishing causal relations.

There is reason to be cautious about relocation to activity-based offices at universities. The potential savings in costs for premises may lead to may be followed by an increase in other costs. The risk that staff cannot concentrate on their work in activity-based university workplaces and lose their sense of community with colleagues are factors, which in the long run may lead to decreased efficiency, more conflicts and poorer well-being.

This paper contributes with new knowledge concerning changes in the physical and psychosocial work environment when relocating from cell offices to activity-based offices in a university setting.

The aim of this study is to investigate whether activity-based workspaces (ABWs) are able to solve the privacy-communication trade-off known from fixed-desk offices. In fixed-desk offices, employees work in private or open-plan offices (or in combi-offices) with fixed workstations, which support either privacy or communication, respectively. However, both dimensions are essential to effective employee performance, which creates the dilemma known as the privacy-communication trade-off. In activity-based workspaces, flexible workstations and the availability of different spaces may solve this dilemma, but clear empirical evidence on the matter is unavailable.

To address this knowledge gap, the authors surveyed knowledge workers (N = 363) at a medium-sized German company at three time points (T1–T3) over a one-year period during the company’s move from a fixed-desk combi-office (a combination of private and open-plan offices with fixed workplaces) to an ABW. Using a quantitative survey, the authors evaluated the employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the old (T1) and the new work environments (T2 and T3).

The longitudinal study revealed a significant increase in employees’ perceived privacy and perceived communication in the ABW. These increases remained stable in the long term, which implies that ABWs have a lasting positive impact on employees.

As the privacy and communication dimensions were previously considered mutually exclusive in a single workplace, the results confirm that ABWs can balance privacy and communication, providing optimal conditions for enhanced employee performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory (Demerouti et al., 2001; Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) is an appropriate conceptual framework for understanding the physical environment for work.

A conceptual analysis of the multidisciplinary workplace literature was performed to assess the core propositions of JD-R theory as they relate to the workplace environment.

The analysis confirms that the workplace environment can be viewed as a composite of environmental demands (which instigate a health impairment process) and environmental resources (which trigger an engagement process). Employees proactively try to improve the suitability of their workspace through environmental crafting, motivated by minimising demands and maximising resources.

The application of JD-R theory to the workplace environment fills a gap in the literature for a framework which captures the dynamic nature of the employee-workplace relationship.

A review of state‐of‐the‐art technology pertinent to tape automated bonding (for fine pitch, high I/O, high performance, high yield, high volume and high reliability) is presented. Emphasis is placed on a new understanding of the key elements (for example, tapes, bumps, inner lead bonding, testing and burn‐in on tape‐with‐chip, encapsulation, outer lead bonding, thermal management, reliability and rework) of this rapidly moving technology.