The influence of packaging materials on RF performance

At frequencies beyond 1 GHz, every component of the IC package contributes to the RF performance, whether required or not. In this work, we study the effects of packaging materials namely, the substrate and the globtop/underfill material on RF performance. We have measured interconnects on two area-array CSPs, the ball grid array and the polymer stud grid array using IMEC’s MCM-D technology. The measurements on the package interconnect show that the losses in the package substrate material account for about 50% of the total losses at 1.8 GHz and this drops to less than 20% at 5.2 GHz. The losses due to impedance mismatch dominate the losses especially below 10 GHz and considerable improvement in performance cannot be obtained by using an improved/expensive substrate. The other study is about the influence of globtop/underfill materials on wirebonds (through 3D EM simulations) as well as on standard 50 Ω MCM-D transmission lines (through experiments). While a higher value of dielectric constant of the globtop/underfill material is better on wirebonds, the influence of loss tangent is felt only above values of 0.1. The influence of seven different globtop/undefill materials on 50 Ω transmission lines has been used to extract their dielectric constant and loss tangent values at 30 GHz. These results are very valuable since one can hardly find the properties of globtop/underfill materials beyond 1 GHz.     

Droplet formation by squeezing in a microfluidic cross-junction

In microfluidics, flow focusing is widely used to produce water-in-oil droplets in microchannels at high frequency. We here report an experimental study of droplet formation in a microfluidic cross-junction with a minimum number of geometrical parameters. We mostly focus on the squeezing regime, which is composed of two distinct steps: filling and pinching. The duration of each step (and corresponding volumes of each liquid phase) is analyzed. They vary according to both water and oil flow rates. These variations provide several insights about the fluid flows in both phases. We propose several scaling laws to relate the droplet volume and frequency to the flow rate of both phases. We also discuss the influence of surfactant and channel compliance on droplet formation.     

Functionalized polyglycidol-CuCl-complexes as catalysts in the oxidative coupling reaction of terminal acetylenes

Summary Novel hyperbranched amino-terminated polyglycidoles have been synthesized and tested as macromolecular ligands in the oxidative coupling reaction of phenylacetylene. Amino-terminated polyglycidoles-CuCl complexes showed to be more effective catalysts than the reference monomeric tertiary amines-CuCl ones, but less effective than the most efficient N,N,N'N'-tetramethylethylenediamine-(TMDA) CuCl complex. The difference in performance of monomeric and hyperbranched ligands is probably due to two factors. The first one is better complexation abilities and the second is the local increase of reagent concentration. Received: 28 April 2001/Revised version: 29 August 2001/Accepted: 5 September 2001     

Femtosecond laser modification of an array of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes intercalated with Fe phase nanoparticles

Femtosecond lasers (FSL) are playing an increasingly important role in materials research, characterization, and modification. Due to an extremely short pulse width, interactions of FSL irradiation with solid surfaces attract special interest, and a number of unusual phenomena resulted in the formation of new materials are expected. Here, we report on a new nanostructure observed after the interaction of FSL irradiation with arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) intercalated with iron phase catalyst nanoparticles. It was revealed that the FSL laser ablation transforms the topmost layer of CNT array into iron phase nanospheres (40 to 680 nm in diameter) located at the tip of the CNT bundles of conical shape. Besides, the smaller nanospheres (10 to 30 nm in diameter) are found to be beaded at the sides of these bundles. Some of the larger nanospheres are encapsulated into carbon shells, which sometime are found to contain CNTs. The mechanism of creation of such nanostructures is proposed.     

Observations of infrared bands of asymmetrical ozone isotopologues 16O16O18O and 16O18O18O

Infrared spectra (0.003 cm(-1) resolution) of 16O16O18O and 16O18O18O ozone isotopologues have been recorded and analyzed in the range 600-5000 cm(-1). Several thousand rovibrational lines belonging to 32 absorption bands have been measured and assigned. An accurate determination of band centers through the rovibrational analysis has been done, 12 bands being observed for the first time to our knowledge. In addition to atmospheric retrieval applications, these results are also useful for a validation of potential energy surfaces and for the study of isotope effects in dynamic processes of ozone.     

BER Analysis of Equalized OFDM Systems in Nakagami, <Emphasis Type="Italic">m</Emphasis> < 1 Fading

The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission scheme is currently experiencing increased popularity due to advances in very large scale integration technology. It is used for a variety of broadband systems such as asymmetric digital subscriber lines, very-high-speed digital subscriber lines, digital video, and audio broadcasting, and wide local area network standards such as IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11 g, and ETSI Hiperlan/2. However, propagation impairments can cause severe degradation in bit error rates (BER) for coherent detection. We derive a semi-analytical method to evaluate BER of a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)-OFDM system in Nakagami, m < 1 fading and additive noise where pilot-assisted linear channel estimation and channel equalization are used. This allows modeling of more severe fading environments than can be depicted by a Rayleigh distribution. Numerical simulations are used to validate the proposed methods. The techniques developed can be applied to other channel estimation techniques, modulation schemes and the performance evaluation of equalized single carrier narrowband systems.     

Numerical Evaluation of Toughening by Crack-Face Grain Interlocking in Self-Reinforced Ceramics

Crack bridging associated with the pull-out process of interlocking grains in self-reinforced ceramic materials is studied through a micromechanical simulation. The pullout of a single inclined grain is modeled via the numerical solution of a general contact problem. The bridging-force versus crack-opening-distance curve indicates a nonlinear, springlike response for the pullout of interlocking grains. The sliding friction along the debonded interface, induced by highly localized contact stresses, dominates the total bridging force. The bridging force increases with grain inclination until eventual bridge failure. The pullout of misaligned grains mainly affects short-crack toughening, with a rising R -curve, whereas aligned grains contribute to long-crack toughening. The residual stresses of the thermal expansion anisotropy play a minor role in the pull-out process of grain interlocking and the resultant toughening. The proposed mechanism is operative in both single-phase and composite ceramics in which pullout of elongated grains/reinforcements occurs.     

On the structural dimension of competitive strategy

This paper establishes the existence of systematic differencesin the nature of competitive strategies typically pursued acrossindustries. By means of qualitative content analysis, we extracteda matrix of 76 industries times 12 strategies reported as beingcharacteristic in a series of monographs. Subsequent tests forthe statistical significance of observed differences in thetypical strategy portfolio show an evident link to an industry'sgeneral reliance on intangible investments, human resourcesand inputs from external services.     

Stress and plastic deformation of MEA in running fuel cell

Numerical modelling of mechanical stresses in running fuel cell is provided. The evolution of stresses and plastic deformations in the membrane has been obtained during the turn-on phase. The operating conditions have been taken into account by imposing the heating sources and the humidity field. The results have been presented on two scales: the global scale reflects the stress evolution in the entire fuel cell and the local one corresponds to the tooth/channel structure. It has been shown that the stresses are strongly heterogeneous on the both scales and time dependent. From the mechanical point of view, the most sensible zone is under the GDL/seal joint interface. In the running fuel cell the heterogeneity decreases while it rises in the fuel cell just after the assembly. The stresses reach the maximum values during the humidification step, the magnitude of these stresses is sufficient for initiation of the plastic deformations in the Nafion membrane.     

The synthesis and crystal structure of unsubstituted 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY)

The fully unsubstituted 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) was synthesized for the first time by oxidation of dipyrromethane followed by treatment with boron trifluoride diethyl etherate in the presence of a base. The compound was fully characterized and its X-ray crystal structure is reported.