Diffusion barrier performance of Zr–N/Zr bilayered film in Cu/Si contact system

Zr–N/Zr bilayered film as a diffusion barrier between Cu and Si is evaluated. The thermal stability of the diffusion barrier is investigated by annealing the Cu/Zr–N/Zr/Si samples in N₂ for an hour. XRD, SEM and AES results for the above contact systems after annealing at 700 °C show that Cu film has preferential (1 1 1) crystal orientation and no diffraction peaks of Cu₃Si and a Cu–Zr–Si ternary compound are observed for all Cu/Zr–N/Zr/Si contact systems. In addition, the atomic distribution of Zr and Si is evident and grows with increasing temperature up to 700 °C, which corresponds to the Zr–Si phase having low contact resistivity. Low contact resistivity and high thermal stability diffusion barrier can be expected by the application of the Zr–N/Zr bilayered film as a diffusion barrier between Cu and Si.     

Evaluation of creep properties for Sn–Ag–Cu micro solder joint by multi-temperature stress relaxation test

The creep properties of a Sn–Ag–Cu micro solder joint with a solder ball with 500 μm were investigated by a multi-temperature stress relaxation test performed using a specimen at three temperatures (298, 348, and 398 K). The stress exponents in Norton’s law were 8 at 398 K, 8.8 at 348 K, and 9 at 298 K, and the activation energies were found to be 39 kJ/mol in the high-stress region and 80 kJ/mol in the low-stress region. The stress exponent in Norton’s law for a micro solder joint was lower than that for a large-scale specimen, which resulted in more coarsened intermetallics in the microstructure than in the large-scale specimen. The activation energies for the micro solder joint were almost equal to those for the large-scale specimen in the high- and low-stress regions. These results reflect the microstructure of the micro solder joint, and the creep constitutive equation for the Sn–Ag–Cu joint could be derived by the multi-temperature stress relaxation test proposed in this study.     

Effect of solder resist dissolution on the joint reliability of ENIG surface and Sn–Ag–Cu solder

The electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) process results in surface defects, such as pinholes and black pads, which weaken the solder joint and eventually degrade the reliability of the PCB. Contamination of the plating solutions, including dissolution of the solder resist (SR), can be a cause of the pinholes and black pads. This study examined the effects of SR dissolution on the solder joint reliability and electroless Ni plating properties. Electroless Ni plating was performed by adding 1 to 10 ppm hardener (melamine) to the fresh Ni solution. Many black pads were observed in the 7 and 10 ppm hardener-added surfaces. In addition, the content of P was highest when 7 and 10 ppm hardener was added. The ball shear tests were carried out to confirm the joint reliability between the ENIG surface with hardener-added and the Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder (SAC 305). The ball shear strength decreased with increasing dissolution of the hardener. In particular, the shear strength was the lowest at 7 and 10 ppm hardener addition. In addition, the failure mode of the solder joint was changed from ductile to brittle mode with increasing hardener addition. That is, as the hardener additive increases, intermetallic compound (IMC) phases were changed from (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ to (Cu,Ni)₃Sn₄ and Cu₆Sn₅ (brittle structure).     

Analog RRS cells—An alternative approach for sampled-data low-pass filters

Running recursive sum (RRS) or moving average filters are simple building blocks that are commonly applied in digital signal processing for prefiltering and decimation purposes. This paper presents an efficient implementation of RRS filters employing switched-capacitor techniques. The resulting filter topologies are stray-capacitance insensitive. In order to improve the inherent low-frequency selectivity of these low-pass cells, two novel sharpening procedures are proposed. The zero locations of the analog RRS blocks are, analogous to their digital counterparts, determined exclusively by the applied sampling rate and the order of the filter cell. Hence, the corresponding analog circuits exhibit extremely low element sensitivities. The feasibility of the presented approach is demonstrated by means of two 24th-order silicon prototype filters implemented by a 2-m double-poly CMOS process.     

Experimental investigation of the failure mechanism of Cu–Sn intermetallic compounds in SAC solder joints

A detailed experimental study on the fracture mechanism of Cu–Sn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) in the Pb-free solder was presented in this paper. The growth behaviors of the Cu₆Sn₅ and Cu₃Sn IMCs were inspected and the respective evolution pattern of their microstructures was investigated. Then, a detailed fractographic analysis on brittle fractured solder joints was conducted after the high speed ball pull test. The fracture locations in the Cu–Sn IMC layers during different periods of aging process were identified. The fracture modes of Cu₆Sn₅ and Cu₃Sn were determined as well. Afterwards, the fracture energies of different Cu–Sn IMC materials were directly compared using the Charpy impact test with a specially designed specimen. It was found that the grain boundary of Cu₃Sn is the weakest link in the Cu–Sn IMC system. Finally, based on these three parts of study, a mechanism to explain the thermal degradation of Cu–Sn IMCs was proposed.     

Modern IGBT gate driving methods for enhancing reliability of high-power converters — An overview

This paper presents a survey of existing gate driving approaches for improving reliability of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs). An extensive and various lists of techniques are introduced and discussed, including fast detection, identification and protection against IGBT failures, also considering cost-effective solutions. Gate-driver circuit solutions to improve short-circuit robustness, overload, voltage and current overshoots withstanding capability are first introduced to cope with abnormal conditions severely affecting lifetime expectation. Later, some advanced, state-of-the-art control techniques are discussed to minimize the real-mission-profile stresses in terms of voltage and current stresses to the device, together with, not least, temperature variations. Future challenges and perspectives are finally discussed at the end of the paper.     

Cu—Al—Ni形状记忆合金中的高温析出

本文利用声发射、X射线衍射分析、透射电镜等技术,研究了几种不同热处理制度下Cu-14.1 Al-4.2Niwt%合金正、逆马氏体相变行为、析出相,见下表。用X射线能谱方法对各相成分进行了分析,用会聚束(CBED)技术测定了γ_2相与2H马氏体的取向关系。     

Fractional Chaos Based Communication Systems——An Introduction

As one of secure communication means, chaotic communication systems has been well-developed during the past three decades. Technical papers, both for theoretical and practical investigations, have reached a huge amount in number. On the other hand, fractional chaos, as a parallel ongoing research topic, also attracts many researchers to investigate. As far as the IT field is concerned, the research on control systems by using fractional chaos known as FOC （fractional order control） has been a hot issue for quite a long time. As a comparison, interesting enough, up to now we have not found any research result related to Fractional Chaos Communi- cation （FCC） system, i.e., a system based on fractional chaos. The motivation of the present article is to reveal the feasibility of realizing communication systems based upon FCC and their superiority over the conventional integer chaotic communication systems. Principles of FCC and its advantages over integer chaotic communication systems are also discussed.     

An Ultra-Low-Power Embedded EEPROM for Passive RFID Tags

采用Chartered 0.35μm EEPROM工艺设计并实现了一个适用于无源射频电子标签的256位超低功耗EEPROM存储器.芯片实现了块编程和擦写功能,并通过优化敏感放大器和控制逻辑的结构,实现了读存储器时间和功耗的最优化.最后给出了芯片在编程/擦写/读操作情况下的功耗测试结果.在电源电压为1.8V,数据率为640kHz时,EEPROM编程/擦写的平均功耗约为68μA,读操作平均功耗约为0.6μA.     

An Efficient Adaptive Channel Estimation Algorithm for MIMO OFDM Systems—Study of Doppler Spread Tolerance

In this paper we develop an adaptive MIMO channel estimation algorithm for space–time block coded OFDM systems. The presented algorithm is based on Expectation Maximization (EM) technique by decomposing the superimposed received signals into their signal components, and estimating the channel parameters of each signal component separately. We also study and compare our proposed EM-based algorithm with a previously introduced recursive-least-squares based algorithm for MIMO OFDM systems. At each iteration the EM algorithm decomposes the problem of multi-channel estimation into channel estimation for each transmit–receive link. In this paper we also study the Doppler spread tolerance of our proposed algorithm in a fast fading environment, and investigate how it affects the system BER performance.     

Mn—Fe—Ni—Cu系NTCR阻值离散性探讨

就影响Ｍ－Ｆｅ－Ｎ１－Ｃｕ系阻值离散性的几个因素进行了分析。实验证明。工艺上通过控制适当的烧结温度、降低焊接温度,材料组成上掺杂微量的Ｓ１Ｏ２、ＺｒＯ２可使阻值离散性减少,产品的稳定性和一致性得以提高。     

A Thermesthesiometer?An Instrument for Burn Hazard Measurement

Surface temperature measurement alone is insufficient to establish the hazard to the human of contact with a hot or cold object. A metal surface is more likely to cause thermal injury than a plastic surface at the same temperature. An instrument equipped with a measuring probe has been developed for indicating the temperature that would be experienced if human contact were made with the hot surface in question. The correct value of interface contact temperature can be read for a selected contact time without knowing the composition or temperature of the heated material under test.     

Effects of isothermal aging and temperature–humidity treatment of substrate on joint reliability of Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu/OSP-finished Cu CSP solder joint

This study examined the effects of isothermal aging and temperature–humidity (TH) treatment of substrate on the joint reliability of a Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu (wt.%)/organic solderability preservative (OSP)-finished Cu solder joint. Two types of OSP-finished chip-scale-package (CSP) substrates were used, those subjected and not subjected to the TH test. This study revealed an association between the interfacial reaction behaviors, void formation and mechanical reliability of the solder joint. Many voids were formed at the interface of the OSP-finished Cu joint subjected to the TH test. These voids were caused by the oxidation of the OSP-finished Cu substrate during the TH test. In the shear tests, the shear force of the joint with the substrate not subjected to the TH test was slightly higher than that with the TH test. The mechanical reliability of the solder joint was degraded by voids at the interface.     

一种新的触头材料—Cu—Mo系合金

本文介绍了近年来国外研制Ｃｕ－Ｎｏ系触头材料的情况。详细地介绍了该种材料的制造方法和电性能。