Plastic ball grid array (PBGA) overview

As integrated circuit functionality and clock speed continue to rise, innovative packaging approaches are in great demand. Recently, the plastic ball grid array (PBGA) technology has been gaining industry-wide interest and commitment as the potentially lowest-cost package for high-I/O devices and even for some lower-pincount applications. Drivers include the density advantages of an area array, quickly achieving six-sigma assembly yields with existing assembly equipment, the potential for excellent electrical and thermal performance, along with the traditional low cost of plastic packages. Because some perceived weaknesses are being eradicated, worldwide evaluation of the PBGA has accelerated. Although various aspects of this technology are discussed frequently, an overall assessment is still under development. In this paper, a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of PBGA technology will be described to identify (1) its technical advantages and limitations, (2) unique application areas where PBGA is the package of choice, and (3) current major hurdles for acceptance of PBGA and possible approaches to overcome these problems. The PBGA will be compared with PQFP, CQFP and CBGA in terms of package characteristics and their impact on system assembly. The characteristics include package attributes (i.e., package size, I/O counts and lead pitch), performance (i.e., electrical, thermal) and reliability (moisture). At the system level, solder joint fatigue, board routing, solder assembly yield, solder reparability and board delay are key metrics. The cost implication of various package families will be discussed. By analogy with SMT, the infrastructure for PBGA will take time to develop. The key elements and the current status of this infrastructure will be discussed.     

Ibuprofen Release from Beads Coated with an Experimental Latex: Effect of Certain Variables

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of factors such as drug loading, particle size, plasticizer type, antiadherent type, and annealing method on the release of ibuprofen from controlled-release beads coated with an experimental latex. Further, the in vitro release kinetics and mechanism of drug transport across the polymeric membrane have been investigated. Ibuprofen-loaded beads were coated with the experimental latex using a fluidized-bed coating machine (Uniglatt). The drug release from these spherical membrane reservoir systems appeared to be diffusion controlled. Evaluation of the effect of osmotic pressure by using dissolution media of various osmolal concentrations indicated that it has no significant effect on the drug release. To further elucidate the mechanism of release from these polymeric membranes, the permeation of drug through free films was studied.     

Weaving temporal and reliability aspects into a schema tapestry

In aspect-oriented programming (AOP) a cross-cutting concern is implemented in an aspect. An aspect weaver blends code from the aspect into a program’s code at programmer-specified cut points, yielding an aspect-enhanced program. In this paper, we apply some of the concepts from the AOP paradigm to data. Like code, data also has cross-cutting concerns such as versioning, security, privacy, and reliability. We propose modeling a cross-cutting data concern as a schema aspect. A schema aspect describes the structure of the metadata in the cross-cutting concern, identifies the types of data elements that can be wrapped with metadata, i.e., the cut points, and provides some simple constraints on the use of the metadata. Several schema aspects can be applied to a single data collection, though in this paper we focus on just two aspects: a reliability aspect and a temporal aspect. We show how to weave the schema for these two aspects together with the schema for the data into a single, unified schema that we call a schema tapestry. The tapestry guides the construction, interpretation, and validation of an aspect-enhanced data collection.     

Metasurface-Enabled Generation of Circularly Polarized Single Photons

Single photons carrying spin angular momentum (SAM), i.e., circularly polarized single photons generated typically by subjecting a quantum emitter (QE) to a strong magnetic field at low temperatures, are at the core of chiral quantum optics enabling nonreciprocal single-photon configurations and deterministic spin-photon interfaces. Here, a conceptually new approach to the room-temperature generation of SAM-coded single photons (SSPs) is described, which entails QE nonradiative coupling to surface plasmons being transformed, by interacting with an optical metasurface, into a collimated stream of SSPs with the designed handedness. Design, fabrication, and characterization of SSP sources, consisting of dielectric circular nanoridges with azimuthally varying widths deterministically fabricated on a dielectric-protected silver film around a nanodiamond containing a nitrogen-vacancy center, are reported. With properly engineered phases of QE-originated fields scattered by nanoridges, the outcoupled photons are characterized by a well-defined SAM (with the chirality >0.8) and high directionality (collection efficiency up to 92%).     

Compact 4 × 4 Proximity Coupled Microstrip Fed UWB Stepped Slot MIMO Antenna Having Triple Band Rejection

Wireless Personal Communications - The presented antenna is a novel highly isolated compact four-element Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna with common ground, which can reject three...     

Studies of interaction of amines with TOPO/TOP capped CdSe quantum dots: Role of crystallite size and oxidation potential

This work reports the interaction of aliphatic (triethyl amine, butyl amine) and aromatic amines (PPD, aniline) with CdSe quantum dots of varied sizes. The emission properties and lifetime values of CdSe quantum dots were found to be dependent on the oxidation potential of amines and crystallite sizes. Smaller CdSe quantum dots (size 5 nm) ensure better surface coverage of amines and hence higher quenching efficiency of amines could be realized as compared to larger CdSe quantum dots (size 14 nm). Heterogeneous quenching of amines due to the presence of accessible and inaccessible set of CdSe fluorophores is indicated. PPD owing to its lowest oxidation potential (0.26 V) has been found to have higher quenching efficiency as compared to other amines TEA and aniline having oxidation potentials 0.66 and >1.0 V, respectively. Butyl amine on the other hand, plays a dual role: its post-addition acts as a quencher for smaller and enhances emission for larger CdSe quantum dots, respectively. The beneficial effect of butyl amine in enhancing emission intensity could be attributed to enhance capping effect and better passivation of surface-traps.     

Improvement of fuel properties of cottonseed oil methyl esters with commercial additives

The low temperature operability and oxidative stability of cottonseed oil methyl esters (CSME) were improved with four anti‐gel additives as well as one antioxidant additive, gossypol. Low temperature operability and oxidative stability of CSME was determined by cloud point (CP), pour point (PP), cold filter plugging point (CFPP), and oxidative stability index (OSI). The most significant reductions in CP, PP, and CFPP in all cases were obtained with Technol®, with the average reduction in temperature found to be 3.9 °C. Gunk®, Heet®, and Howe's® were progressively less effective, as indicated by average reductions in temperature of 3.4, 3.0, and 2.8 °C, respectively. In all cases, the magnitude of CFPP reduction was greater than for PP and especially CP. Addition of gossypol, a polyphenolic aldehyde, resulted in linear improvement in OSI (R² = 0.9804). The OSI of CSME increased from 5.0 to 8.3 h with gossypol at a concentration of 1000 ppm.     

A century of discoveries, inventors, and new nickel alloys

The 20th century was an explosive period for the growth of the nickel industry beginning in 1906 with the development of Monel^® metal. What followed over the next 100 years was the invention of hundreds of new alloys uniquely designed for scores of applications in a multitude of industries. This paper acknowledges a number of the prolific inventors who pioneered new fields of alloy development. It also high-lights a long list of major metallurgical discoveries made by the metallurgists of the International Nickel Company.     

MEASUREMENT OF WATER DIFFUSIVITY IN AQUEOUS LITHIUM BROMIDE AND LITHIUM CHLORIDE SOLUTIONS

A relatively simple method was employed for measurement of water diffusivity in aqueous lithium bromide and lithium chloride solutions. The twin bulb apparatus used for these measurements was developed using an analogy between this apparatus and the conventional diaphragm cell apparatus. Tritiated water (TOH) was used as a tracer for these experiments because of its chemical similarity and proximity to the molecular weight of water. High tracer activity used at the beginning of the experiments allowed the use of relatively shorter time duration for each experiment (s;≈ 20 h) and a quasi-steady state equation to calculate the diffusivity from the observed tracer activity data

Initially, the water diffusivity in lithium bromide solutions for concentrations varying from 0.5 M to 3 M (22.1 weight percent) was measured to obtain a comparison with published values. The lithium bromide concentration was further varied from 3 M to 11 M (57.4 weight percent) to obtain data in the concentration range usually employed in absorption cooling applications, which is near the solubility limit. The water diffusivity was found to vary with lithium bromide concentration, and to have a maximum of 16.7 × 10^-10m²/s at 4 M. These diffusivity values were also compared with those obtained using an equation proposed by Rosevaere etal. (1941) for nonideal solutions. The water diffusivity in lithium chloride solutions was measured at concentrations of 7 M (25.7 weight percent) and 8 M (28.87 weight percent) to obtain a comparison with published values. The lithium choride concentration was further varied from 8 M to 13 M (43.24) weight percent) to gather data beyond those of other researchers. Similar to the trend of water diffusivity in lithium bromide solutions, water diffusivity in lithium chloride solutions was also found to vary with concentration with a minimum of 6.2 × 10^-10m²/s near the solubility limit.     

Heat transfer and friction factor enhancement in a square channel having integral inclined discrete ribs on two opposite walls

The influence of a gap provided in integral inclined ribs on heat transfer and friction factor enhancement is investigated. Experiments are conducted to obtain heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in a square channel with two opposite in-line ribbed walls for Reynolds numbers from 5000 to 40000. The test section of square channel composed of integral inclined ribs with a gap and has a length-tohydraulic diameter ratio (L/D _h ) of 20. The rib pitch-to-height ratio (p/e) is 10, the rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio (e/D _h ) is 0.060 and rib attack angle (α) varies in the range of 30⁰ to 90⁰ (4 steps). The relative gap position (d/W) and relative gap width (g/e) is varied in the range of 1/5–2/3 (5 steps) and 0.5–2.0 (4 steps), respectively. The enhancement in heat transfer and friction factor of this roughened duct was compared with smooth duct and duct roughened with continuous inclined ribs (with no gap) under similar flow condition. Presence of inclined ribs with a gap yields about 4-fold enhancements in Nusselt number and about 8-fold increase in the friction factor compared with smooth duct and about 1.3 times and 1.4 times higher than the case of continuous ribs (without gaps) for the entire range of parameters investigated. Ribs with relative gap width of 1.0 at relative gap position of 1/3 and attack angle of 60° provides maximum heat transfer and friction factor enhancement.