High density packaging technology ultra thin package & new tab package

As electronic devices become more highly integrated, the demand for small, high pin count packages has been increasing. We have developed two new types of IC packages in response to this demand. One is an ultra thin small outline package (TSOP) which has been reduced in size from the standard SOP and the other, which uses Tape Automated Bonding (TAB) technology, is a super thin, high pin count TAB in cap (T.I.C.) package. In this paper, we present these packages and their features along with the technologies used to improve package reliability and TAB. Thin packages are vulnerable to high humidity exposure, especially after heat shock.1 The following items were therefore investigated in order to improve humidity resistance: (1) The molding compound thermal stress, (2) Water absorption into the molding compound and its effect on package cracking during solder dipping, (3) Chip attach pad area and its affect on package cracking, (4) Adhesion between molding resin and chip attach pad and its affect on humidity resistance. With the improvements made as a result of these investigations, the reliability of the new thin packages is similar to that of the standard thicker plastic packages.     

Atomically flat diamond (111) surface formation by homoepitaxial lateral growth

A process of homoepitaxial growth of diamond (111) films by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition has been investigated characterizing areas by ex-situ atomic force microscopy. The evolution of surface morphology during a lateral growth of (111) diamond was visualized utilizing a mesa structure as a marker. Lateral growth forms atomically flat surfaces, which show atomically flat terraces over several hundred nm widths and single bilayer steps of (111) diamond.     

A study on the effect of fine mineral powders with distinct vitreous contents on the fluidity and rheological properties of concrete

This paper presents an investigation on the effects of fine mineral powders on the fluidity and rheological properties of concrete. It was observed that the fluidity of concrete increased noticeably, and the plastic viscosity decreased, when vitreous powders were substituted partially for cement. It was found that vitreous powders have a strong dispersion effect on the fluidity and rheological properties of concrete, and this effect can be correlated with the vitreous content of the powders incorporated.     

The Direct Spectroscopy of Positronium Hyperfine Structure Using a Sub-THz Gyrotron

Positronium is an ideal system for research on Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), especially in a bound state. A discrepancy of 3.9 standard deviations has been found between the measured hyperfine structure (Ps-HFS) and the QED predictions. This may be due to the contribution of unknown new physics or common systematic effects in previous measurements, in all of which the Zeeman effect was used. We propose a new method to directly measure the Ps-HFS using a high power gyrotron. We compare two resonators which have been developed to supply sufficient power to drive the direct transition, a Fabry-Pérot resonator and a ring resonator with a diffraction grating. We plan to perform first direct measurement of Ps-HFS within the next six months.     

Adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition of methylene blue on mesoporous metallosilicates

Mesoporous silica and mesoporous metallosilicates with Al, Ti and Fe as foreign metal species were successfully synthesized by the rapid room temperature method. Mesoporous metallosilicates with low contents of foreign metals possessed high surface area (S_a), large mesopore volume (V_mp) and highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous structure. Increases in foreign metal contents caused disordering the mesoporous structures and lowering the S_a and V_mp values. Bleaching of aqueous methylene blue (MB) by mesoporous silica and metallosilicates was investigated. Mesoporous aluminosilicate and ferrosilicate with cation-exchangeable ability showed the excellent property for the adsorption of MB of cationic dye, while mesoporous ferrosilicate and titanosilicate which absorbed UV lights catalyzed the photocatalytic decomposition of MB under UV-illumination.     

Preparation of ultrafine zirconium dioxide particles by thermal decomposition of zirconium alkoxide vapour

Ultrafine zirconia particles are produced by thermal decomposition of zirconium tetratertiary butoxide (ZrTB) vapour. The introduction of ZrTB vapour into the cylindrical electric furnace, is achieved by three different methods: (evaporator, pressurized nebulizer and ultrasonic nebulizer). The properties of the fine particles obtained by these methods are mainly analysed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. It is found that ultrafine zirconia particles produced at relatively low temperatures from 600 to 700° C are spherical in the diameter range 0.035 to 0.15 μm and of tetragonal phase. Furthermore, two-component fine particles of zirconia-ilver are generated by putting the silver solid inside the furnace containing alkoxide vapour, and are deposited by inertia on to a glass substrate under low pressure to form films having a thickness of 17 to 33 μm. The electrical characteristics of the films are evaluated, and the conductance of the film is found to increase with the content of the silver component.     

A New Equation for Predicting the Dielectric Constant of a Mixture

The dielectric constant of a compound consisting of two different materials was simulated using the Monte Carlo and finite element methods. In the high concentration range of the higher dielectric constant material, the simulated value of the dielectric constant showed a "parallel-model"-like tendency. On the other hand, in the low concentration range of the higher dielectric constant material, the compound showed a "serial-model"-like behavior. Around 65% content of the higher dielectric constant material, it exhibited results similar to the logarithmic mixing rule. After careful consideration of these results, a new equation to predict the dielectric constant of the compound was derived. The agreement between the dielectric constant calculated by the new equation and the measured values was better than in any other case reported before.     

Time‐frequency analysis of a pressure wave caused by impulse tree using wavelet transform

This paper describes results of time‐frequency analysis of a pressure wave caused by impulse tree extension using wavelet transform. Pressure waves were measured by a piezo sensor which was located on the back of the plane electrode when high‐voltage nanosecond pulses were applied to a point electrode in a low‐density polyethylene block. Frequency of the pressure wave from induced charges on the plane electrode was higher than that of the pressure wave from tree. In addition, the frequency of the pressure wave from tree tended to decrease with increasing gap length because of the dispersion of the pressure wave during its propagation. When a large tree extension occurred between a 5‐mm gap, pressure waves of about 10 MHz propagated from the tree tip and a pressure wave of 1 MHz propagated from the tree stem. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 142(1): 1–7, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10097     

Banet — a local area network for distributed data processing

A broadcast architecture network (Banet) suitable for distributed data processing is proposed. One feature of Banet is that the broadcast-within-a-group function is supported not only by the datalink level but by the transport or session-level network structure. The commitment control scheme is included in the network protocol. Design goals, physical structure and protocols are discussed.