Suppression of void coalescence in thermal aging of tin-silver-copper-X solder joints

Addressing the potential for drop impact failure of Pb-free interconnects, the shear ductility after extensive aging of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solders has been improved radically by Co or Fe modifications. Several other SAC+X candidates (X=Mn, Ni, Ge, Ti, Si, Cr, and Zn) now have been tested. Solder joint microstructures and shear strength results show that new SAC+X alloys also suppress void formation and coalescence at the Cu (substrate)/Cu₃Sn interface (and embrittlement) after aging at 150°C for up to 1,000 h. Microprobe measurements of 1,000 h aged samples suggest that Cu substitution by X is usually accentuated in the intermetallic layers, consistent with X=Co and Fe results.     

Direct structuring of C60 thin film transistors by photo-lithography under ambient conditions

Direct structuring techniques are an indispensable need for future low-cost applications of organic semiconductor materials in e.g. active matrix displays or integrated circuits. We demonstrate direct structuring of a small molecule organic semiconductor by a photo-lithography lift off process under ambient conditions. To show compatibility of this process, we fabricate organic thin film transistors (OTFT) containing the benchmark electron transporting semiconductor C60 as active material in a top-contact geometry. C60 as electron transporting semiconductor serves as good indicator for contamination and degradation caused by the structuring procedure. To disclose influences of structuring, we discuss the OTFT performance for different channel lengths from 100 μm down to 2.7 μm. In particular, we show that lithography processing gives rise to increased contact resistances. Apart from that, mobility of C60 as material parameter is only weakly affected which underlines the compatibility of the suggested structuring procedure. The potential of this structuring procedure for future integration of driving transistors in active matrix displays is demonstrated.     

Characterization of threshold for single tone maximum likelihoodfrequency estimation

This paper presents a simple and direct approach to understanding the threshold effect associated with maximum likelihood estimation of the frequency of a single complex tone. Motivation for the approach, stemming from known results in the field of phase locked loops, is given. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the onset of threshold can be directly characterized by a single, easily computed parameter, namely the Cramer-Rao bound on the phase estimation error variance     

An X-band acousto-optic variable delay line for radar targetsimulation

The design and characterization of a 54-μs, continuously-variable, acousto-optic (AO) delay line developed for radar testing applications is presented. Design goals for the delay line include over 10 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth, 1.2 GHz of tunable bandwidth operating at X-band, 45 dB of dynamic range, and electronically-controllable delay selection to simulate dynamic radar targets with radial range rates up to 500 m/s. In addition, the device was designed to have phase noise and spurious signal levels compatible with high performance radars. To achieve these goals, a 33-MHz center frequency variable delay line was constructed and coherent frequency translation was used to provide operation at S-band. Operating principles for this new intermediate frequency (IF) delay line are presented, and key component issues are discussed. A computer design and analysis tool is described that predicts delay line performance. Experimental results are presented at both the IF and at X-band     

United colors and untied meanings: Benetton and the commodification of social issues

The Benetton United Colors campaign illustrates how modern advertising has been radicalized into an explicitly political forum. Although lifestyle companies often attempt to associate their products with progressive social movements, Benetton was the first company to eliminate pictures of its products from its advertisements. In 1989, ads depicting Benetton's sportswear were replaced with powerful and problematic visual images of AIDS, environmental disasters, terrorism, and racism. Social issues became the embodiment of Benetton's product and, through the transformation into commodities, lost their significance as problematic human conditions. The campaign illustrates how the decontextualization of placing issues within the framework of product promotion, creates a tone of discordant meaning not adequately explained by mass culture critiques of consumerism. This case study recommends that advertising should be studied as a complex and contested social discourse within 1990s consumer culture.     

LMS adaptive filters using distributed arithmetic for high throughput

We present a new hardware adaptive filter architecture for very high throughput LMS adaptive filters using distributed arithmetic (DA). DA uses bit-serial operations and look-up tables (LUTs) to implement high throughput filters that use only about one cycle per bit of resolution regardless of filter length. However, building adaptive DA filters requires recalculating the LUTs for each adaptation which can negate any performance advantages of DA filtering. By using an auxiliary LUT with special addressing, the efficiency and throughput of DA adaptive filters can be of the same order as fixed DA filters. In this paper, we discuss a new hardware adaptive filter structure for very high throughput LMS adaptive filters. We describe the development of DA adaptive filters and show that practical implementations of DA adaptive filters have very high throughput relative to multiply and accumulate architectures. We also show that DA adaptive filters have a potential area and power consumption advantage over digital signal processing microprocessor architectures.     

Placement for large-scale floating-gate field-programable analog arrays

Modern advances in reconfigurable analog technologies are allowing field-programmable analog arrays (FPAAs) to dramatically grow in size, flexibility, and usefulness. Our goal in this paper is to develop the first placement algorithm for large-scale floating-gate-based FPAAs with a focus on the minimization of the parasitic effects on interconnects under various device-related constraints. Our FPAA clustering algorithm first groups analog components into a set of clusters so that the total number of routing switches used is minimized and all IO paths are balanced in terms of routing switches used. Our FPAA placement algorithm then maps each cluster to a computational analog block (CAB) of the target FPAA while focusing on routing switch usage and balance again. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.     

Elevated temperature aging of solder joints based on Sn-Ag-Cu: Effects on joint microstructure and shear strength

The shear strength behavior and microstructural effects after aging for 100 h and 1,000 h at 150°C are reported for near-eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solder joints (joining to Cu) made from Sn-3.5Ag (wt.%) and a set of SAC alloys (including Co- and Fe-modified SAC alloys). All joints in the as-soldered and 100-h aged condition experienced shear failure in a ductile manner by either uniform shear of the solder matrix (in the strongest solders) or by a more localized shear of the solder matrix adjacent to the Cu₆Sn₅ interfacial layer, consistent with other observations. After 1,000 h of aging, a level of embrittlement of the Cu₃Sn/Cu interface can be detected in some solder joints made with all of the SAC alloys and with Sn-3.5Ag, which can lead to partial debonding during shear testing. However, only ductile failure was observed in all solder joints made from the Co- and Fe-modified SAC alloys after aging for 1,000 h. Thus, the strategy of modifying a strong (high Cu content) SAC solder alloy with a substitutional alloy addition for Cu seems to be effective for producing a solder joint that retains both strength and ductility for extended isothermal aging at high temperatures.     

Self‐Assembled Conjugated Thiophene‐Based Rotaxane Architectures: Structural,Computational, and Spectroscopic Insights into Molecular Aggregation

A comparative study of the self‐assembly at a variety of surfaces of a dithiophene rotaxane 1 ?β‐CD and its corresponding dumbbell, 1, by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging on the micrometer and nanometer scale, respectively. The dumbbell is found to have a greater propensity to form ordered supramolecular assemblies, as a result of π–π interactions between dithiophenes belonging to adjacent molecules, which are hindered in the rotaxane. The fine molecular structure determined by STM was compared to that obtained by molecular modelling. The optical properties of both rotaxane and dumbbell in the solid state were investigated by steady‐state and time‐resolved photoluminescence (PL) experiments on spin‐cast films and diluted solutions. The comparison between the optical features of the threaded and unthreaded systems reveals an effective role of encapsulation in reducing aggregation and exciton migration for the rotaxanes with respect to the dumbbells, thus leading to higher PL quantum efficiency and preserved single‐molecule photophysics for longer times after excitation in the threaded oligomers.     

A low-power 2nd-order CT delta-sigma modulator with a single operational amplifier

We present a 2nd-order 4-bit continuous-time (CT) delta-sigma modulator (DSM) employing a 2nd-order loop filter with a single operational amplifier. This choice strongly reduces the power consumption, since operational amplifiers are the most power hungry blocks in the DSM. The DSM has been implemented in a 65 nm CMOS process, where it occupies an area of \(0.08\,\hbox {mm}^2\) . It achieves an SNDR of 64 dB over a 500 kHz signal bandwidth with an oversampling ratio of 16. The power consumption is \(76\,\upmu \hbox {W}\) from a 800 mV power supply. The DSM figure-of-merit is 59 fJ/conversion. The CT DSM is well suited for the receiver of an ultra-low-power radio.