Effect of Lead-Free Soldering on Key Material Properties of FR-4 Printed Circuit Board Laminates

The transition to lead-free soldering of printed circuit boards (PCBs) using solder alloys such as SnAgCu has resulted in higher temperature exposures during assembly compared with eutectic SnPb solders. The knowledge of PCB laminate material properties and their dependence on the material constituents, combined with their possible variations due to lead-free soldering temperature exposures, is an essential input in the laminate selection process. This paper provides laminate selection guidelines that were arrived at by assessing key material properties (glass transition temperature, coefficient of thermal expansion, decomposition temperature, and water absorption), and their responses to lead-free soldering assembly conditions. A range of commercially available FR-4 PCB laminate materials, classified on the basis of glass transition temperature (high, mid, and low), curing agents (dicyandiamide and phenolic), flame retardants (halogenated and halogen-free), and fillers (presence or absence) were studied. The laminate material properties under investigation were measured as per the IPC-TM-650 test methods before and after exposure to multiple lead-free soldering cycles. Combinatorial property analysis was conducted to investigate the causes behind variations in material properties.     

Enhancing the spectral efficiency and energy efficiency of underwater channel communication by optimal cooperative spectrum sensing using hybrid optimization

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) contain quite a lot of components such as vehicles and sensors that are deployed in a specific acoustic area to perform collaborative monitoring and data collection errands. These networks are adopted interactively between diverse nodes and ground‐based stations. Currently, UWSNs face problems and challenges that pertain to limited bandwidth, media access control, high propagation delay, 3D topology, spectrum sensing, resource utilization, routing, and power constraints. This proposal deals with the intelligent spectrum sensing in underwater cognitive sonar communication networks (CSCN). Here, the improved performance of spectrum sensing in underwater communication is attained by optimizing the cooperative spectrum sensing and data transmission. The parameters of system like subchannel allocation and transmission power is optimized by a new hybrid meta‐heuristic algorithm by integrating the concepts of deer hunting optimization algorithm (DHOA) and lion algorithm (LA) termed as lion‐enabled DHOA (L‐DHOA). The main intention of optimizing these parameters is to maximize the spectrum efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) of the underwater channel communication system. From the analysis, with respect to convergence rate, minimum detection probability, and local sensing time, it is proved that the novel hybrid optimization algorithm keeps a great role in making the trade‐off between the SE and EE in underwater channel modeling.