Recent advances in isotropic conductive adhesives for electronics packaging applications

Isotropic conductive adhesives (ICAs) have recently received a lot of focus and attention from the researchers in electronics industry as a potential substitute to lead-bearing solders. Numerous studies have shown that ICAs possess many advantages over conventional soldering such as environmental friendliness, finer pitch printing, lower temperature processing and more flexible and simpler processing. However, complete replacement of soldering by ICAs is yet not possible owing to several limitations of ICAs which are mainly related to reliability aspects like limited impact resistance, unstable contact resistance, low adhesion and conductivity etc. Continued efforts for last 15 years have resulted in development of ICAs with improved properties. This review article is aimed at providing a better understanding of ICAs, their principles, performance and significant research and development work addressing the technological utility of ICAs.     

Ti,N,Mg对M2高速钢凝固组织和硬度的影响

为了改善Ｍ２高速钢共晶碳化物的分布，本文利用小凝固试样变质的方法研究了Ｔｉ，Ｎ和Ｍｇ对Ｍ２高速钢凝固组织和硬度的影响。试验结果表明，加入Ｔｉ或Ｔｉ－Ｎ后，共晶碳化物形态和分布有很大改善，而加入Ｔｉ－Ｎ后对凝固组织有轻微的细化作用，但只添加Ｔｉ不补碳时，钢的淬火硬度和回火硬度均下降；加入适量的Ｍｇ可以使片状的Ｍ２Ｃ型共晶碳化物转为鱼骨状的Ｍ６Ｃ型共晶碳化物，使其分布有所改善，Ｔｉ和Ｍｇ复合加入可以明     

The development of a stress analysis code for nuclear graphite components in gas-cooled reactors

Most of the UK nuclear power reactors are gas-cooled and graphite moderated. As well as acting as a moderator the graphite also acts as a structural component providing channels for the coolant gas and control rods. For this reason the structural integrity assessments of nuclear graphite components is an essential element of reactor design. In order to perform graphite component stress analysis, the definition of the constitutive equation relating stress and strain for irradiated graphite is required. Apart from the usual elastic and thermal strains, irradiated graphite components are subject to additional strains due to fast neutron irradiation and radiolytic oxidation. In this paper a material model for nuclear graphite is presented along with an example of a stress analysis of a nuclear graphite moderator brick subject to both fast neutron irradiation and radiolytic oxidation.     

Formation of steady state size distribution of precipitates in alloys under cascade-producing irradiation

The effect of coherency loss on the development of precipitate size distribution under cascade-producing irradiation is considered. The nucleation of coherent precipitates, their growth followed by coherency loss and cascade-induced dissolution of large incoherent precipitates can occur simultaneously resulting in formation of a quasi-stationary size distribution of semicoherent precipitates. To describe this process we consider co-evolution of a mixed population of coherent, semicoherent and incoherent precipitates. Mathematically, the problem is formulated as a set of discrete rate equations of nucleation kinetics (the Master equation approach) which is also used for later stages of evolution. To solve the corresponding large set of equations (typically, more than 10⁵ equations) an efficient numerical method is developed. The simulation results obtained for material parameters and irradiation conditions typical for nuclear reactors show that the coherency loss affects considerably evolution of the precipitate population. Under certain irradiation conditions, both in solution-annealed alloys and in aged ones, the mean precipitate size and the number density during prolonged irradiation tend to steady state values, whereas the size distribution function of large precipitates narrows. The width of the quasi-stationary size distribution is controlled by cascade parameters. It was found that the asymptotic quasi-stationary state of the precipitate population may depend on initial state of the alloy.     

A Hermitian Box-scheme for One-dimensional Elliptic Equations – Application to Problems with High Contrasts in the Ellipticity

We introduce a new box-scheme, called ``hermitian box-scheme' on the model of the one-dimensional Poisson problem. The scheme combines features of the box-scheme of Keller, [20], [13], with the hermitian approximation of the gradient on a compact stencil, which is characteristic of compact schemes, [9], [21]. The resulting scheme is proved to be 4th order accurate for the primitive unknown u and its gradient p. The proved convergence rate is 1.5 for (u,p) in the discrete L ² norm. The connection with a non standard mixed finite element method is given. Finally, numerical results are displayed on pertinent 1-D elliptic problems with high contrasts in the ellipticity, showing in practice convergence rates ranging from 1 to 2.5 in the discrete H ¹ norm. This work has been performed with the support of the GDR MOMAS, (ANDRA, CEA, EDF, BRGM and CNRS): Modélisation pour le stockage des déchets radioactifs. The author thanks especially A. Bourgeat for his encouragements and his interest in this work.     

激光光束质量因子的研究进展

本文详细分析了各种光场下光束质量M2因子。在不同的场中,A.E.Siegman当初所定义的M2因子,已经有了很大的变化,因而M2因子的特性也与当初不同,不仅M2因子可以大于等于1,而且可以小于1,甚至小于0。其反映的物理意义,也从经典场中的衍射极限倍数,变化为非经典场中的准直性量度以及对空间相干性的某些反映。此外还列举并分析了几种特殊的光束质量因子,最后讨论了M2因子应用的问题并指出了其局限性。     

Thermally and plastically induced residual strains in textured Zircaloy-2 plate

The residual intergranular strains in textured Zircaloy-2 plate samples induced by cooling from 823 K to ambient temperatures, by cold-rolling by 1.5% and 25% and by deforming in tension by 1.5% were measured by neutron diffraction. The strong rolling texture, which gives rise to two ideal orientations, permitted the interpretation of much of the data in terms of strain tensors for the two orientations. The experimental results were compared with calculations based on the elasto-plastic self-consistent model with no adjustable parameters. Close agreement was obtained for samples in the as-cooled state and deformation in tension by 1.5% but the agreement is less satisfactory for cold-rolling.     

EBSD investigation of SiC for HTR fuel particles

Electron back-scattering diffraction (EBSD) can be successfully performed on SiC coatings for HTR fuel particles. EBSD grain maps obtained from thick and thin unirradiated samples are presented, along with pole figures showing textures and a chart showing the distribution of grain aspect ratios. This information is of great interest, and contributes to improving the process parameters and ensuring the reproducibility of coatings.     

Magnetic and mössbauer studies on ductile Fe-Cr-Co permanent magnet alloys

Iron-chromium-cobalt alloys possess attractive magnetic properties combined with good formability and hence are identified as technologically important magnetic materials. Alloys with compositions Fe-28·9 Cr-15·6 Co and Fe-28·4 Cr-20·1Co (weight percent) have been studied. Heat-treatment parameters during thermomagnetic treatment viz temperature, time and external magnetic field were optimized with reference to magnetic properties. The fully treated anisotropic alloys develop remanence=11·5–12·0 kilo Gauss, coercivity=600–650 Oersted and energy product=4–4·5 million Gauss Oersted. Electron microscopic and Mössbauer spectroscopic techniques were used to identify the original and transformed phases. During the various stages of the development of the alloy, the changes in mechanical hardness were correlated with magnetic hardness.     

Characterization of microporous-mesoporous MCM-41 silicates prepared in the presence of octyltrimethylammonium bromide

MCM-41 silicates prepared in the presence of octyltrimethylammonium bromide either by a conventional method or by post-synthesis hydrothermal treatment were characterized by nitrogen adsorption in a wide range of relative pressure from 10^-6 to 1. Hydrothermally restructured samples were found to have lower BET surface areas, lower external surface areas and thicker silica walls than the non-treated sample. More importantly, in addition to their characteristic mesopores (ca. 3 nm), they were shown to have considerable amounts of micropores. The relative amount of micropores and mesopores was shown to be dependent on the treatment conditions. Thus, it is demonstrated that the postsynthesis hydrothermal restructuring is a convenient synthesis route to MCM-41 silicates with bimodal pore size distribution involving controllable amounts of microporosity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.