Indium Corporation Experts to Present at ICEHET in Toronto

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Indium Corporation experts Dr. HongWen Zhang, R&D manager – alloy group, and Dr. Ronald Lasky, senior technologist, are set to deliver presentations at SMTA’s International Conference for Electronics Hardware Enabling Technologies (ICEHET) in Toronto, Ontario, June 14-15.

As thermal demands continue to grow for high-performance computing chips, traditional polymer-based thermal interface materials (TIMs) – such as greases and phase change materials – are reaching their limits for use. Their relatively low thermal conductivity means they are not able to dissipate enough heat for these emerging applications. In Dr. Lasky’s presentation, Gallium Liquid Metal: Fundamentals to Enable Development of Ultra-High Performance Thermal Interface Materials, he will explore some of the critical properties of gallium alloys and how they affect the performance and usability as a TIM. Gallium alloys have some unique physical properties and attributes, and a better fundamental understanding of gallium alloys makes the creation of next-generation liquid metals possible to address the limitations of the first-generation alloys.

The harmful effects of lead on human health and the environment are driving the development of high-temperature lead-free (HTLF) solders to replace high-lead solders for die-attachment and clip-bond in power device applications. In his presentation, A Drop-In High-Temperature Pb-Free Solder Paste Outperforms High-Pb Pastes in Power Discrete Applications, Dr. Zhang examines a new formulation of Indium Corporation’s innovative material Durafuse™—a novel design based on a mixed-alloy technology—designed to deliver an Sn-rich HTLF paste, presenting the merits of both constituent alloys. This product, Durafuse™ HT, has shown the feasibility as a drop-in solution to replace high-Pb solders for die-attach in power discrete applications by delivering improved performance.

Dr. Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corporation, as well as a professor of engineering at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., U.S. He has more than 30 years of experience in electronics and optoelectronics packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, and Cookson Electronics. He has authored six books and contributed to nine others on science, electronics, and optoelectronics; he has authored numerous technical papers. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor at several colleges, teaching more than 20 different courses on topics such as electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering, and science and religion. He holds numerous patent disclosures and is the developer of several SMT processing software products relating to cost estimating, line balancing, and process optimization. He is the co-creator of engineering certification exams that set standards in the electronics assembly industry worldwide. Dr. Lasky was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association’s (SMTA) Technical Distinction Award in 2021 for his “significant and continuing technical contributions to the SMTA.” He was also awarded SMTA’s prestigious Founder’s Award in 2003.

Dr. Zhang is manager of the alloy group in Indium Corporation’s R&D department. His focus is on the development of Pb-free solder materials and the associated technologies for high-temperature and high-reliability applications. He was instrumental in inventing the mixed-alloy solder technique to combine the merits of constituents to improve wetting, reduce processing temperatures, modify the bonding surface, and control the joint’s morphology, thus improving reliability. He has a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical physical chemistry from Central South University of China, a master’s degree in materials and engineering from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Science, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich., U.S. He has a Six Sigma Green Belt from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and is a certified IPC Specialist for IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610 as well as a certified SMT Process Engineer. He has extensive experience in various aluminum (Al) alloys and fiber/particle reinforced Al-based composite materials, and Al-rich and ZrHf-based amorphous alloys. He has co-authored two book chapters on high-temperature lead-free bonding materials, has had a number of patents filed, and has been published in approximately 20 journals in the fields of metallurgy, materials science and engineering, physics, electronics materials, and mechanics.

Download The Printed Circuit Assembler’s Guide to… Solder Defects by Christopher Nash and Dr. Ronald C. Lasky. You can also view other titles in our full I-007e book library here.