SMTA International 2025 Conference Awards Announced

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The SMTA is pleased to announce the technical conference awards from SMTA International 2025.  The winners were selected by members of the conference technical committee. Awards are given for "Best of Proceedings" as well as "Best Practical and Applications-Based Knowledge" categories. A plaque is given to primary authors of all winning papers for these exceptional achievements.

The following three papers were selected for the “Best of Proceedings” award:

"The Effect of Dwell Time on Thermal Cycling Performance of High Reliability Solder Alloys with a −55/125 °C Test Condition" by Richard Coyle, Ph.D., Nokia Bell Labs, on behalf of the Collaborative iNEMI and HDP Consortia Teams.

"Sintering Cu Paste as Via Filling Materials for through Glass Via (TGV)" by Yoshinori Ejiri, Masumi Sakamoto, Chiaki Shimizu, Naoyuki Kikuchi, Masayoshi Nishimoto, Seiji Kai, Hiroshi Uragami, Resonac.

"The Relationship Between Solder Joint Voiding and Reliability: A Review" by Dave Hillman, Hillman EAS LLC.

The following three papers received honorable mention in this category:

"Innovative Material Reinforcement Strategies for Advanced Packaging Solutions in Automotive Electronics" by Anna Lifton, Kennedy Fox, Paul Salerno, Ebad Rehman, MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions.

"Reliability of Additive In-Mold Electronics Under Grade-3 Automotive Thermal Cycling and Sustained High Temperature" by Shriram Kulkarni, Aditya Harsha, Md Golam Sarwar, Pradeep Lall, Ph.D., Auburn University; Scott Miller, NextFlex National Manufacturing Institute.

"Electromigration in Sn-Bi and SAC305 Solder Alloys" by Prabjit Singh, Ph.D., PJ Consulting, on behalf of the iNEMI Consortia Team.

The following three papers were selected for the “Best Practical and Applications-Based Knowledge” award:

"The Future of Electronics Packaging is Chiplet Architecture" by Pavanbabu Arjunamahanthi, Himanandhan Reddy Kottur, Shajib Ghosh, Patrick Craig, M. Shafkat M. Khan, Liton Kumar Biswas, Istiaq Firoz Shiam, Navid Asadizanjani, University of Florida; Robert Patti, Charles Woychik, NHanced Semiconductors, Inc.

"Progression of AI Agents vs Human Experts: Analysis of Pick and Place Material Downtime Data for Proper Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Guided Actions" by Cameron Sobie, Ph.D., Andrew Scheuermann, Ph.D., Tim Burke, Ph.D., Gadi Meik, Shahar Re'em, Cristobal Zatarain, Arch Systems Inc.

"Using the Pb-Free Solder Reflow Process as a Tin Whisker Risk Mitigation Protocol: A Statistical Assessment" by Dave Hillman, Hillman EAS LLC.

The following three papers received honorable mention in this category:

"Sinusoidal Vibration Testing of High-Reliability Mixed BGA Solder Joints" by Jayse McLean, John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group.

"Mitigating Solder Joint Defects Caused by the Warpage of BGA Assembly with Lower Temperature Soldering Phase II: TCT Reliability" by Hongwen Zhang, Ph.D., Danyang Zheng, Ph.D., Mengyao Wen, Huaguang Wang, Ph.D., Francis Mutuku, Ph.D., Indium Corporation.

"Powder Influence in Lead Free Solder Pastes' Rheological Behavior for Use in Jet Printing" by Mathilde Buret, Marjorie Leveneur, Mélanie Mathon, Inventec Performance Chemicals.

The authors will receive their awards during a ceremony at SMTA International 2026.  The SMTA International Conference and Exhibition (SMTAI) 2026 will be held October 25 - 29, 2026 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, USA. Details are posted on the event website: https://www.smtai.org/conference-awards

Abstracts of all papers can be browsed directly in the online Knowledge Base. Featuring thousands of full-length technical articles, the SMTA Knowledge Base is searchable to all visitors, but free PDF downloads are available only to SMTA members. Non-members can easily join SMTA for real-time access to the Knowledge Base.