Spring 2024
AUERI News
Auburn University Electronics Research Institute (334) 844-3424 INSIDE 1 Message from Director 2 AUERI Review 3-6 Research Highlights 7-8 Announcements 9-10 Selected Publications
Mission Statement AUERI is dedicated to working with industry in developing and implementing new technologies for the packaging and manufacturing of electronics, with special emphasis on the cost, harsh environment, and reliability requirements of the automotive, aerospace, military, computing, portable and other industries. Message from Director
ing. In the current generation of electronics, PFAS is pervasive for a number of functions related to the mechanical, electrical performance and reliability. The program which is spans 3-years is in partnership with a number of SRC member companies including, Intel, Texas Instruments, and IBM. The transition to Non-PFAS materials will impact all levels of packaging and processing from the chip-to-package-printed circuit boards-wiring-modules. We are excited to be at the forefront of this challenge with transition to more sustainable electronic materials. In addition, AUERI team at Auburn University has kicked off three additional programs in the area of additively manufactured electronics under the latest selection of programs for award under Project Call 8. The first NextFlex program, PC8.2, is on the topic of additive packaging for hightemperature and quantum computing applications. In this program, the AU team is a major -subcontractor to Boeing and will work on the development of manufacturing processes and material sets for operation under wide temperature extremes of -269C to +500C. In a second program, PC8.3, the Auburnled team included partners John Deere, Toyota Motors of North America, BayFlex, and MacDermid Alpha. The project will focus on exploring the process-performance-reliability interactions for in-mold electronics in automotive applications. Two specific automotive platforms for which the technology demonstrators will be created including the farming tractor and the cross-over sport utility vehicle. In the third program, PC8.5, the Auburn-led team included partners Tapecon, and BayFlex focuses on the development of sustainable additively manufactured electronics. A number of methods are being pursued to achieve sustainability, including the use of water-based inks, room-temperature processable interconnects, and biodegradable substrates. In addition to process development, the reliability of the assembled architectures is being studied in environments expected in wearable applications in wear-and-forget formats. In addition to kicking off new programs, we also concluded two programs including PC6.5 on the development of closed-loop control for inkjet additively manufactured electronics. AUERI team along with project partners delivered the closed loop control software developed under the program along with the hardware instrumentation to enable control of printed dimensions and electrical parameters in a manufacturing environment. In January 2024, we elected a new slate of officers for the AU-SMTA Student Chapter. The Director’s report at the Spring Review 2024 will have more details on the officers' names and designations. The officer team had a strong showing at the Auburn E-day, in which they staffed an SMTA booth to talk to the high-school students about electronics manufacturing .
Earlier in the fall semester of 2023, a number of AUERI researchers travelled to the SMTAI and the ASME INTERPACK conferences. The SMTAI was held in Minneapolis, MN, and the INTERPACK was held in San Diego, CA. I am glad to report that the following paper won the 1st Place Nasser Grayeli Best Poster Award: Evaluation of Thermoformability of Additively Printed Circuits Printed Using Gravure Offset Printing Technique and Investigation of In-Mold Electronic Circuits, P. Lall, V. Soni, J. Narangaparambil, S. Miller, ASME InterPACK, Paper IPACK2023-112060, pp. 1-11, San Diego, CA, Oct 24-26, 2023. In addition, the following paper placed top-10: Component Attach Process Recipe and Performance on Aerosol Printed Sustainable Silver Ink, Lall, P., Bimali, S., Narangaparambil, J., Miller, S., ASME InterPACK, Paper IPACK2023-112066, San Diego, CA, pp. 1-12, Oct 24-26, 2023. In October-2023, a number of AUERI students also presented their research at the Auburn Mechanical Engineering Graduate Poster Contest. In the Design and Manufacturing Track, Daniel Karakitie, Ved Soni and Vishal Mehta placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the Mechanics Track, Golam Rakib Mazumdar, Mahbub Alam Maruf, and Mrinmoy Saha placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the Electric Vehicle, Electronics Packaging and Electronic Thermal Management Track, Souvik Chakraborty placed 3rd. The student team continued their strong performance with a number of students winning IPC Scholarships including Sabina Bimali, Padmanava Choudhury, Ved Soni, Daniel Karakitie, Vishal Mehta, Madhu Kasturi, Aathi Pandurangan, Fatahi Musa, Md Golam Sarwar, and Shriram Kulkarni. I am delighted to report that we have kicked off four new research programs since the last review. The first program, through a completely won SRC call, is on the topic of the study of Non-PFAS alternatives for use in electronics. Owing to impending regulation under the United States TSCA and the European Union REACH, there is renewed interest in the development and identification of alternatives for use in semiconductor packag- Pradeep Lall, MacFarlane Endowed Distinguished Professor
SAMUEL GINN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING