ENERGY | WIRELESS | NANOTECH | MEMS | OPTICS | QUANTUM | 3D | CHIPS | ALGORITHMS

Thursday, January 21, 2010

"CHIPS: Intel, Carnegie Mellon Develop RF-Activated 'Green' Nano-Solder"

A new method for soldering circuit boards not only will be more environmentally friendly, but it will speed up the manufacturing process and improve the integrity of the electrical interconnection. Look for green nano-solder to begin replacing solder reflow equipment within five years. R.C.J.


Intel and Carnegie Mellon University have developed tuned magnetic nanoparticles that mix with environmentally friendly solders which can be heated with radio frequency signals, thereby substituting a green room temperature process for the environmentally unfriendly high-temperature solder reflow process used today. CMU received Intel funding for a project "using magnetic nanoparticles in the radio frequency heating, melting and reflow of solder for microelectronics circuits," said Michael McHenry, the CMU professor of materials science and engineering who collaborated on the project with Intel Senior Packaging Materials Engineer Raja Swaminathan. The research group—which included doctoral candidates AshFague Habib and Kelsey Miller and undergraduate student Matt Ondeck—presented its results at this week's Magnetism and Magnetics Materials Conference (Jan. 18-22, 2010, Washington, D.C.).
Full Text: http://bit.ly/5wGr6N