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Monday, June 20, 2005

"PC-BOARDS: Low-temperature adhesives putting heat on solder"

Low-temperature, low-profile conductive adhesives are poised to enable ultraflat-panel displays for cell phones, laptop computers and wall-mounted televisions.
Going beyond recommendations to take the lead out of solder, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working to build a world of electronics free of metal-solder itself. While the interconnect trade association IPC and other organizations are pursuing a no-lead goal, they "are only looking at low-temperature adhesives as one of many different alternatives," said Ching-Ping Wong, professor of materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech (Atlanta). "We believe that our approach to low-temperature adhesives has much greater potential because we are solving the fundamental problems that make others hesitant to use them." Other approaches to low-temperature conductive adhesives have been afflicted with self-alignment and low-carrier mobility problems. Wong's group, which included graduate student Grace Yi Li and post-doctoral researcher Kyoung-sik Moon, is working to overcome those obstacles.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=164900655