Carnegie Mellon University and Intel Corporation have announced a new class of materials called solder magnetic nanocomposites that could help streamline the process of computer electronic packaging. A Carnegie Mellon research team led by Michael McHenry, professor of materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and physics, in collaboration with Raja Swaminathan, Intel senior packaging materials engineer, have devised an RF heating technique for solder magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) composites that can heat the solder enough to cause reflow without placing computer chips in a conventional oven.
Current techniques for producing assemblies of electronic components involve the use of hot air convection or infrared ovens. As heating the components with these methods incurs significant energy costs and poses the risk of chip warpage, McHenry's team collaborated with Swaminathan to develop a tool that uses radio frequency coils to heat specially designed magnetic particles mixed with solder pastes.
The time required to heat the particles can be controlled by varying the concentration and composition of the magnetic particles, which ultimately helps improve processing speed and potentially reduces the processing cost.
In addition to speeding up the soldering process, this technique improves the quality of the electrical interconnects in the critical electronic packaging process. As chip warpage is more of a problem at the temperatures required to make lead-free solders reflow, this technology will be even more beneficial with these more environmentally friendly solders.
Source: Carnegie Mellon University
Image: Carnegie Mellon University
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