Citation
Goosey, M. (2012), "Research to Industry Electronics Conference: Connecting Research to Industry", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 24 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ssmt.2012.21924daa.016
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Research to Industry Electronics Conference: Connecting Research to Industry
Article Type: Conferences and exhibitions From: Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Volume 24, Issue 4
Henry Ford College, Loughborough M 19 June 2012
On 19 June 2012, around 100 delegates attended the Henry Ford College in Loughborough for the first “Research to Industry Conference: R2i”. The aim of the event was to enable academic researchers to network with industrialists and forge new links that could help move their work from academia towards commercial exploitation. To that end the event had been structured around a series of 35 short presentations from the researchers. Coupled with this, each of the four sessions was opened with a keynote presentation offering advice and guidance from people actually involved in taking research into industry. There was also a wide range of posters providing additional information and table top exhibits from industrial sponsors.
Darren Cadman (Figure 1) of the IeMRC welcomed attendees to the R2i Conference which had been organised by the Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre (IeMRC) and iMAPS, with support from the IEEE, the ESP KTN and NMI. Andrew Holland of iMAPS also then welcomed the attendees and announced the award that his organisation would be making to the best project presented at the conference. Next, the industrial exhibitors were given the opportunity to make a short presentation on their organisations. These included Inseto and Tecan, as well as representatives of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Darren then gave an overview of the activities of the IeMRC, which was one of 16 such centres and was established in 2004. The IeMRC was funding research projects across the UK with support from the relevant industry supply chains, as well as organising workshops, seminars and conferences. The next IeMRC call for proposals was said to be imminent. The work that the IeMRC supported had to be of high quality and impact with its research being subject to international review. The IeMRC was also undertaking a review of the UK’s electronics research needs for the EPSRC.
Alistair McGibbon of NMI then gave an introduction to NMI followed by an overview of the mechanisms that were available for the funding of research projects, the pathways and requirements. He gave an overview of the R&D journey and stated that it was important to choose the right R&D activities, so that they fitted the needs of strategic business development. The huge range of potential funding routes was also outlined.
Following the initial opening presentations, the main part of the day was dedicated to a series of five minute presentations covering a wide range of research projects being undertaken at universities around the country. The first pitch of the day was from Dr Hazel Assender of Oxford University, who covered the IeMRC funded flagship project on roll to roll vacuum web coating, called RoVacBe. RoVacBe was investigating the roll to roll deposition of organic semiconductors, metals, oxides and polymers on organic substrates. Web speeds of up to 5 ms−1 had been achieved with web widths of up to 350 mm. The project work to date had achieved the high speed roll to roll deposition of organic transistors, transparent conducting layers, and the other materials required to make functional devices. The team was also working extensively with industry via the industrial partners supporting the project. They were looking for ways to take the technology into new areas such as photovoltaics and they would welcome further research collaboration opportunities. Next was a presentation on a TSB supported project called InBoard given by Axel Bindel (Figure 2) of Loughborough University. InBoard used RFIDs incorporated into multilayer printed circuit boards to store relevant information within the product with the potential to provide monitoring throughout the whole product lifecycle, i.e. from manufacture to end of life. Such products with this type of stored knowledge about manufacturing and utilisation could be used to increase quality, reliability, service and resource efficiency. The information was accessible at the point where the product was located, for example, on the shop floor, across the supply chain, during use and at the end of life recycling stage. The project had successfully embedded RFIDs into multilayer PCBs and the accompanying processes, software architecture and interfaces had been developed. Liudi Jiang from Southampton University then described work on another IeMRC supported project and one that was researching carbon nanotube composite surfaces for electrical contact interfaces. MEMS-based contacts had a number of advantages including fast switching, tolerance of high G and small geometries. An aim of the project was to fabricate advanced electrical contacts for MEMS relays with significant performance and manufacturing potential. In particular, prototype MEMS switches were needed that were capable of switching >10 mA at up to 4 V over>108 cycles. MEMS switch/relays had been forecast to be a multibillion dollar technology area but technical barriers were the lack of switches and the need for high conductivity, reliability and long lifetimes. CNT based devices could provide extended switching cycles compared to more conventional switching and had small geometries for RF applications. Work to date had demonstrated that, by using a carbon nanotube surface, it had been possible to switch 20 mA at 4 V for more than>80 million cycles. The researchers were looking to secure follow on funding from the TSB, or possibly the EC, and would welcome contact from industrial collaborators with experience in MEMS manufacturing and related packaging.
High frequency flexible fabric electronics were then described by Yiannis Vardaxoglou from Loughborough University. This project, which also included Nottingham Trent University and several industrial partners, was investigating the concept of using conductive threads to fabricate electronics including antennas for numerous applications. The aim was to find the most effective way to produce fabric antennas and their associated electronics and to integrate them into fabric. There were many applications for the technology such as in search and rescue, defence, healthcare, sport and leisure and aerospace. Current monopole antenna solutions for search and rescue applications were described as being clumsy, big, ugly, obtrusive, prone to breakage, easily forgotten and difficult to operate in emergencies. There was thus plenty of scope for innovation. The feasibility of using digital embroidery and conducting threads to create RF transmission lines had been demonstrated and an assessment of the conductive threads completed. Patch and dipole antennas had been designed, fabricated and evaluated, comparing well to their copper-based equivalents. The current technical focus was on performance under extreme conditions and scalability. Target applications had been identified and there had been interest from the industrial partners. Wayne Cranton of Nottingham Trent University then discussed his work on photonic processing of thin film electronic materials including metal oxides and metal sulphides using UV pulsed laser processing. The work was focussed on thin film deposition and characterisation and included the use of pulsed UV-laser processing. There was also work on the processing of inkjet printed thin films. The aim was to enhance properties such as conductivity, mobility and stability, etc. for use in plastic and printed electronics, phosphor sensors, security materials and other applications. A particular interest was in optically transparent conducting materials. The group was also involved with two TSB funded projects; one called HESSLIS to develop transparent conductors on plastic and the other called Fab3D which was working on the printing and processing of nanoparticulate layers for electronics and displays.
The second session was opened by Andrew Darwent of the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which were managed by the Technology Strategy Board. KTPs were described as a mechanism for providing a commercial pull to research carried out at Universities. KTP projects typically lasted from six months to three years, with two years being the preferred duration. The associate worker on a KTP project would be jointly recruited but employed by the knowledge base partner and typically located at the business premises. KTPs required innovative projects with a strategic relevance to the business and that had a clear knowledge transfer element creating a step change in capability. Some examples of successful projects were then shown, including one on GPS software development with DeMontfort University.
The technical presentations recommenced with Jeremy Everard from the University of York covering his work on high speed electronics and optoelectronics. His focus had been on low noise oscillators and research to make them more compact and robust. A wide variety of low noise oscillators had been developed, some of which showed the best performance available anywhere. Andrew Holmes from the MEMS/Microsystems Group at Imperial College, London then discussed his IeMRC funded work on thermosonic adhesive flip chip assembly for advanced microelectronic packaging. The aim of the project had been to improve the performance and reliability of adhesive assemblies using thermosonic bonding. He described his group’s laser microfabrication capabilities, which included an excimer laser mask projection system and a DPSS laser salvo-mirror scanning system. Application areas embraced work on MEMS, lab on a chip, thin film patterning, microvia drilling, mask and IC repair, ink jet printer nozzle drilling, catheter cutting and many others. Andrew was seeking new industrial and academic partners for future collaborative research work in the areas of flip chip technology and laser microfabrication. David Hutt of Loughborough University then detailed his group’s work on copper filled conductive adhesives for printed circuit interconnects. The research had a focus on using electrically conducting adhesives for interconnects and was seeking to replace traditional expensive silver particles with copper. This was difficult because of the propensity of copper to oxidise. The problem was overcome by treating the copper particles’ surfaces with a self-assembling monolayer layer that prevented oxidation. Using these materials offered a potential saving of more than 100 times compared to silver. Examples of circuits were shown and their low temperature processing gave compatibility with a wide range of polymer substrates. Tony Corless from the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey then discussed his work on the use of focussed ion beams as a nanomachining CNC tool. This approach had been used to produce master tools for a range of masks and related products such as nanosquid devices. It had also been used for the production of master tools for the embossing and moulding of lenses, gratings and roughness standards at scales and accuracies that were not accessible using conventional machining. A key aim for the future was to scale up the process and new inputs from interested partners were sought as this could help with the determination of the optimum resolution versus output. John Graves from Coventry University then described a new collaborative project with Loughborough University which was on the functionalisation of metallic nanoparticles to enable metallisation in electronics. This was described as offering a novel approach to the metallisation of non-conductive substrates eg PCBs and MIDs. It aimed to offer a more cost-effective utilisation of materials and improved adhesion properties. The intention was to use copper nanoparticles as an alternative to the Sn/Pd catalysts that were typically used in electroless metallisation applications, thereby reducing the use of precious metals which suffered significant price and availability fluctuations. Proof of concept had been demonstrated and the work could potentially lead to significantly lower costs while having applicability to a wide range of substrates. The project was looking to engage with end-users of the technology who had experience with a range of substrates other than FR4, as well as those with expertise in particle analysis and nanoparticle dispersion. Next, Rehana Kausar from Queen Mary University, London talked about her work on quality of service and the use of packet switching in wireless communication networks. This could provide low cost services for end-users and operators, while offering improvements in quality of service for both operators and users. Christian Klumpner from Nottingham University then discussed his work on characterisation, emulation and power management of supercapacitors and batteries. The university had expertise in the design of power electronics systems to interface energy storage to various applications, e.g. power grid, renewables and transportation. There was also expertise in the characterisation of various energy storage devices from a user’s point of view. The work would also enable the implementation of emulators for novel energy storage components that could provide information on scale up behaviour for system prototyping and testing. This research had relevance to renewable energy, transport and distribution of electrical power, as well as to hybrid and electric vehicles. David Watson from MISEC at Herriot Watt University presented his work on laser direct writing of metals on plastic substrates such as polyimide. He described a patented chlorophyll-based process which used a material that was natural and abundant and that did not require any photoresists or imaging stages. It also had low equipment costs and avoided the use of etchants and the generation of the typical associated wastes. The process provided a fast turnaround time enabling the production of small volumes of customised products and rapid prototyping. It could be used on flexible sheets and coated contoured surfaces. There were many market opportunities, such as in the areas of printable power, light intelligence, sensor and products with embedded, wearable and invisible technologies. Demonstrators had been produced and the process had been characterised. The next stage was to manufacture some prototype functional devices. The group were looking for industrial partners to help move up the technology readiness levels so that the process could be transferred into industry. The final presentation of the morning sessions was given by Maria Mirgkizoudi from Loughborough University and it was on reliability studies of microelectronic interconnects in harsh environments. This was a study of electronics performance in combined environmental conditions and involved the development of testing systems and methodologies for qualification testing. The project goal was to develop testing systems capable of undertaking reliability tests on microelectronic packages under combined thermal and mechanical loadings in harsh environments. Key challenges included the knowledge gap and lack of supporting hardware and software in testing and qualification of electronics under such harsh conditions and the fact that the fundamentals of the resulting device/component failure mechanisms did not exist. The work included metallurgical studies on the critical areas of wire bonded devices to identify areas of susceptibility.
There then followed a networking lunch which gave the delegates the opportunity to reflect on the wide range of research subject matter that had been presented during the morning, as well as to visit the poster and exhibitor areas to learn more about specific topics of interest.
Nigel Rix of the ESPKTN opened the first of two afternoon sessions and introduced Martin Goosey (Figure 3), Industrial Director of the IeMRC, who gave a presentation entitled “From research to industrial implementation – the journey of a successful project”. Martin began by outlining some of the key challenges of taking research up the technology readiness levels towards commercial implementation and he discussed the so-called “valley of death” which had proved a stumbling block for many good technologies when attempting this transition. He also mentioned that the UK government had now acknowledged the need to get more of the UK’s successful research into industry, where its benefits could be utilised and he cited, by way of example, the recent announcement of substantial funding to support the development of graphene in the UK. Martin then moved on to describe the path that one of the IeMRC’s own projects had used to take it from basic research to commercial exploitation. The project detailed was initially undertaken by Coventry University and involved the use of ultrasonics to reduce energy and chemical consumption in the PCB fabrication process. The success of the initial research had led to a Technology Strategy Board funded feasibility study that allowed the technology to be trialled on an industrial scale. Further positive results had then encouraged the team to apply for European Commission funding for a first implementation project under the Eco-Innovation scheme. The resulting three year “Susonence” project would result in the manufacture of five industrial scale demonstrators, four of which would be installed in manufacturing plants in Paris and Prague. Martin concluded by providing details of the various funding schemes that had been used and showing examples from where additional help and assistance was available.
The third session then continued with the ongoing programme of short presentations from the researchers. Dr Anne Vanhoest from UCL began with an overview of her proposal for a Centre of Excellence for Medical Electronics Packaging (CEMEP). One of the important areas the centre would be involved with would be electronics reliability in harsh environments. Although the centre’s primary interest sector would be around medical engineering, there would be also be involvement with other related industrial sectors and the centre was therefore looking for additional adventurous and creative partners. Stewart Smith then talked about design research in the Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems at the School of Engineering in the University of Edinburgh and the work of the CMOS Sensors and Systems Group. They were working on mixed signal and digital systems design, neuromorphic electronics, sensor interfaces and integrated microsystems. An example of work on CMOS single photon detector arrays was given along with a brief discussion of applications for time resolved sensors for biomedical imaging and sensing. Other research interests reported included work on new smart low power sensors. Smart Design Research at Nottingham Trent University was then reported by Philip Breedon. This included rapid manufacturing technologies for smart materials and flexible circuitry for electroactive polymers and bio-sensors, the development of artificial muscles and bio-compatible additive manufacturing. The group was looking for collaborators with expertise in a variety of areas including functional inks, silicones, flexible circuitry and power supplies for medical devices and artificial muscles. Rhys Rhodes from the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey followed with a talk on “smart hybrid organic photovoltaic structures: a novel concept for long term efficient energy generation”. The institute was working on the development of solar powered hydrogen generation for efficient energy management and also on emissions-free energy production. The research was looking into the use of a photoelectrochemical cells to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and the subsequent removal and storage of the hydrogen for later use. This was seen as an area for expansion in the context of renewables. Proof of concept had been demonstrated using in-house graphinated nanostructures as photocatalysts and platinised TiO2 deposited on a commercial photovoltaic cell, with the next step being to produce a completely self-contained prototype. Stoyan Stoyanov from the Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group at the University of Greenwich was next with “Digital tools for DfX”. The group had skills and technology in virtual prototyping, multi-physics techniques, reliability/failure modelling, robustness validation, and risk analysis. Its research focus was on integrated models for DfX, physics of failure and reliability, process modelling and prognostics and health management and was of value in defence, aerospace and other high reliability and safety equipment. A recent example project had been the technology assessment of the effects of refinishing lead-free microelectronic components. Brunel University’s work on low power biomedical and self-powered smart electronics was then described by Tony Vilches. The group had a focus on novel, flexible electronic materials and low power smart electronic devices and systems and their work was aimed at creating novel electronic materials with tailored piezoelectric/thermoelectric/super-capacitive properties for use in new biosensors and energy harvesting systems. Current work also included research on biofuel cells for in-vivo use (see for example the following paper; CNT fibre based glucose sensor, Nanotechnology, 2010, 21, 16501). Finally for this session, Gavin Williams presented work being carried out jointly at the Universities of Sheffield and Durham on 3D lithography. The problem when undertaking 3D lithography was that diffraction limited resolution when using a mask and the effects became worse with non-planar substrates. The approach being developed by these two universities employed a laser illuminated computer generated hologram which was used in conjunction with a conformal photoresist. A number of application examples were shown including microstructured silicon and 3D antenna structures. The technology was cost effective for mass production and could be used for patterning non-planar substrates.
The final session of the conference was opened by Alan McClelland from the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and he began by giving a talk on the electronics capability in the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centre. He described the evolution of the centre and referred to two influential reports that had been produced by James Dyson and Herman Hauser. These reports had highlighted the problems of getting new technology to market and the Catapult Centres were aimed at bridging the gap (the valley of death) between academia and industry with the Centres working at the TRL four to six levels. The printable electronics facilities at CPI were also detailed and these included 1,000 m2 of class 100 and 1,000 clean rooms containing a wide range of automated processing equipment.
The first short presentation of the final session was given by David Harrison from Brunel University’s Cleaner Electronics Group and was entitled “Evaluation of the environmental impact of printed and plastic electronics applied as smart packaging”. David gave an overview of his group’s research facilities and capabilities and discussed the challenges around smart packaging and the need for more resource efficient designs for printed electronics. Current projects included “Powerweave” which was researching energy generation and storage on textiles. The challenges around smart packaging were also mentioned and these included what happened when highly visible, highly distributed packaging materials moved from being compostable materials to electronic waste. Another question was whether more resource efficient designs for printed electronics could be developed. Brunel was investigating this area via a TSB funded project called BEDS (biodegradable electronics). Smart packaging was an area where very large market growth was projected, but little work had been carried out to date to consider the potential impacts associated with the uptake of this new technology. Stewart Smith returned to discuss microsystems research at the University of Edinburgh. The facilities available were described and these included class 100 clean rooms for processing 200 mm substrates. The work involved the development of post-processing for microsystems integration. An example was shown of liquid crystal on silicon micro-displays (LCoS) which had been taken forward by Forth Dimension Displays. There had also been work on magnetic components made using thick electroplated metals for inductors. Digital microfluidics work was also described, this involved moving discrete droplets of liquids via the use of two different technologies: these utilised either an electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) approach or the use of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters. There had also been a long history of microelectronics test activity and metrology and the current focus was on MEMS and microsystems. Richard McWilliam form Durham University then discussed the work of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-life Engineering Services. Its interests included self-repairing electronics and related mechanisms that extended component lifetime and maintained critical operations. Derek Sinclair continued the session with “Functional Oxides at Sheffield”. The group at Sheffield had more than 50 researchers and their work was aimed at the development of functional oxides for antennas, thermistors, actuators, Li-batteries, fuel cells, thermoelectric, memristors and several other applications. There was, for example, a need for lead-free electro-ceramics and they had developed multilayer actuators using a high Tc piezoelectric multilayer actuator. The department had facilities and expertise from fundamental science to the production of prototype devices. Examples were shown of the oxide-based multilayer actuators that were used in the fuel injection systems of modern diesel engines. Darren Southee of Loughborough University discussed his work on product design for printed electronics with integrated power sources. He covered his current work at Loughborough and his previous work at Brunel on lithographically printed conductors, batteries and thermochromic displays, showing examples of printed interconnects, displays and battery structures. He also described the product design of a heated container that was used for keeping corn snakes at a specific required temperature. Samjid Mannan from King’s College, London reviewed his work on radically new solder materials for applications up to 185°C. These new solder pastes were based on SAC but with the addition of coated zinc particles that dissolved into the solder during reflow. This material showed good reliability during storage at 150°C for 1,000 h and temperature cycling from −20°C to 175°C over three hundred cycles. There was also evidence that the solder could withstand environments of 185°C using nickel substrates and component terminations for extended periods of time. Current results had shown reduced IMC formation and higher reliability for both copper and nickel terminations, but post reflow cleaning was required. The new paste was expected to be of interest to electronics manufacturers involved in oil/gas drilling, as well as those supplying the aerospace, power electronics and automotive sectors. The project was due to finish in December 2012 and interested parties were needed to evaluate the solder pastes in their own applications. Other related work at King’s included work on high melting point lead-free solders for applications up to 260°C and on nanoparticle copper sintered joints for applications above 300°C. Wenhui Song from Brunel then discussed work on the screen printing of carbon nanotubes for field emission devices. This involved the production and functionalisation of carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphite nano-sheets, along with the formulation and characterisation of carbon nanomaterial-based inks and the screen and inkjet printing of carbon nanostructure field emitters, electrodes and devices. Current thermionic cathode-based electron sources used hot filaments and were bulky and energy inefficient. Field emitter devices, conversely, were energy efficient cold cathode devices. The main challenge had been to develop a cost effective industrial approach to achieving high current electron emission of carbon nanomaterials and, to date, promising results had been achieved. Dr Bala Vaihyanathan of Loughborough University’s Department of Materials outlined work on the microwave assisted processing of multilayer electroceramic devices (ECDs). Conventional processing of ECDs was tedious, time consuming, energy intensive and required high temperatures. Problems that could be encountered included excessive grain growth, electrode migration, electrode delamination and interdiffusion of components. Work had been carried out to determine if microwaves could be used to overcome these problems. Microwaves offered volumetric and “inside out” heating along with more rapid heating and cooling. Varistor ceramics prepared using microwaves exhibited a 23 per cent enhancement in densification and superior electrical properties due to their finer grain size. In addition, the enhanced densification had been achieved in one tenth of the time normally required, along with a reduction in sintering temperatures, interfacial diffusion and electrode migration. The group was looking for collaborators for the development of new varistor and capacitor formulations, as well as partners that could help apply the methodologies for new systems and scale up. The final technical presentation of the day was by Geoff Wilcox from the Department of Materials at Loughborough University, who discussed his research on tin whisker formation via the IeMRC funded Whiskermit project. He gave an overview of whisker formation and discussed the implications of the legislation driven lead-removal from alloys, which had caused renewed problems with tin whisker formation. Further miniaturisation in electronics had also made matters worse because whiskers were more easily able to bridge the smaller gaps between components and tracks, etc. Also, at the lower voltages used, whiskers could sustain currents and cause problems. The Whiskermit project was using a dual approach to whisker mitigation; one being the modification of electroplating process and the other being the development and use of conformal coatings to retard whisker growth. The mechanisms of tin whisker growth on brass had been studied and the role of lead as a whisker mitigator in Sn-Pb electroplated finishes had been investigated. The project consortium was looking for new partners to join the project. There was also an interest in the electrodeposition of tin alloy solder finishes utilising non-aqueous ionic liquid formulations. Work was also planned to investigate the mechanisms for, and mitigation of, zinc whiskers on finishes associated with electronics.
At the end of the formal presentations Nihal Sinnadurai of the IEEE gave the results of the IEEE’s assessment of the best projects presented during the day. He described the terms that had been used in making the choice and he also mentioned a number of specific projects, such as Anne Vanhoest’s Centre of Medical Electronics Packaging, that the IEEE would support in the future. Liudi Jiang (Figure 4) from Southampton, Hazel Assender from Oxford, John Graves from Coventry and Axel Bindel from Loughborough were awarded gifts from the IEEE for their excellent presentations.
Andrew Holland (Figure 5), the iMAPS Chairman, then thanked all of the speakers for their high quality contributions and the IeMRC for its role in organising the event. He gave a brief overview of iMAPS and its activities before moving on to give the iMAPS award for the best project. This was a cash prize of £2,500 for use in taking the project forward and it was awarded to Derek Sinclair (Figure 6) from Sheffield University for his work on functional oxides.
Overall, this turned out to be an excellent and novel type of conference that held the attention of the attendees throughout a very varied and interesting day by providing insights into the vast array of valuable electronics research that is being undertaken within UK academia and which has the potential to provide real benefits to the UK electronics industry. Based on the success of this event, it seems likely that further conferences of this type would not only be most welcome but of great use. The individual presentations from the conference are available on the IeMRC’s website: www.iemrc.org
Martin GooseyJune 2012