Development of a syn‐Selective Mannich Reaction of Aldehydes with Propargylic Imines by Dual Catalysis: Asymmetric Synthesis of Functionalized Propargylic Amines

Direct coupling of enolizable aldehydes with C‐alkynyl imines is realized affording the corresponding propargylic Mannich adducts of syn configuration, thus complementing previous methods that gave access to the anti‐isomers. The combination of proline and a urea Brønsted base cocatalyst is key for the reactions to proceed under very mild conditions (3–10 mol % catalyst loading, dichloromethane as solvent, ?20 °C, 1.2 molar equivalents of aldehyde) and with virtually total stereocontrol (syn/anti ratio up to 99:1; ee up to 99 %). Some possibilities of further chemical elaboration of adducts are also briefly illustrated.     

Quantitative strain analysis of flip-chip electronic packages using phase-shifting moiré interferometry

In order to gauge the reliability of electronic packages, it is valuable to analyze thermally induced displacements and strains around bimaterial corners and within interconnections. The increased demand for computing performance has created increasingly complex electronic packages with miniaturized features, making it increasingly difficult to extract these quantities. Often, material properties at these length scales are not fully known, making modeling and simulation problematic. Thus, determining displacements and strains experimentally is attractive. In this study, an advanced flip-chip package with fine interconnection features was analyzed using phase-shifting moiré interferometry (PSMI) in conjunction with image analysis software developed for this purpose. Before the analysis, PSMI was qualified using an isotropic solid undergoing uniform thermal contraction, which yielded a displacement precision of ±4 nm. Then a high-magnification, high-resolution displacement and strain analysis was performed for a small cross-sectional region of the flip-chip package containing 20–100 μm sized features. The analysis quantifies these results and gives displacements and strains obtained by differentiating the displacement data using a strain-energy-based finite element formulation.     

Catalytic Enantioselective Synthesis of N,Cα,Cα‐Trisubstituted α‐Amino Acid Derivatives Using 1H‐Imidazol‐4(5H)‐ones as Key Templates

1H‐Imidazol‐4(5H)‐ones are introduced as novel nucleophilic α‐amino acid equivalents in asymmetric synthesis. These compounds not only allow highly efficient construction of tetrasubstituted stereogenic centers, but unlike hitherto known templates, provide direct access to N‐substituted (alkyl, allyl, aryl) α‐amino acid derivatives.