Exposed Die-Top Encapsulation Molding for an Improved High- Performance Flip Chip BGA Package

The recent advancement in high- performance semiconductor packages has been driven by the need for higher pin count and superior heat dissipation. A one-piece cavity lid flip chip ball grid array (BGA) package with high pin count and targeted reliability has emerged as a popular choice. The flip chip technology can accommodate an I/O count of more than five hundreds500, and the die junction temperature can be reduced to a minimum level by a metal heat spreader attachment. None the less, greater expectations on these high-performance packages arose such as better substrate real estate utilization for multiple chips, ease in handling for thinner core substrates, and improved board- level solder joint reliability. A new design of the flip chip BGA package has been looked into for meeting such requirements. By encapsulating the flip chip with molding compound leaving the die top exposed, a planar top surface can be formed. A, and a flat lid can then be mounted on the planar mold/die top surface. In this manner the direct interaction of the metal lid with the substrate can be removed. The new package is thus less rigid under thermal loading and solder joint reliability enhancement is expected. This paper discusses the process development of the new package and its advantages for improved solder joint fatigue life, and being a multichip package and thin core substrate options. Finite-element simulations have been employed for the study of its structural integrity, thermal, and electrical performances. Detailed package and board-level reliability test results will also be reported     

Kinetics of thermal degradation of poly(-caprolactone)

The thermal degradation/modification dynamics of poly(-caprolactone) (PCL) was investigated in a thermogravimetric analyzer under non-isothermal and isothermal conditions. The time evolution of the molecular weight distribution during degradation was studied using gel permeation chromatography. Experimental molecular weight evolution and weight loss profile were modeled using continuous distribution kinetics. The degradation exhibited distinctly different behavior under non-isothermal and isothermal heating. Under non-isothermal heating, the mass of the polymer remained constant at initial stages with rapid degradation at longer times. The Friedman and Chang methods of analysis showed a 3-fold change (from 18 to 55–62 kcal mol⁻¹) in the activation energy from low temperatures to high temperatures during degradation. This suggested the governing mechanism changes during degradation and was explained using two parallel mechanisms (random chain scission and specific chain end scission) without invoking the sequential reaction mechanisms. Under isothermal heating, the polymer degraded by pure unzipping of specific products from the chain end.     

Synthesis,characterization, and anti-cancer activity of chalcone derivatives as-potent anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors

Structural Chemistry - Chalcone derivatives (7a–k) have been synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, mass, and elemental analysis. The synthesized compounds 7a, 7d, and 7g have been...     

Performance comparison of battery power consumption in wireless multiple access protocols

Energy efficiency is an important issue in mobile wireless networks since the battery life of mobile terminals is limited. Conservation of battery power has been addressed using many techniques such as variable speed CPUs, flash memory, disk spindowns, and so on. We believe that energy conservation should be an important factor in the design of networking protocols for mobile wireless networks. In particular, this paper addresses energy efficiency in medium access control (MAC) protocols for wireless networks. The paper develops a framework to study the energy consumption of a MAC protocol from the transceiver usage perspective. This framework is then applied to compare the performance of a set of protocols that includes IEEE 802.11, ECMAC, PRMA, MDRTDMA, and DQRUMA*. The performance metrics considered are transmitter and receiver usage times for packet transmission and reception. The time estimates are then combined with power ratings for a Proxim RangeLAN2 radio card to obtain an estimate of the energy consumed for MAC related activities. The analysis here shows that protocols that aim to reduce the number of contentions perform better from an energy consumption perspective. The receiver usage time, however, tends to be higher for protocols that require the mobile to sense the medium before attempting transmission. The paper also provides a set of principles that could be applied when designing access protocols for wireless networks.*ECMAC: energyconserving MAC. PRMA: packet reservation multiple access. MDRTDMA: multiservices dynamic reservation TDMA. DQRUMA: distributedqueuing request update multiple access.     

Contrasting Response of Two Dipolar Fluorescence Probes in a Leucine‐Based Organogel and Its Implications

The microenvironments of a leucine‐based organogel are probed by monitoring the fluorescence behavior of coumarin 153 (C153) and 4‐aminophthalimide (AP). The steady‐state data reveals distinctly different locations of the two molecules in the gel. Whereas AP resides close to the hydroxyl moieties of the gelator and engages in hydrogen‐bonding interactions, C153 is found in bulk‐toluene‐like regions. In contrast to C153, AP exhibits excitation‐wavelength‐dependent emission, indicating that the environments of the hydrogen‐bonded AP molecules are not all identical. A two‐component fluorescence decay of AP in gel, unlike C153, supports this model. A time‐resolved fluorescence anisotropy study of the rotational motion of the molecules also reveals the strong association of only AP with the gelator. That AP influences the critical gelation concentration implies its direct involvement in the gel‐formation process. The results highlight the importance of guest–gelator interactions in gels containing guest molecules.     

Comparative evaluation of antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles synthesized using Rhizophora apiculata and glucose

The focus of the study is to compare the antibacterial efficacy of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) fabricated by exploiting biological (a mangrove plant, Rhizophora apiculata) and chemical means (Glucose). The synthesized nanoparticles were characterised using UV-visible absorption spectrophotometry (UV-vis), Fourier transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles (BAgNPs) were observed at 423 nm with particle sizes of 19-42 nm. The chemically synthesized silver nanoparticles (CAgNPs) showed a maximum peak at 422 nm with particle sizes of 13-19 nm. An obvious superiority of the antibacterial potency of BAgNPs compared to the CAgNPs as denoted by the zone of inhibition (ZoI) was noted when the nanoparticles were treated against seven different Microbial Type Culture Collection (MTCC) strains. The current study therefore elucidates that the synthesized AgNPs were efficient against the bacterial strains tested.     

Low-complexity multiple access protocols for wavelength-divisionmultiplexed photonic networks

Media access control protocols for an optically interconnected star-coupled system with preallocated wavelength-division multiple-access channels are discussed. The photonic network is based on a passive star-coupled configuration in which high topological connectivity is achieved with low complexity and excellent fault tolerance. The channels are preallocated to the nodes with the proposed approach, and each node has a home channel it uses either for data packet transmission or data packet reception. The performance of a generalized random access protocol is compared to an approach based on interleaved time multiplexing. Semi-Markov analytic models are developed to investigate the performance of the two protocols. The analytic models are validated through extensive simulation. The performance is evaluated in terms of network throughput and packet delay with variations in the number of nodes, data channels, and packet generation rate     

Nonequilibrium Operation of Arsenic Diffused Long-Wavelength Infrared HgCdTe Photodiodes

We demonstrated a device with a unique planar architecture using a novel approach for obtaining low arsenic doping concentrations in long-wavelength (LW) HgCdTe on CdZnTe substrates. HgCdTe materials were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We fabricated a p-on-n structure that we term P ⁺/π/N ⁺ where the symbol “π” is to indicate a drastically reduced extrinsic p-type carrier concentration (on the order of mid 10¹⁵ cm⁻³); P ⁺ and N ⁺ denote a higher doping density, as well as a higher energy gap, than the photosensitive base π-region. Fabricated devices indicated that Auger suppression is seen in the P ⁺/π/N ⁺ architecture at temperatures above 130 K and we obtained a saturation current on the order of 3 mA on 250-μm-diameter devices at 300 K with Auger suppression. Data shows that about a 50% reduction in dark current is achieved at 300 K due to Auger suppression. The onset of Auger suppression voltage is 450 mV at 300 K and 100 mV at 130 K. Results indicate that a reduction of the series resistance could reduce this further. A principal challenge was to obtain low p-type doping levels in the π-region. This issue was overcome using a novel deep diffusion process, thereby demonstrating successfully low-doped p-type HgCdTe in MBE-grown material. Near-classical spectral responses were obtained at 250 K and at 100 K with cut-off wavelengths of 7.4 μm and 10.4 μm, respectively. At 100 K, the measured non-antireflection-coated quantum efficiency was 0.57 at 0.1 V under backside illumination. Received November 7, 2007; accepted March 19, 2008