The Embedded Computer System Support Improvement Program, or ESIP, was begun by the U.S. Air Force in 1983 to find new cost effective ways of integrating, testing and maintaining the computers embedded in military airborne, spaceborne, and ground electronic systems. A major initiative of this program is the Extendable Integration Support Environment (EISE). The EISE project involves design and development of a high speed network-based hardware and software integration and test environment. The ongoing work is being done jointly by U.S. Air Force civilian engineers at McClellan Air Force Base and TRW in Sacramento, California, in support of embedded avionics computers in the A-10 aircraft. The prototype design will be used to test and integrate various other aircraft and space systems. The author was the EISE project lead system engineer from July 1986 through January 1988.

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Miniaturization and functionality have always governed advances in electronic system technology. To truly achieve the goal of a multi mega-functional system, advances must be made not just at the IC level, but at the system level too. This concept of tighter integration at the system level is called System-on-Package (SOP). While SOP has a wide range of applications, this work targets the mobile application space. The main driver in the mobile application space is package profile. Reduction in thickness is very critical for enabling next-generation ultra-high density mobile products. In order to pack more functionality into a smaller volume, it is absolutely imperative that package profiles are reduced. The NEMI roadmap projects that the package profile should be reduced to 200µm from the current 500µm by 2014. This work attempts to demonstrate the feasibility of ultra-thin substrates (<200µm) using a new advanced material system tailored for high-frequency mobile applications. The main barriers to adoption of thin substrates include processing challenges, concerns about via and through hole reliability and warpage. Each of these factors is studied and a full-fledged test vehicle built to demonstrate the reliability of thin substrates using the advanced low-loss RXP-4/RXP-1 material system. Finite element models are developed to provide an understanding of the factors that affect the reliability of these substrates. Finally, IC assembly is demonstrated on these substrates.

This project is a fundamental proof of concept to look at the feasibility of using field activated abrasive particles to achieve material removal on a substrate. There are a few different goals for this project. The first goal is to prove through visualization that particle movement can be influenced and controlled by changes in electric field. The second goal is to fundamentally prove that particles controlled by electric field can remove material from a substrate. Third, it should be shown that changes in electric field can control the amount of material being removed in a given amount of time. A mathematical model will be presented which predicts metallic material removal rates based on changes in electric field strength. In this project, a technique combining concepts from electrokinetics, electrochemical mechanical planarization, and contact mechanics is proposed, aiming at enhancing planarization performance. By introducing an AC electric field with a DC offset, we try to achieve not only a better control of metallic material removal but also more flexible manipulation of the dynamic behaviour of abrasive particles. The presence of electric field will lead to electrokinetic phenomena including electroosmotic flow of an electrolyte solution and electrophoretic motion of abrasive particles. As a result, we aim to improve both the mechanical performance of planarization that is largely determined by the polishing parameters (e.g. down pressure, rotation speed, pads, and types of abrasives) and the chemical performance of planarization that is governed by selective and collective reactions of different chemical ingrediants of the slurry with the sample surface. The aim is also to understand and improve the interactions of abrasive particles with the sample.

Large area high throughput metrology plays an important role in several technologies like MEMS. In current metrology systems the parallel operation of multiple metrology probes in a tool has been hindered by their bulky sizes. This study approaches this problem by developing a metrology technique based on miniaturized scanning grating interferometers (μSGIs). Miniaturization of the interferometer is realized by novel micromachined tunable gratings fabricated using SOI substrates. These stress free flat gratings show sufficient motion (~500nm), bandwidth (~50 kHz) and low damping ratio (~0.05). Optical setups have been developed for testing the performance of μSGIs and preliminary results show 6.6 μm lateral resolution and sub-angstrom vertical resolution. To achieve high resolution and to reduce the effect of ambient vibrations, the study has developed a novel control algorithm, implemented on FPGA. It has shown significant reduction of vibration noise in 6.5 kHz bandwidth achieving 6x10-5 nmrms/√Hz noise resolution. Modifications of this control scheme enable long range displacement measurements, parallel operation and scanning samples for their dynamic profile. To analyze and simulate similar optical metrology system with active micro-components, separate tools are developed for mechanical, control and optical sub-systems. The results of these programs enable better design optimization for different applications.

A comprehensive study of a miniaturized thermally activated cooling system was conducted. This study represents the first work to conceptualize, design, fabricate and successfully test a thermally activated cooling system for mobile applications. Thermally activated systems have the ability to produce useful cooling from waste heat streams or directly from the combustion of liquid fuels. Numerous concepts of miniaturized or mobile, active cooling systems exist in the literature but up to this point, successful fabrication and testing has not been documented. During this study, a breadboard absorption heat pump system was fabricated from off the shelf or in-house, custom-built components. The breadboard system was used to validate the feasibility of operating an absorption heat pump with a cooling capacity of about 300 W. Subsequently, a flexible and scalable design methodology for designing miniaturized absorption heat pumps was developed. A miniaturized, 300 W nominal cooling capacity ammonia/water absorption heat pump cycle with overall dimensions of 200 × 200 × 34 mm and a mass of 7 kg was then fabricated and tested. Testing of the absorption heat pump was conducted over a range of heat sink temperatures (20 ≤ T ≤ 35°C) and desorber thermal input rates (500 ≤ Q ≤ 800 W). Evaporator coolant heat duties in the study ranged from 136 to 300 W, while system COPs ranged from 0.247 to 0.434. At a nominal rating condition of 35°C heat sink temperature, the maximum thermal input of 800 W produced a cooling effect of 230 W. This represents a cycle COP of 0.29. Analysis of the experimental data indicated that future work should focus on improved desorber and rectifier designs to improve refrigerant purity. It is estimated that a system similar to the one in this study, with all fluid connections made internal to the system, could achieve the same cooling capacity with a system mass of 2.5 - 3.5 kg in an envelop of 120 × 120 × 25 mm.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Danyluk, Steven; Committee Member: Butler, David; Committee Member: Hesketh, Peter; Committee Member: Yoda, Minami. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Ghiaasiaan, S. Mostafa; Committee Member: Desai, Prateen; Committee Member: Jeter, Sheldon; Committee Member: Kirkconnell, Carl.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.