Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study examines the determinants of job satisfaction for women and men working in self-managed work teams. The data used are from a 1990 survey sample of 99 production employees in an electronics manufacturing plant.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-72).

Lead-free solders such as SnAg and SnAgCu are used extensively as replacements of SnPb solders in microelectronics packaging. But these alloys have several drawbacks, such as poor wetting ability and formation of intermetallic compounds (IMC). Doping of rare earth element (RE) on SnAg alloys has been found to improve the wetting property, reduce IMCs and their growth, and refine the microstructure which results in improved mechanical properties of the solder. This study focuses on establishing the quantitative effects of RE doping on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of 96.5Sn3.5Ag alloy. SnAg alloys with different amounts of Lanthanum were made. Specimens were cast under typical reflow conditions, and then aged at different temperatures for three different aging times. Quantitative microscopy was conducted on samples with different amounts of La doping. It was found that doping greatly reduces the grain size, as well as the size of the intermetallic particles Ag3Sn. However, the inter-particle spacing remains relatively unaffected by the La doping amount. Creep tests at various temperatures and strain rates were conducted. The results show that La doping increases creep resistance of the SnAg alloy by ~15%. The creep test result can be fit into a modified microstructure dependent Anand model. A new constitutive law was also proposed to account for the hierarchal microstructure over multiple length scales. Specifically, at the sub micrometer scale, the SnAg eutectic region is treated as a particulate-reinforced composite with the Ag3Sn being the particle and Sn being the matrix. At the micrometer length scale, the solder alloys is treated as a two-phase composite with the Sn dendrite as the particle and the SnAg eutectic region as the matrix. Good agreement was found between the model predictions and the creep test results. Fatigue test was performed on bulk samples. It was found that RE doping increases the fatigue life of SnAg alloy by a factor of 5.

This thesis is devoted to the research and development of low processing temperature lead-free interconnect materials for microelectronic packaging applications with an emphasis on fundamental studies of nanoparticles synthesis, dispersion and oxidation prevention, and nanocomposites fabrication. Oxide-free tin (Sn), tin/silver (96.5Sn3.5Ag) and tin/silver/copper (96.5Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu) alloy nanoparticles with different sizes were synthesized by a low temperature chemical reduction method. Both size dependent melting point and latent heat of fusion of the synthesized nanoparticles were obtained. The nano lead-free solder pastes/composites created by dispersing the SnAg or SnAgCu alloy nanoparticles into an acidic type flux spread and wet on the cleaned copper surface at 220 to 230 ¡æ. This study demonstrated the feasibility of nano sized SnAg or SnAgCu alloy particle pastes for low processing temperature lead-free interconnect applications in microelectronic packaging. Surface functionalized silver nanoparticles and silver fakes were used as fillers for electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) applications. During the curing of epoxy resin (150 ¡æ), the surfactants were debonded from the particles and at the same time the oxide layers on the particle surfaces were removed which facilitated the sintering of Ag nanoparticles. The contact interfaces between fillers were significantly reduced and an ultra highly conductive ECA with a resistivity of 5 ¡Á 10-6 ohm.cm was obtained. To enhance the adhesion of carbon nanotube (CNT) films to substrates, an ultra highly conductive ECA were used as a media to transfer the CNT films to copper substrates. The polymer wetted along the CNTs during curing process by the capillary force. An ohmic contact was formed between the copper substrates and the transferred CNTs. This process could overcome the serious obstacles of integration of CNTs into integrated circuits and microelectronic device packages by offering low processing temperatures and improved adhesion of CNTs to substrates. The transferred CNTs can be used to simultaneously form electrical and mechanical connections between chips and substrates.

Electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) are one of the lead-free interconnect materials with the advantages of environmental friendliness, mild processing conditions, fewer processing steps, low stress on the substrates, and fine pitch interconnect capability. However, some challenging issues still exist for the currently available ECAs, including lower electrical conductivity, conductivity fatigue in reliability tests, limited current-carrying capability, poor impact strength, etc. The interfacial properties is one of the major considerations when resolving these challenges and developing high performance conductive adhesives. Surface functionalization and interface modification are the major approaches used in this thesis. Fundamental understanding and analysis of the interaction between various types of interface modifiers and ECA materials and substrates are the key for the development of high performance ECA for lead-free interconnects. The results of this thesis provide the guideline for the enhancement of interfacial properties of metal-metal and metal-polymer interactions. Systematic investigation of various types of ECAs contributes to a better understanding of materials requirements for different applications, such as surface mount technology (SMT), flip chip applications, flat panel display modules with high resolution, etc. Improvement of the electrical, thermal and reliability of different ECAs make them a potentially ideal candidate for high power and fine pitch microelectronics packaging option.

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

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

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engfineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The ongoing globalization of companies has resulted in a highly competitive business climate where companies have to be cost-effective but still flexible with fast response to customer feedback and present in the international scene. In order to meet the fast paced technological development from the competition and changing demand of the customers, companies focus on creating new products and reducing their time-to-market with an early product launch to gain profits from increased market shares. However, in order to maintain profitability of the new product, it becomes even more important for the company to quickly deploy a full-scale production of the product, also known as the production ramp-up phase. Despite being known as a major cost driver in new product development projects, production ramp-up is a research area which have yet received sparse attention compared to research on product launch and time-to-market in new product development projects. However, with shorter product life-cycles and higher market competition it has resulted in a need to shorten the length of a new product’s ramp-up time without making any trade-off to the cost-effectiveness of the ramp-up project and the end product’s final quality. The study identifies the common problems in volume production of a contract electronics manufacturer and their sources of disturbances from the new product introduction process. It also identifies the factors influencing the new product introduction process at the company and how these factors are connected different sources of disturbances. To identify these findings, a single case study was designed and performed at Orbit One AB, a contract electronics manufacturer with a low-volume production of products. The data collection course was executed in an iterative manner over a period of four months through interviews, observation and internal documentation and was backed up and analyzed with a literature study. The data collection through interviews was carried out in two separate rounds, where the first round of interviews was focused on identifying the common problems in volume production and the second round was focused on the factors influencing the output from the new product introduction process. The discoveries from the interviews were analyzed together with the other sources of collected data to reach a conclusive analysis. The results of the study showed that the most common problems in volume production of the company could be traced to six different sources of disturbances: Product, Production System, Design-Production Interface, Quality, Resource Management, and Personnel. The most common problems could also be summarized as: Problems with manufacturability of product; High variation of process performance, Poor correctness of information, Quality issues with products, and High workload on resources. The factors identified in the findings of the study shows that there are multiple and connected factors which affects the final output of the new product introduction process which corroborates with earlier studies and research in the area of production ramp-up. The study did identify two factors which has not been identified by other ramp-up studies, these were: Lack of organizational project culture and customer flexibility.