Jan 29, 2024 
Two Indium Corporation experts are set to deliver technical presentations on low-temperature soldering at the upcoming Pan Pacific Strategic Electronics Symposium (Pan Pac), hosted by SMTA, January 29–February 1 in Hawaii.
At 1 p.m. local time on January 30, R&D Manager of the Alloy Group and Principal Research Metallurgist Dr. HongWen Zhang will deliver a presentation on the challenges of lower temperature soldering for large ball grid array, board-level assembly. The presentation will explore the challenges of heterogeneous integration in semiconductor circuits and address the associated package size issues by testing low-to-mid-temperature solder pastes. The study emphasizes the importance of sufficient molten solder volume for forming defect-free joints, particularly under conditions of component-level warpage.
At 2:45 p.m. local time on January 30, Senior Technologist Dr. Ronald Lasky will present on the status of low-temperature solders by summarizing the current totality of research on them and attempting to predict their future applications and implementations. Dr. Lasky will also review current low-temperature alternatives to tin-bismuth solders that have performance similar to SAC solder.
As manager of the alloy group in Indium Corporation’s R&D department, Dr. Zhang’s focus is on the development of the varieties of Pb-free solder materials and the associated technologies for low-temperature, high-temperature, and/or high-reliability applications. He was instrumental in inventing the Durafuse® technology to combine the merits of constituents to improve wetting, reduce processing temperatures, modify the bonding surface, and control the joint’s morphology, thus improving reliability. As principal metallurgist, he is also responsible for expanding metallurgical innovation. He and his team are responsible for using metallurgical insight to develop new products, implement improvements to existing processes and products, and measure results.
Dr. Zhang has a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical physical chemistry, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. in material science and engineering. He has a Six Sigma Green Belt from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, and is a certified IPC Specialist for IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610, as well as a certified SMT Process Engineer. Dr. Zhang has published two book chapters and more than 50 conference and journal papers, and he has been granted more than ten patents in the U.S. and globally. Dr. Zhang was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association’s (SMTA) Technical Distinction Award in 2023.
Dr. Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corporation, as well as a professor of engineering at Dartmouth College and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Instructor. He has more than 30 years of experience in electronics and optoelectronics packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, and Cookson Electronics. He has authored six books and contributed to several others on science, electronics, and optoelectronics; he has authored numerous technical papers. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor at several colleges, teaching more than 20 different courses on topics such as electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering, and science and religion.
Dr. Lasky holds numerous patent disclosures and is the developer of several SMT processing software products relating to cost estimating, line balancing, and process optimization. He is the co-creator of engineering certification exams that set standards in the electronics assembly industry worldwide. Dr. Lasky was awarded the Surface Mount Technology Association’s (SMTA) Technical Distinction Award in 2021 for his “significant and continuing technical contributions to the SMTA.” He was also awarded SMTA’s prestigious Founder’s Award in 2003.
Indium Corporation® is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email jhuang@indium.com. You can also follow our experts, From One Engineer To Another® (#FOETA), at www.linkedin.com/company/indium-corporation/.
