Indium Expert to Host New Webinar on Intermetallics
Indium Corporation has announced that the company’s senior technologist Ron Lasky, Ph.D., will host a new session of his webinar on intermetallics and their importance to solder joints on Tuesday, Oct. 5, as part of the company’s free webinar program, the InSIDER Series.
The formation of copper-tin intermetallics is fundamental to a functional solder joint. In creating most solder joints, two pieces of copper—which melt at 1085°C—are bonded together with solder, at less than 250°C.
“Most of us, with years of experience in electronics assembly, don’t usually think of this technological ‘miracle’ of soldering. We can bond two pieces of copper together at a temperature low enough where the bonding can be performed in the presence of polymer material. Without this low-temperature formation of copper-tin intermetallics, the electronics industry might not exist,” said Lasky. “However, contemporary wisdom is that these intermetallics are brittle and can result in a poor thermal cycle or drop shock performance.”
In this webinar, Lasky will review the formation of copper-tin intermetallics, their growth rate, their effect on thermal cycle life, and drop shock performance. The brittle nature of copper-tin intermetallics will also be discussed.
In addition, several graphs of the intermetallic growth rate will be presented. Some of the additional ancillary effects of copper-tin intermetallic growth—such as tin whiskers and their mitigation—will also be discussed.
Lasky is a senior technologist at Indium Corporation, as well as a professor of engineering and the director of the Lean Six Sigma program at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., U.S.
He has more than 30 years of experience in electronics and optoelectronics packaging at IBM, Universal Instruments, and Cookson Electronics.
Lasky has authored six books, and contributed to nine more, on science, electronics, and optoelectronics, and has authored numerous technical papers. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor at several colleges, teaching more than 20 different courses on topics ranging from electronics packaging, materials science, physics, mechanical engineering, and science and religion.
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.
