With the emerging wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor development, the increasing power density and efficiency of power electronic converters may cause more switching oscillation, electromagnetic interference noise, and additional power loss, further increasing the probability of device failure. Therefore, determining and quantifying the failure of a metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which assembled using WBG semiconductor in some applications, is crucial to improving the reliability of a power converter. This study proposes a novel failure quantitative assessment approach based on MOSFET parasitic parameters. According to the two-port network theory, MOSFET is equivalent to some second-order RLC circuits composed of independent inductances, capacitances, and resistances in series. Then, the frequency-domain impedance associated with the physical failure of MOSFET is identified through frequency domain reflectometry. Accelerated aging and bond wires cut-off experiments are employed to obtain various quality states of the MOSFET device. Result shows that the MOSFET quality level and its number of bond wire lift-offs can be quantified effectively. Drain-to-source on-resistance (R_DS(on)) that normally represents the MOSFET quality shows a positive linear function relationship on drain-to-source parasitic resistance (R_D + R_S) during the quality degradation proceeding. This finding matches with the correlation established between R_{DS (on)} and R_D + R_S in theory. Meanwhile, source parasitic inductance (L_S) increases with the severity of bond wires faults, and even the slight fault shows a high sensitivity. The proposed approach would be an effective quality screening technology for power semiconductor devices without power on treatment, which can effectively avoid the impact of junction temperature and test conditions (current and voltage) on test results, and does not need to design additional test circuits. The test frequency range we used in this approach was 10–300 MHz, which to some extent is suitable for providing an on-line quality monitoring technology for high-frequency WBG power devices manufacturing.

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In this study, first-principles calculations were utilized to investigate the lattice constants, elastic constants, and mechanical properties of gold–copper (Au–Cu) intermetallic compounds (IMCs), including AuCu3, AuCu, and Au3Cu. We also verified the direction dependence of the Young’s modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson’s ratio of the compounds. The calculated lattice parameters agreed with the experimental data, and the single-crystal elastic constants, elastic modulus E, shear modulus G, bulk modulus B, and Poisson’s ratio ν were calculated. For the Young’s and shear moduli, AuCu3 showed the highest anisotropy, followed by AuCu and Au3Cu. The Poisson’s ratios of AuCu3 and Au3Cu crystals were isotropic on (100) and (111) crystal planes and anisotropic on the (110) crystal plane. However, the Poisson’s ratio of the AuCu crystal was anisotropic on (100) and (111) crystal planes and isotropic on the (110) crystal plane.@en

Based on molecular dynamics (MD), in this study, a model was established to simulate the initial coating morphology of silver paste by using a random algorithm, and the effects of different sizes of particles on sintering porosity were also analyzed. The MD result reveals that compared with the sintering process using large-scale silver particles, the sintering process using multi-scale silver particles would enhance the densification under the same sintering conditions, which authenticates the feasibility of adding small silver particles to large-scale silver particles in theory. In addition, to further verify the feasibility of the multi-scale sintering, a semi in-situ observation was prepared for a sintering experiment using micro-nano multi-scale silver paste. The feasibility of multi-scale silver sintering is proved by theoretical and experimental means, which can provide a meaningful reference for optimizing the sintering process and the preparation of silver paste for die-attach in powering electronics industry. In addition, it is hoped that better progress can be made on this basis in the future.

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Bond wire damage is one of the most common failure modes of metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) power devices in wire-welded packaging. This paper proposes a novel bond wire damage detection approach based on two-port network measurement by identifying the MOSFET source parasitic inductance (LS). Numerical calculation shows that the number of bond wire liftoffs will change the LS, which can be used as an effective bond wire damage precursor. Considering a power MOSFET as a two-port network, LS is accurately extracted from frequency domain impedance (Z−parameter) using a vector network analyzer under zero biasing conditions. Bond wire cutoff experiments are employed to validate the proposed approach for bond wire damage detection. The result shows that LS increases with the rising severity of bond wire faults, and even the slight fault shows a high sensitivity, which can be effectively used to quantify the number of bond wire liftoffs of discrete MOSFETs. Meanwhile, the source parasitic resistance (RS) extracted from the proposed two-port network measurement can be used for the bond wire damage detection of high switching frequency silicon carbide MOSFETs. This approach offers an effective quality screening technology for discrete MOSFETs without power on treatment.

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As a key heat-dissipating and electrical interconnecting component in high-temperature power modules, die-attach and substrate-attach layers play an important role in effectively reducing the thermal resistance and improving the long-term reliability. Traditional substrate-attach materials limit the high-temperature applications of packaging modules due to their high thermal resistance and high-temperature reliability. To solve the above deficiency, a copper foam-silver composite was proposed in this paper, which was prepared by mixing copper foam solid skeleton with micron silver paste. According to the results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of silver paste, the preheating process was determined and sintered at 270°C and 10MPa. The influence of different preparation technology on the quality of sintered joint was investigated. The morphology characteristics and distribution of sintered silver in the copper foam were observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results show that the sintered silver of group C samples can be uniformly filled into the solid skeleton of copper foam, and the densification degree is high, without cracks, delamination, and holes. The shear strength can reach 55MPa.@en

UVC-LED is known as a deep ultraviolet LED. The application development and disinfection efficiency of UVC-LED modules are important problems encountered when UVC-LED products are rushed into commercialization. In this article, a specific disinfection experiment with a UVC-LED module was combined to analyze the disinfection efficiency. UVC-LEDs with wavelengths of 260 and 280 nm were used and supplemented with UVA-LEDs with wavelengths of 360 and 390 nm. The module was packaged to investigate the inactivation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Two new findings were obtained through the analysis and comparison of the experiments. First, the short wavelength from UVA might have an enhanced destructive effect on microorganisms when the radiation intensity of UVA-LED was sufficient with coupling UVA and UVC. Second, 260 nm UVC-LED lamp beads might have a shorter response time to inactivate microorganisms than 280 nm UVC-LED lamp beads. Bactericidal experiments near the surface and different radiation distances showed that the inactivation rate reached 99.9% after 1 min of exposure when the UVC-LED module was set at 260 or 280 nm wavelength lamp beads for disinfection. The disinfection efficiency of 280 nm UVC-LED lamp beads was higher than that of 260 nm UVC-LED lamp beads because of the increased UV intensity. The radiation distance was within 7.5 cm range, the exposure time was 60 s, the inactivation rate was over 99.9%, and the disinfection effect was remarkable. For current UVC-LED applications, such as near-surface UVC-LED, disinfection and air purification products have a high value.@en

Full intermetallic compound (IMC) solder joints present fascinating advantages in high-temperature applications. In this study, the mechanical properties and elastic anisotropy of η’-Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn intermetallic compounds were investigated using first-principles calculations. The values of single-crystal elastic constants, the elastic (E), shear (G), and bulk (B) moduli, and Poisson’s ratio (ν) were identified. In addition, the two values of G/B and ν indicated that the two IMCs were ductile materials. The elastic anisotropy of η’-Cu6Sn5 was found to be higher than Cu3Sn by calculating the universal anisotropic index. Furthermore, an interesting discovery was that the above two types of monocrystalline IMC exhibited mechanical anisotropic behavior. Specifically, the anisotropic degree of E and B complied with the following relationship: η’-Cu6Sn5 > Cu3Sn; however, the relationship was Cu3Sn > η’-Cu6Sn5 for the G. It is noted that the anisotropic degree of E and G was similar for the two IMCs. In addition, the anisotropy of the B was higher than the G and E, respectively, for η’-Cu6Sn5; however, in the case of Cu3Sn, the anisotropic degree of B, G, and E was similar. @en

With the rapid development of lighting technology and auto industry, it has been an important research subject for many motor manufacturers to improve headlight performance. LED light has achieved a dominant position in lighting technology because of the advantages, such as the small size, low energy consumption, and long service life. In a complex working environment, the reliability of light source module is an indispensable parameter for a LED headlight, which can lead to poor energy efficiency, decreased light intensity, and a shorter service life with low reliability. In the working process of headlights, the rising LED temperature will reduce the luminous flux and thermostability, even affect normal operation. Therefore, understanding and evaluating the relevant factors affecting LED reliability is an important measure to ensure the stabilizations of LED headlights. In this paper, the finite element software and optical simulation software are used to simulate the temperature field, flow field, and optics of the LED headlight module. Firstly, in order to understand the influence of temperature on the stability of the headlight, the temperature field and flow field distribution of the headlight are studied by finite element software. Secondly, we use the optical simulation software to study the optical parameters of headlight at different temperatures. It shows that the highest temperature appears in the LED chip, and the lowest temperature appears in the maximum end face of the headlight shell. For the same power LED, the higher working temperature leads to higher LED junction temperature. Affected by the working environment temperature, the luminous flux of the headlight will decrease with the increase of temperature.@en

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a third-generation semiconductor material with many advantages, such as high thermal conductivity, high critical breakdown voltage, and high saturated electron drift velocity, which can increase the operating frequency of the power conversion system to more than 100kHz. In the high-frequency, the parasitic effect will significantly reduce the switching speed of the power devices, increase power consumption and influence the uniformity of current distribution. In this paper, we established the calculation nodes of each part of the SiC-MOSFET Half-bridge power module and used ANSYS Q3D software to extract the parasitic parameters. Die-Die, Die-DBC-1, Die-DBC-2 and hybrid interconnect package structures were designed to optimize the parasitic inductance. Simulation results indicated that the chip-DBC-1 structure can reduce the parasitic inductance about 30% compared with Chip-Chip structure and effectively control the uniformity of current density on two parallel diode chips (ΔLdiode <0.1%). In the meantime, an 3D model of partial bond wires broken were designed to get further insight into the variation of parasitic inductances. The correlation mechanism between the partial bond wires broken and inductance change of the D-S terminals current path was studied. The results showed that as the number of broken bond wires increases, the inductance of D-S terminals current path was increased gradually. Finally, by using two-port S-parameters measurement method to extract the inductances of the discrete power device, the experimental results indicated that when one or two bond wires were broken, the inductance of D-S terminals current path increased by 4.69% and 15.69%, respectively. Overview, a risk evaluation method for SiC power devices based on the variation of the parasitic parameters of the bond wire was established.@en

Understanding the defect characterization of electronic and mechanical components is a crucial step in diagnosing component lifetime. Technologies for determining reliability, such as thermal modeling, cohesion modeling, statistical distribution, and entropy generation analysis, have been developed widely. Defect analysis based on the irreversibility entropy generation methodology is favorable for electronic and mechanical components because the second law of thermodynamics plays a unique role in the analysis of various damage assessment problems encountered in the engineering field. In recent years, numerical and theoretical studies involving entropy generation methodologies have been carried out to predict and diagnose the lifetime of electronic and mechanical components. This work aimed to review previous defect analysis studies that used entropy generation methodologies for electronic and mechanical components. The methodologies are classified into two categories, namely, damage analysis for electronic devices and defect diagnosis for mechanical components. Entropy generation formulations are also divided into two detailed derivations and are summarized and discussed by combining their applications. This work is expected to clarify the relationship among entropy generation methodologies, and benefit the research and development of reliable engineering components.

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Using first-principles calculation, we have studied the adsorption effect of small gas molecules (H₂O, CO₂, CH₄, SO₂, H₂S, and NH₃) on GeP₃ monolayer. To determine the most stable adsorption site, five adsorption sites (center, Ge, P, bridge GeP, and bridge PP) were considered in the paper. Through calculations of adsorption energy, adsorption distance, and charge transfer, we preliminarily determined that H₂O, CO₂, and CH₄ were physically adsorbed on GeP₃ via weak van der Waals force. However, SO₂, H₂S, and NH₃ were chemically adsorbed on GeP₃ with new covalent bonds formed, as concluded by calculations of electron localization function and charge density difference. Gas molecule adsorption can cause significant changes in the band gap of single-layer GeP₃, indicating that pristine GeP₃ monolayer is sensitive to these gases. In addition, the adsorption energy of the H₂O, CO₂, and CH₄ adsorbed on GeP₃ can be tuned effectively by employing an external electric field. Our theoretical studies reveal that GeP₃ monolayer is a promising gas-sensitive material used in nanometer devices.                                                                                                    

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For the purpose of exploring the application of two-dimensional (2D) material in the field of gas sensors, the adsorption properties of gas molecules, CO, CO2, CH2O, O2, NO2, and SO2 on the surface of monolayered tin selenium in β phase (β-SnSe) has been researched by first principles calculation based on density functional theory (DFT). The results indicate that β-SnSe sheet presents weak physisorption for CO and CO2 molecules with small adsorption energy and charge transfers, which show that a β-SnSe sheet is not suitable for sensing CO and CO2. The adsorption behavior of CH2O molecules adsorbed on a β-SnSe monolayer is stronger than that of CO and CO2, revealing that the β-SnSe layer can be applied to detect CH2O as physical sensor. Additionally, O2, NO2, and SO2 are chemically adsorbed on a β-SnSe monolayer with moderate adsorption energy and considerable charge transfers. All related calculations reveal that β-SnSe has a potential application in detecting and catalyzing O2, NO2, and SO2 molecules.@en

CH ₂ O is a common toxic gas molecule that can cause asthma and dermatitis in humans. In this study the adsorption behaviors of the CH ₂ O adsorbed on the boron nitride (BN), aluminum nitride (AlN), gallium nitride (GaN), indium nitride (InN), boron phosphide (BP), and phosphorus (P) monolayers were investigated using the first-principles method, and potential materials that could be used for detecting CH ₂ O were identified. The gas adsorption energies, charge transfers and electronic properties of the gas adsorption systems have been calculated to study the gas adsorption behaviors of CH ₂ O on these single-layer materials. The electronic characteristics of these materials, except for the BP monolayer, were observed to change after CH ₂ O adsorption. For CH ₂ O on the BN, GaN, BP, and P surfaces, the gas adsorption behaviors were considered to follow a physical trend, whereas CH ₂ O was chemically adsorbed on the AlN and InN monolayers. Given their large gas adsorption energies and high charge transfers, the AlN, GaN, and InN monolayers are potential materials for CH ₂ O detection using the charge transfer mechanism.

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A novel silicone rubber elastic key (SREK) is proposed in this paper for surface mounting technology (SMT) applications. Effects of thermal reflowing stress on the mechanical properties of SMT-SREKs are investigated. The manufactured SMT-SREKs, which underwent various reflowing conditions in advance, are subjected to pressing force and fatigue pressing tests. Fatigue lifetime projection model and its predicted error are then assessed systematically. The thermal degradation of silicone rubber materials is illustrated through the dynamic mechanical analysis and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy experiments. The mechanical finite element modeling is also conducted to simulate the pressing process. The results show that the pressing force and tactility of the SMT-SREKs are strongly affected by the reflowing condition, which contributes to the degradation of the silicone rubber materials. During the fatigue pressing test, the change rate of tactility increases with the reflowing peak temperature ( T-{p} ) and is accelerated by the repeated reflowing process. Moreover, a linear model can precisely project the tactility before the fatigue pressing number of 2.0E+6 times, and the impact rate of T-{p} on tactility with the increasing fatigue pressing number can be predicted effectively by using a logarithm model.@en

The effects of graphene stacking are investigated by comparing the results of methane adsorption energy, electronic performance, and the doping feasibility of five dopants (i.e., B, N, Al, Si, and P) via first-principles theory. Both zigzag and armchair graphenes are considered. It is found that the zigzag graphene with Bernal stacking has the largest adsorption energy on methane, while the armchair graphene with Order stacking is opposite. In addition, both the Order and Bernal stacked graphenes possess a positive linear relationship between adsorption energy and layer number. Furthermore, they always have larger adsorption energy in zigzag graphene. For electronic properties, the results show that the stacking effects on band gap are significant, but it does not cause big changes to band structure and density of states. In the comparison of distance, the average interlamellar spacing of the Order stacked graphene is the largest. Moreover, the adsorption effect is the result of the interactions between graphene and methane combined with the change of graphene’s structure. Lastly, the armchair graphene with Order stacking possesses the lowest formation energy in these five dopants. It could be the best choice for doping to improve the methane adsorption.

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The mechanical and electronic properties of two GaN crystals, wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN, under various hydrostatic pressures were investigated using first principles calculations. The results show that the lattice constants of the two GaN crystals calculated in this study are close to previous experimental results, and the two GaN crystals are stable under hydrostatic pressures up to 40 GPa. The pressure presents extremely similar trend effect on the volumes of unit cells and average Ga-N bond lengths of the two GaN crystals. The bulk modulus increases while the shear modulus decreases with the increase in pressure, resulting in the significant increase of the ratios of bulk moduli to shear moduli for the two GaN polycrystals. Different with the monotonic changes of bulk and shear moduli, the elastic moduli of the two GaN polycrystals may increase at first and then decrease with increasing pressure. The two GaN crystals are brittle materials at zero pressure, while they may exhibit ductile behaviour under high pressures. Moreover, the increase in pressure raises the elastic anisotropy of GaN crystals, and the anisotropy factors of the two GaN single crystals are quite different. Different with the obvious directional dependences of elastic modulus, shear modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the two GaN single crystals, there is no anisotropy for bulk modulus, especially for that of zinc-blende GaN. Furthermore, the band gaps of GaN crystals increase with increasing pressure, and zinc-blende GaN has a larger pressure coefficient. To further understand the pressure effect on the band gap, the band structure and density of states (DOSs) of GaN crystals were also analysed in this study.@en

For the limitation of experimental methods in crystal characterization, in this study, the mechanical, thermodynamic and electronic properties of wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN crystals were investigated by first-principles calculations based on density functional theory. Firstly, bulk moduli, shear moduli, elastic moduli and Poisson's ratios of the two GaN polycrystals were calculated using Voigt and Hill approximations, and the results show wurtzite GaN has larger shear and elastic moduli and exhibits more obvious brittleness. Moreover, both wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN monocrystals present obvious mechanical anisotropic behavior. For wurtzite GaN monocrystal, the maximum and minimum elastic moduli are located at orientations [001] and < 111 >, respectively, while they are in the orientations < 111 > and < 100 > for zinc-blende GaN monocrystal, respectively. Compared to the elastic modulus, the shear moduli of the two GaN monocrystals have completely opposite direction dependences. However, different from elastic and shear moduli, the bulk moduli of the two monocrystals are nearly isotropic, especially for the zinc-blende GaN. Besides, in the wurtzite GaN, Poisson's ratios at the planes containing [001] axis are anisotropic, and the maximum value is 0.31 which is located at the directions vertical to [001] axis. For zinc-blende GaN, Poisson's ratios at planes (100) and (111) are isotropic, while the Poisson's ratio at plane (110) exhibits dramatically anisotropic phenomenon. Additionally, the calculated Debye temperatures of wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN are 641.8 and 620.2 K, respectively. At 300 K, the calculated heat capacities of wurtzite and zinc-blende are 33.6 and 33.5 J mol-1 K-1, respectively. Finally, the band gap is located at the G point for the two crystals, and the band gaps of wurtzite and zinc-blende GaN are 3.62 eV and 3.06 eV, respectively. At the G point, the lowest energy of conduction band in the wurtzite GaN is larger, resulting in a wider band gap. Densities of states in the orbital hybridization between Ga and N atoms of wurtzite GaN are much higher, indicating more electrons participate in forming Ga-N ionic bonds in the wurtzite GaN.@en

The color coordinate shift of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps is investigated by running three stress-loaded testing methods, namely step-up stress accelerated degradation testing, step-down stress accelerated degradation testing, and constant stress accelerated degradation testing. A power model is proposed as the statistical model of the color shift (CS) process of LED products. Consequently, a CS mechanism constant is obtained for detecting the consistency of CS mechanisms among various stress-loaded conditions. A statistical procedure with the proposed power model is then derived for the CS paths of LED lamps in step-loaded stress testing. Two types of commercial LED lamps with different capabilities of heat dissipation (CHDs) are investigated. Results show that the color coordinates of lamps are easily modified in various stress-loaded conditions, and different CHDs of lamps may play a crucial role in the various CS processes. Furthermore, the proposed statistic power model is adequate for the CS process of LED lamps. The consistency of CS mechanisms in step-loaded stress testing can also be detected effectively by applying the proposed statistic procedure with the power model. Moreover, the constant assumption in the model is useful for judging the consistency of CS mechanisms under various stress-loaded conditions.

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The emerging field of nanophotonics requires plasmonic devices to be fully compatible with semiconductor fabrication techniques. However, very few feasible practical structures exist at present. Here, we propose a CMOS-compatible hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide (HPSW) with enhanced field confinement. Our simulation results show that the HPSW exhibits significantly enhanced field confinement as compared with the traditional low-index slot waveguides and the hybrid metal dielectric slot waveguides. By controlling the thicknesses of different layers, an optimized HPSW structure with a better tradeoff between field confinement and propagation length has been simultaneously achieved.@en

A degradation mechanism analysis methodology is proposed for the mid-power white-light LED packages in this paper. Based on the degradation data obtained from a series of aging tests that are performed on the individual packaging material, the degradation kinetics of lumen output and spectral power distribution of the LED packages are investigated using optical simulation. As a result, although the reflectivity of the packaging materials decreased severely for the blue lights (i.e., 450 nm), the simulation showed that lights at this wavelength were little absorbed in the LED package. More specifically, it is found that: 1) the degradation of the blue lights is mainly due to blue chip deterioration, while rarely affected by the degradation of the silicone encapsulant and other packaging materials; 2) the degradation of the down-converted lights is significantly attributed to the degradation of the blue chips, the phosphors, the lead frames, and the package housing; and 3) the degradation of the silicone encapsulant contributes about 1.35% to the total lumen degradation within 168 h, while has no more contribution to the lumen degradation with further aging duration. The simulation results have been validated by experiments and successfully applied to the degradation mechanism analysis of LED packages in LM-80-08 tests.@en