Cooperative meeting encourages synergistic research opportunities between two leading organizations

November 17, 2014 – On November 4-6, Universal Instruments hosted a collaborative meeting with the IPC PERM Council and Universal’s Advanced Process Lab (APL) AREA Consortium. The event combined PERM (Pb-Free Electronics Risk Management) Council Meeting #22 and the 78th AREA Consortium meeting.

IPC’s PERM Council is an organization of mission critical electronics manufacturers, whose product is currently outside the scope of the EU RoHS directive, tasked with identifying risks of regulatory driven material changes in their products and promoting research to address them.

Universal’s AREA Consortium is a member-driven organization that executes on an annually defined research program on leading-edge electronics assembly materials and processes, with a particular emphasis on maximizing assembly yields and long-term reliability.

Universal Instruments hosted the first day at corporate headquarters in Conklin, NY. PERM Chair Linda Woody of Lockheed Martin called the meeting to order, followed by a Corporate and APL overview by Universal Instruments’ Vice President of Field Operations, Brad Bennett and APL Associate Director, Dr. Denis Barbini respectively. Dr. John Mitchell, CEO and President of IPC, addressed the attendees advocating the purpose and mission of the PERM council. The agenda featured technical talks on RoHS, AVSI, Lead-Free Qualification, and Nanoparticle Enhanced Conformal Coating Lead Coverage by various PERM leaders. The day culminated with on-site tours of Universal’s APL and manufacturing operations, as well as overviews and demonstrations of Universal’s automation and surface mount solutions.

Universal’s AREA Consortium meeting was held the following two days at Binghamton University, highlighted by Consortium project updates on a variety of research topics, many related to Pb-free considerations. Projects included “Ag-Sintered Paste as Pb-Free Die Attach Material”, “Isothermal Shear Fatigue of Microalloyed Pb-Free Solders”, “Drop Shock Reliability of Various Pb-Free Alloys”, and more. The final day wrapped up with a series of PERM sessions on GEIA standards.

The PERM Council and Consortium members attending represent a broad cross-section of respected industry leaders, including Airbus, Alcatel-Lucent, Autoliv Electronics, BAE Systems, Brocade Communications, Boeing, BTU International, Celestica, Cisco Systems, Curtiss-Wright, DEK USA, Dell, Ericsson, European Space Agency, Harris Corporation, Honeywell International, IBM, Indium Corporation, Koh Young, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions, Nihon Superior, Northrop Grumman,  Raytheon, Rockwell Automation, and U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command.

“We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to bring these two groups together in a knowledge-sharing environment,” said Universal APL Director Dave Vicari. “Several of our Consortium members are also PERM members and we share many of the same research interests in helping to promote the advancement of the electronics community. This was a great event and we look forward to the possibility of hosting a cooperative meeting again in the near future,” he added.

To find out how Universal’s Advanced Process Laboratory can help your organization, or how to become a member of the APL’s AREA Consortium, please contact APL Director David Vicari at 607-779-5151 or vicari@uic.com, or APL Associate Director, Dr. Denis Barbini at 603-828-2289 or barbini@uic.com.