Abstract: An instrument for measuring the dielectric constant of samples with complex or uncertain geometries that can include unusually shaped single sample pieces or collections of differently shaped sample pieces such as powders. The premise of the measurement technique is that a reference capacitor plate and a sample capacitor plate are exposed to a dynamically-changing solvent mixture. When the capacitance of these two fixtures become equal at the point at which a particular solvent mixture is reached, the dielectric constant of the sample is then known.

Abstract: An inkjet printer head formed from a photoimageable organic material. This material provides for a spin-on epoxy based photoresist with image resolution and adhesion to hard to bond to metals such as gold or tantalum/gold surfaces that are commonly found in such printer applications. When cured, the material provides a permanent photoimageably defined pattern in thick films (>30) that has chemical (i.e high pH inks) and thermal resistance.

Abstract: Reworkable encapsulant formulations are being developed to allow recovery of part-good microelectronic assemblies. According to this invention, a gelled form of the solvent is useful for removing the reworkable encapsulant from a specific region of the assemblies without affecting components on the assembly which do not need to be reworked. This novel method eliminates expensive tooling that would otherwise be required to handle the solvent.

Abstract: Silicon and germanium containing materials are used at surface of conductors in electronic devices. Solder can be fluxlessly bonded and wires can be wire bonded to these surfaces. These material are used as a surface coating for lead frames for packaging integrated circuit chips. These materials can be decal transferred onto conductor surfaces or electrolessly or electrolytically disposed thereon.

Abstract: An authenticating pattern 20 for valuable objects is fabricated as an integrated structure of a substrate layer 21 and a transparent overcoat layer 22 with a viewable interface therebetween containing a light diffracting structure 10. Unique parameters are randomly defined in the light diffracting structure by anisotropic process steps not under full control of the producer during the manufacturing of the diffracting structure to prevent copying or creating an exact replica thereof. The resultant uniquely coloured authenticating pattern can be verified by simple observation with the naked eye which is a prerequisite for ubiquitous verification.

Abstract: The invention provides lightweight packaging of portable electronic apparatus by using the combined structural properties of an enclosure, that houses the interwired heat producing electronic signal devices of the apparatus, to provide coolant movement and direction, locally selectable physical protection and shock resistance and electrical shielding.

Abstract: A control system for a blind microwave radiation tool a workpiece is described. The controlled system automatically tunes the cavity containing the workpiece. The control system automatically controls the temperature of the workpiece according to a predetermined temperature versus time schedule. Control system automatically determines when the workpiece has reached a particular predetermined physical condition. To achieve these results the control system automatically monitors applied power, reflected power or current temperature and automatically controls the microwave antennae location and the cavity short location in order to maintain the cavity in resonance and to determine when to exit without operator intervention. Control system can run on a small computer and is useful for automatically curing polyamic acid to polyimide to a predetermined percent cure automatically without operator intervention.

Abstract: Methods for forming pastes of dendrites particles coated with an electrically conductive coating are described. A surface is placed in contact with an electrolytic or electroless plating solution. Dendrites are formed on the surface. The dendrites are exposed to another plating solution to plate a coating on the surface of the dendrites. The coated dendrites are removed from the surface to form a powder of coated dendrites. The powder is added to a polymer material to form a paste which is heated to fuse the dendrite surfaces to form a network of interconnected dendrites and further heated to cure the polymer. When the paste is disposed between adjacent electrically conductive surfaces, the coated dendrites fuse to the electrically conductive surface to form electrical interconnections.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to probe structures for testing of electrical interconnections to integrated circuit devices and other electronic components and particularly to testing integrated circuit devices with high density area array solder ball interconnections. The probe structure is formed from a substrate having a surface having at least one electrical contact location which has a perimeter which is raised above the surface and a location within the boundaries of said perimeter which is raised above the surface.

Abstract: Biobased cross-linked compositions, methods of fabrication and structures, in particular biobased printed wiring boards using the compositions and methods of making the structures are described. Biobased materials such as lignin, crop oils, wood resins, tannins, and polysaccharides and combinations thereof are cross-linked, preferably using heat, a cross-linking agent, and an initiator. The materials fabricated have suitable properties for printed wiring boards which are made by impregnating a fiberglass or biobased cloth with an admixture of the biobased material, cross-linking agent and initiator which is processed by conventional methods to produce a printed wiring board.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of reactive sputtering for depositing an amorphous hydrogenated carbon film (a-C:H) from an argon/hydrocarbon/hydrogen/oxygen plasma, preferably an Ar/acetylene-helium/hydrogen/oxygen plasma. Such films are optically transparent in the visible range and partially absorbing at ultraviolet (UV) and deep UV (DUV) wavelengths, in particular, 365, and 248, 193 nm. Moreover, the films produced by the present invention are amorphous, hard, scratch resistant, and etchable by excimer laser ablation or by oxygen reactive ion etch process. Because of these unique properties, these films can be used to form a patterned absorber for UV and DUV single layer attenuated phase shift masks. Film absorption can also be increased such that these films can be used to fabricate conventional photolithographic shadow masks.

Abstract: A semiconductor processing method is provided for growing a polycrystalline film by preferably chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from a suitable precursor gas or gases on a substrate which has been coated with seeds, preferably of nanocrystal size, of the semiconductor material. The structure of the nanocrystal seeds (not the substrate) serves as a template for the structure of the final polycrystalline film. The density of the seeds and the thickness of the grown polycrystalline film determine the grain size of the polycrystalline film at the surface of said film. Epitaxial CVD onto the seeds to produce the polycrystalline film avoids the recrystallization step generally necessary for the formation of a polycrystalline film, and thus allows for the growth of polycrystalline films at reduced temperatures.

Abstract: A matrix processing unit is described which permits high speed numerical computation. The processing unit is a vector processing unit which is formed from a plurality of processing elements. The Ith processing unit has a set of N registers within which the Ith elements or words of N vectors of data are stored. Each processing element has an arithmetic unit which is capable of performing arithmetic operations on the N elements in the set of N registers. Each vector of data has K elements. Therefore, there are K processing elements. A vector operation of the matrix processing unit simultaneously performs the same operation on all elements of two vectors or more. A subsequent vector operation can be performed within one machine cycle time after the preceding vector operation.

Abstract: The invention involves a fluid treatment device to solution or melt impregnate a resin or polymer or any combination thereof into a reinforcement which can be utilized to fabricate composite materials for laminates, circuit boards, structural/aerospace materials, automotive components, etc. The invention offers significant advantages and benefits over existing methods and equipment and allows the impregnation process to be performed at lower cost and higher efficiency with increased environmental safety.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a high density test probe which provides a means for testing a high density and high performance integrated circuits in wafer form or as discrete chips. The test probe is formed from a dense array of elongated electrical conductors which are embedded in an compliant of high modulus elastomeric material. A standard packaging substrate, such as a ceramic integrated circuit chip packaging substrate is used to provide a space transformer. Wires are bonded to an array of contact pads on the surface of the space transformer. The space transformer formed from a multilayer integrated circuit chip packaging substrate. The wires are as dense as the contact location array. A mold is disposed surrounding the array of outwardly projecting wires. A liquid elastomer is disposed in the mold to fill the spaces between the wires. The elastomer is cured and the mold is removed, leaving an array of wires disposed in the elastomer and in electrical contact with the space transformer.

Abstract: A three dimensional packaging architecture for ultimate high performance computers and methods for fabricating thereof are described. The package allows very dense packaging of multiple integrated circuit chips for minimum communication distances and maximum clock speeds of the computer. The packaging structure is formed from a plurality of subassemblies. Each subassembly is formed from a substrate which has on at least one side thereof at least one integrated circuit device. Between adjacent subassemblies there is disposed a second substrate. There are electrical interconnection means to electrically interconnect contact locations on the subassembly to contact locations on the second substrate. The electrical interconnection means can be solder mounds, wire bonds and the like. The first substrate provides electrical signal intercommunication between the electronic devices and each subassembly. The second substrate provides ground and power distribution to the plurality of subassemblies.

Abstract: The invention generally relates to the technical field of devices using the effect to emit electrons out of a solid into vacuum due to high electric field strength. Such devices are usually called field emission devices. The invention relates more specifically to the structure of a field emission device, to the method of fabricating a field emission device, and to the use of a multitude of field emission devices in the technical field of flat panel displays. The inventive structure of a field emission device (15) comprises an individual series resistor for each electron emitting tip (1), wherein the series resistor is formed by the tip (1) itself. The tip (1) comprises a body (9) of a first material with high resistivity and an at least partial coating (7) of a second material with low work function, wherein the body (9) of the first material forms the series resistor and the coating (7) of the second material provides for electron emission.

Abstract: A structure of an enhanced durability interconnector to reliably interconnect modules having high density type contacts, such as found in modules having solder ball connections (SBC), to a connecting article such as a printed circuit board. The structure comprising a means to provide the SBC type contact a mating surface having a wide contact area. Furthermore, the electrical connecting medium within the interconnector, which is embedded in an elastomeric material to provide compliance, is strengthened by using two or more embedded wires in combination for each wide contact area contact. The interconnector is incorporated into a fixture to compress the interconnector between the SBC module and the connecting article. The fixture having further capability to align the connections, control the compression pressure and to prevent over-compression.

Abstract: Probes for electronic devices are described. The probe is formed by ball bonding a plurality of wires to contact locations on a fan out substrate surface. The wires are cut off leaving stubs. A patterned polymer sheet having electrical conductor patterns therein is disposed over the stubs which extend through holes in the sheet. The ends of the wires are flattened to remit the polymer sheet in place. The wire is connected to an electrical conductor on the polymer sheet which is converted to a contact pad on the polymer sheet. A second wire is ball bonded to the pad on the polymer sheet and cut to leave a second stub. The polymer sheet is laser cut so that each second stub is free to move independently of the other second studs. The ends of the second stubs are disposed against contact locations of an electronic device, such as an FC chip, to test the electronic device.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided to enable a user watching and/or listening to a program to retrieve supplemental information or supplemental entertainment pertaining to an item just seen or words just heard. The apparatus includes a recognition system which recognizes the user's request and causes its satisfaction to be provided. A dynamically changing dictionary is created from items or keywords extracted from the most recently received program portion. The items or keywords may be contained in closed caption text in a TV signal. Particular items or keywords may be assigned a high priority so that they are maintained in the dictionary for a long duration. The user's request is matched against this continually changing dictionary. Upon recognition of the request, a search is initiated to access, import and deliver to the user the information required to satisfy the request.