Abstract: A method comprising incorporating indium into an entire Sn film for preventing the growth of whiskers from the Sn film, wherein the Sn film is applied to a metallic substrate. The indium is present in the entire thickness of the Sn film.

Abstract: A method comprising incorporating indium into an entire Sn film for preventing the growth of whiskers from the Sn film, wherein the Sn film is applied to a metallic substrate.

Abstract: Techniques for forming highly stretchable electronic interconnect devices are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating an electronic interconnect device includes forming a layer of an adhesion material onto a surface of a substrate material capable of elastic and/or plastic deformation. The formed layer of the adhesion material has a plurality of adhesion material portions separated from one another on the surface of the substrate material. The method also includes depositing a layer of an interconnect material onto the formed layer of the adhesion material. The deposited interconnect material has regions that are not bonded or loosely bonded to corresponding regions of the substrate material, such that the interconnect material may be deformed more than the adhesion material attached to the substrate material. In certain embodiments, the interconnect material can also include a plurality of wrinkles on a surface facing away from the substrate material.

Abstract: A method comprising incorporating indium into an entire Sn film for preventing the growth of whiskers from the Sn film, wherein the Sn film is applied to a metallic substrate. The indium is present in the entire thickness of the Sn film.

Abstract: A conformal metallic layer is applied to a selected region of a substrate by forming a pattern of electrically conductive lines on the substrate, placing a bead of a selected metal on the substrate at an edge of the region selected for coating, and passing an electric current through the bead and through conductive lines that extend over the region of the substrate selected for coating with the electric current having a current density sufficient to melt the bead so that metallic material therefrom flows over the conductive lines to form the coating. A pair of electrically conductive connectors is placed in contact with the electrically conductive lines, and an electric power supply is connected to the pair of electrically conductive connectors such that electric current passes through the bead, melts the bead to form a liquid metal, and carries the liquid metal in a continuous stream along the conductive lines, coating the conductive lines conformally in the process.

Abstract: An article and a method of making surface modified synthetic diamond substes at temperatures below 500.degree. C. for electronic packaging applications are described. The article consists of a synthetic diamond substrate, the surface of which has been modified by providing an adherent thin coating of a ceramic (alumina) material so as to enable metallization of synthetic diamond by current industrial methods. The method of surface modification comprises deposition of a thin transition metal layer on the synthetic diamond substrate prior to low temperature reactive vapor deposition of aluminum followed by annealing in an oxygen atmosphere.

Abstract: A Constant-Depth Scratch Test (CDST) technique to quantitatively determine he shear strength of interfaces between thin metallic or non-metallic films and metal or ceramic substrates is revealed. The test overcomes two problems associated with other types of scratch tests, namely the instrumental complexity required for real-time detection of interfacial failure, and the inability to quantify interfacial strength. These problems are circumvented by maintaining a constant depth during scratching through the coating and the substrate, monitoring the horizontal and vertical forces to sustain the constant depth scratch, and finally by using a model to analyze the test results to quantify the interfacial shear strength. Unlike other scratch tests, this test is capable of measuring interfacial shear strength as a function of position on the film-substrate sample.