The CPES Integrated Packaging Lab at Virginia Tech has evolved into the most capable power electronics packaging research lab in Virginia. It was established to provide the ability to assemble and evaluate Integrated Power Electronics Modules (IPEMs) using the same state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and processes used in industry. It supports more than ten students and visiting scholars whose research is devoted to developing alternative methods of power device assembly and passive component integration. The lab also serves to assist all members of CPES with their hardware assembly needs.

Since its inception, the lab has grown to keep pace with both the ever-expanding scope of packaging research and the increasing complexity of available electronic components and packaging materials. It started with the equipment needed to perform such processes as thin film metal deposition, laser machining, electro- and electro-less metal plating, gold and aluminum wire bonding, and the creation of circuit boards using either thick-film printing or mask-and-etch of copper-clad ceramics. Since then it has added the capability to perform flux-less vacuum solder reflow, LTCC tape processing, and, with its latest additions, automated fluid dispensing for accurate and controlled adhesive and encapsulant application, and precision die and component bonding for fine-pitched ball-grid array and formed-lead devices. The lab itself has undergone a complete renovation with the installation of a sealed ceiling and HEPA filtration to create over 1,600 square feet of class 10,000 clean room space, and the addition of a dark room for photolithography processing. The figure below shows the new ceiling and the Asymtek automated fluid dispensing equipment.

The IP lab also has the ability to test and evaluate the electrical, thermal, and reliability performance of the assembled IPEMs. Electrical capabilities include low and high power curve tracers, dielectric measurement equipment, and magnetic property analyzers. Thermal evaluations can be made using thermocouples, fiber-optic sensors, IR imaging and thermal diffusivity tests. Reliability analysis is performed using temperature and humidity cycling chambers. An array of cross-sectioning and polishing equipment has been recently added to better understand material interactions and process performance.

Under the guidance of a senior packaging engineer with many years of industrial experience as a packaging designer and process engineer, the CPES Integrated Packaging Lab continues its tradition of providing a facility to support CPES’s mission of developing efficient, reliable and economic means of power conversion.