2006-1038: TEACHING RELIABILITY CONCEPTS TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS – AN NSF CCLI A&I GRANT

S. Manian Ramkumar, Rochester Institute of Technology Prof. Ramkumar is a faculty in the Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology department at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is currently serving as the Director of the Center for Electronics Manufacturing & Assembly. He teaches courses in surface mount electronics packaging, robotics and manufacturing automation. He was instrumental in developing the Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly at RIT. This Center is equipped with production scale equipment, used for training and applied research projects for companies. Prof. Ramkumar has been the principal investigator for several applied research projects performed for JPL, AMTX, TRW, Asymtek, Universal Instruments, KIC, Entegris, Loctite and Eastman Kodak Company. He has presented technical papers at the SMTA and APEX conferences. He has also taught SMT and Advanced Packaging courses at the APEX and SMTA shows and for various companies on-site.

Scott Anson, Rochester Institute of Technology Scott J. Anson, PE is an Assistant Professor, in the department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Prior to joining the faculty of RIT in 2003, Scott held several positions in Process Engineering and Failure Analysis, at Endicott Interconnect Technologies, IBM Microelectronics, Universal Instruments SMT Laboratory and EMS Technologies. He has been involved in electronics manufacturing process development, reliability testing, component qualification, failure analysis, materials characterization and new product/process introduction since 1994. He has several publications related to solder paste evaluation, soldering processes and failure analysis techniques. Scott holds the following degrees; AS, Engineering Science, Broome Community College, BS and MS Mechanical Engineering, Binghamton University, NY State licensed Professional Engineer, and is currently pursuing a Ph. D in Systems Science at Binghamton University

Charles Swain, Rochester Institute of Technology Prof. Swain received an MSEE from the Pennsylvania State University in 1984. He has been a professor of Electrical Engineering Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology for the past seventeen years. Prior to that he was an electronics design engineer for two years and a college professor for several years before that. While at RIT, he has taught in the areas of analog electronics, digital electronics, and microprocessor applications. The last few years, he has taught primarily in control systems, circuit analysis, and automated data acquisition. During the last seven years, he has done consulting or contract work with industries; including a couple of years in automated testing and control of various electrical and mechanical systems and a few months on the testing of communication systems. Page 11.1221.1

© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Teaching Reliability Concepts to Undergraduate Students – An NSF CCLI A&I Grant

Prof. S. Manian Ramkumar 1, Prof. Scott J. Anson, Prof. Charles Swain and Arun Varanasi 2 Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly Rochester Institute of Technology 78 Lomb Memorial Drive Rochester, NY. Abstract

To be successful in the global marketplace, U.S. electronics industries must adopt a systems approach to product and process design. Reliability is an integral part of this systems approach. Undergraduate engineering and engineering technology programs across the country, including those at RIT, do not provide the hands-on reliability training students need in today’s manufacturing environment. Using the University of Maryland’s program in Electronic Packaging and Reliability as a model, RIT is in the process of creating the Reliability Education and Analysis Laboratory [REAL], a cutting-edge program that will integrate reliability concepts and laboratory experience into its undergraduate courses in electronics packaging. REAL is being developed by applying the multidisciplinary principles of failure analysis and reliability to enhance traditional engineering and engineering technology courses. Undergraduate students and working engineers will understand reliability theory, gain experience and be able to apply it in today’s complex workplace to qualify new products and processes. RIT has included an industry- input mechanism in every phase of development and implementation to ensure its applicability to today’s engineering workplace. REAL will enable the development of a highly skilled workforce that will increase industry competitiveness while reducing training costs.

Introduction

The electronics industry has experienced major technological innovations in the past decade. The result is the proliferation of electronics in products, increased miniaturization, high power requirements, increased functionality and lower prices. New materials and processes are constantly being introduced and the demand for innovation continues.

To be successful in the competitive global marketplace, U.S. electronics industries must adopt a systems approach to product and process design. A systems approach requires a versatile workforce with a comprehensive understanding of product design, material selection, manufacturability, cost, environmental impact, safety and reliability. In this new work environment, engineers have more diverse responsibilities than ever before in implementing new processes, using new materials and analyzing product/process reliability. They must perform sophisticated life cycle testing and product reliability studies in a short amount of time in order to understand processes and the yield for new products.

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1 Corresponding Author – Phone:585-475-6081, Fax:585-475-7167, Email: [email protected] 2 Graduate Research Assistant Therefore, engineers must have multi-disciplinary skills that allow them to understand design for excellence concepts. Industry needs new graduates who can contribute to design teams and all aspects of manufacturing, including assembly inspection, testing and reliability analysis as soon as they are hired as product or process engineers. However, almost all new graduates and many working engineers have limited or no skill in these areas.

Most undergraduate curriculums in engineering and engineering technology today incorporate several aspects of design, materials, manufacturing and cost but pay little attention to environmental, safety and reliability issues. This is true at RIT. A 1997 University of Virginia report 2 states that integrating reliability into engineering education is critical to implementing a systems approach in U.S. industries.

Research also confirms industry’s need for new graduates with reliability skills. In 2001, the Center for Research on Education in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology at Arizona State University found that design for reliability and reliability skills ranked 8 th among the top 20 skill sets needed for engineering and engineering technology graduates by employers 3. Top companies such as Flextronics, Solectron and Celestica, which are multi-national contract electronics manufacturers with employees worldwide, require entry-level engineers to have reliability skills. However, hiring people with these skills is extremely difficult and providing on- the-job training is too time-consuming and costly for employers. As a result, efficiency is reduced and American competitiveness suffers.

Recent graduates of RIT’s Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology department, employed in electronics manufacturing companies such as Solectron, Delphi Automotive Systems, Kodak, Universal Instruments, Cookson Electronics, Symbol Technologies, etc., report that they were not prepared in the critical area of reliability when they started their jobs. Since RIT is equipped with state-of-the-art process equipment, students are well trained in the electronics manufacturing process knowledge, but have little exposure to failure analysis and reliability studies. As process engineers and new product introduction engineers, they need to understand failure mechanisms, failure occurrences, inspection and testing and be able to design processes that produce reliable products, and conduct reliability analysis to predict product life.

Currently at RIT, undergraduate courses do not include reliability in theory or in practice. Some graduate courses include reliability theory but they do not have any hands-on laboratory activities. The project being carried out using the NSF grant will fill this need, namely providing undergraduate reliability theory and hands on experience.

Project Goals and Objectives

The goal of the development effort - REAL - is to prepare students for comprehensive engineering careers by integrating the reliability knowledge and skills that are in demand by the electronics manufacturing industry into undergraduate education. To the best of our knowledge, RIT still maintains the distinction of being the only University in the US, teaching electronics manufacturing as part of its undergraduate curriculum. Of the few schools that teach electronics manufacturing, most of them teach electronics manufacturing primarily as part of their graduate Page 11.1221.3 and doctoral degree programs.

The primary objectives of REAL are: 1. To seamlessly integrate concepts related to failure modes, failure mechanisms and failure detection, into the existing Advanced Concepts in Electronics Packaging Course (0617-456). 2. To develop a new Reliability Analysis Course (0617-XXX), to include reliability theory and concepts such as failure modeling, root cause analysis, reliability statistics, probability distributions, reliability prediction, reliability testing and reliability analysis. 3. To install the Reliability Analysis Laboratory equipment set and support the hands-on training needs.

REAL will subsequently be integrated into other undergraduate and graduate engineering and engineering technology programs at RIT and the summer technology teacher training program through Project Lead the Way (PLTW). PLTW is a K-12 training program that prepares students, including an increasing number of women and minorities, to be successful in engineering and engineering technology programs. RIT has the distinction of being the first National Training Center for high school technology teachers, with an estimated 300 teachers trained every year.

Project Plan

Our research for a suitable model to adapt and implement revealed four primary universities, Binghamton University (BU), Georgia Tech (GT), Auburn University (AU) and University of Maryland (UM). The key reason for considering these universities is their established focus in electronics manufacturing within their engineering curriculum. Of the four universities, we found that University of Maryland was the first to establish reliability education within the graduate program and over the past couple of years adapted it into their undergraduate program also.

The University of Maryland's program in electronics packaging and reliability successfully integrates reliability concepts and laboratory experiences into its undergraduate curriculum. This program receives a high level of funding from industry and has a large number of industry partnerships, because it produces graduates with cutting-edge reliability research experience who excel in the workplace when they are hired. RIT is using this program as a model to adapt and implement reliability concepts and laboratory experiences as part of its undergraduate electronics packaging sequence.

The benchmark courses at the University of Maryland to be adapted include ENRE 445, Applied Reliability Engineering I and ENRE 446, Applied Reliability Engineering II. These courses are three credit semester courses each. A key adaptation issue is the difference between RIT’s 10- week quarter and the benchmark institutions’ 15 week semester. From a pedagogical perspective, the authors worked closely with a faculty from University of Maryland to overcome this issue and cohesively incorporate some of the concepts into the existing advanced electronics packaging course and the remaining concepts into the new reliability analysis course.

The two primary activities currently underway as part of this project are: (1) Acquisition and setup of reliability analysis and test equipment to provide hands-on training and (2) Seamless Page 11.1221.4 integration of the reliability concepts and laboratory experiences into the existing electronics packaging course sequence and the development of a new reliability analysis course.

Establishing the Reliability Analysis Laboratory

The Reliability Analysis Laboratory, being established, provides students and faculty cutting- edge, hands-on experience in performing inspection, testing and reliability analysis. The equipment selection was based on our comparison of equipment available at the four benchmark institutions originally considered (Table 1), consultation with University of Maryland faculty, RIT Industrial Advisory Board, alumni working in the field and the project evaluation team. It was clearly identified that the temperature/humidity cycling and thermal shock chambers were essential to provide the relevant practical experience in reliability. Therefore, only two pieces of equipment were requested through the grant, since RIT had been very successful over the years in acquiring other reliability analysis and material characterization equipment, to support X-Ray Imaging, Scanning Acoustic Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Thermo-gravimetric analysis, etc. In addition, a LabVIEW system, block diagram shown in Figure 1, was implemented to acquire data from the chambers during product testing. The LabVIEW system also requires a constant current source, shown in Figure 2, to monitor several electronic assembly contacts simultaneously.

Integrating Reliability Analysis into the Curriculum

The existing three courses in RIT’s undergraduate electronics packaging sequence are Introduction to Surface Mount Electronics Packaging, Advanced Concepts in Electronics Packaging and Electronics Packaging Laboratory. These courses currently present much of topics related to electronics packaging except for topics pertaining to reliability. The REAL project will enhance the contents of the second and third course and also support the development of a fourth course, to include reliability concepts.

The Advanced Concepts in Electronics Packaging course is required during the student’s fourth year. This course provides an in-depth study of packaging standards, thermal management, multi-chip and wafer level packaging, high density interconnection, microvia technology, interconnect materials and solder joint analysis. The REAL project will enhance this course by cohesively incorporating concepts in failure modes, failure mechanisms and failure detection.

The Electronics Packaging Laboratory course is required during the student’s fourth year, concurrently with the second course. This laboratory course will provide the hands-on training in surface mount electronics packaging. Students will learn to set-up equipment, understand process parameters and characterize the entire assembly process. Lab experiments will also include analytical evaluation of solder paste viscosity, tackiness, wetting, component & board solderability, solder balling, etc. The REAL project will allow students to be trained in the various reliability analysis, testing and characterization equipment. Using the new Reliability Analysis Laboratory, students will be introduced to several case studies from the electronics industry. This hands-on experience will prepare students for the project work that will be mandatory in the new fourth course to be added to the sequence. Page 11.1221.5

Equipment UM BU GT AU RIT

Reliability Testing

Temperature/Humidity Cycling

Vibration and Temperature Chambers
Thermal Shock (Air – Air)
Thermal Shock (Liquid – Liquid)

Analysis

Optical Microscopy

Scanning Electron Microscopy

Scanning Acoustic Microscopy


Infrared Inspection System



Atomic force Microscopy
X-ray imaging

Material Characterization

Differential Scanning Calorimeter



Thermo-Mechanical Analysis


Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis



Nanoindentation

Moiré Interferometer

Table 1: Comparison of Equipment Available in Benchmark Institutions Page 11.1221.6

Data Acquisition Computer (LabVIEW Virtual Instrument)

SCXI - 1001

Constant Current Source Array

Environmental Test Chamber/Product

Figure 1: LabVIEW Data Acquisition System

Constant Current Source

To Computer

+Vsup

U1 7 1 3 Gnd + R1 6 2 Vref - LM741 270 4 5

-Vsup

To Test Connection

Page 11.1221.7 Figure 2: Constant Current Source Circuit

The fourth course to be developed and added to the sequence, Reliability Analysis, will include reliability concepts such as failure modeling, root cause analysis, reliability statistics, probability distributions, reliability prediction, reliability testing and reliability analysis. Focused laboratory activities and a project are mandatory components of this course. The students will be required to prepare a project report outlining the process, procedures, analysis, findings and conclusions and provide an oral presentation to their peers, faculty and industry representatives. A listing of specific lecture topics and laboratory activities are provided in Tables 2 and 3 respectively.

Expected Outcomes

The addition of REAL to the existing undergraduate program will result in positive outcomes, both direct and indirect, to students and industry. The most notable outcomes of REAL will be: 1. RIT’s engineering and engineering technology graduates will have greatly expanded career opportunities. 2. Industry will be able to hire new graduates without having to train them in reliability. 3. Industry will send its current workforce to RIT to be trained in reliability. 4. RIT will develop new partnerships with industry, since the laboratory will create opportunities for applied research projects. 5. RIT will attract more highly qualified students, including minorities and women, to its engineering and engineering technology programs, due to expanded opportunities. 6. Undergraduate senior design project teams will be able to perform reliability analysis and qualify their product designs. 7. RIT’s reputation will grow as a state-of-the-art engineering and engineering technology institution.

Evaluation Plan

An evaluation team has been assembled and will be involved in the planning, implementation and assessment stages of the REAL project. The evaluation team has already participated in the preliminary discussions that led to conceptualization of REAL and the selection of lab equipment requested in this proposal. The team consists of a faculty from RIT’s-Center for Quality and Applied Statistics, a Principal Scientist from Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a Principal Engineer from Nokia Research Center. The team has a combined experience of over 50 years in the area of reliability analysis and testing.

Upon approval of REAL project, the evaluation team met with the authors on RIT campus for a front end evaluation of the curriculum needs. The curriculum modules were then given to the Industrial Advisory Board for further review and feedback. The evaluation team worked with the Industrial Advisory Board to provide a formative evaluation of the topics and laboratory experiences in the curriculum. After incorporating the Industrial Advisory Board input, the curriculum team is currently in the process of developing the various modules and integrating it into the curriculum. The evaluation team will review this process and its outcome periodically. Through this iterative process, the evaluation team is expected to review the content of each curriculum module and suggest necessary modifications. Page 11.1221.8

After the curriculum has been fully developed, a workshop is planned to be offered to a select group of undergraduate students and industry representatives. A questionnaire is expected to be administered to the workshop participants to test the validity of the course contents to real world applications. Following this, the evaluation team will meet once again to review the results of the workshop. At the completion of this summative evaluation process, the evaluation team will provide necessary feedback to the authors to act upon.

 Reliability Definition  Significance of reliability in electronic industry Introduction to  Failure patterns for repairable and non-repairable Module 1 Reliability systems  Failure associated with levels of packaging hierarchy  Root Cause Analysis  Failure Modes and Mechanisms at wafer and Failure Modes and Module 2 component package level Mechanisms  Failure Modes and Mechanisms at PCB assembly level  Non-destructive testing and analysis Module 3 Failure Analysis  Destructive testing and analysis  Strategies for Failure Prevention  Basic Probability Rules, Distributions, and their significance Module 4 Reliability Statistics  Statistical Confidence intervals, Hypothesis testing, Design of Experiments  Accelerated testing and its significance Module 5 Reliability Testing  Types of Accelerated testing and standard procedures  Probability Plotting techniques Module 6 Probability Plotting  Significance of Weibull and Lognormal plots in reliability Assessment  Statistical Analysis of Accelerated test data Module 7 Data Analysis  Failure models and statistical tools for reliability estimation  Reliability Modeling of a system Reliability Prediction Module 8  Mathematical tools for reliability estimation and Modeling  Limitations on Reliability Prediction and Modeling  Study of Load and Strength Interference  Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMECA) Module 9 Design for Reliability  Robust Design  Human Factors affecting Reliability  Cost Accounting for Reliability Testing and Analysis Reliability Module 10  Strategies for effective Reliability Engineering and Management Management

Table 2: REAL Curriculum – Lecture Topics

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 PCB assembly preparation Thermal Shock Chamber Lab 1  Thermal Shock parameters Initialization  Chamber Initialization  X-ray Imaging Lab 2 Non-Destructive Failure Analysis  Scanning Acoustic Microscopy  Cross-section Analysis Lab 3 Destructive Failure Analysis  Die Penetration Testing  Experimental Design setup Lab 4 Moisture Sensitivity Study  Selection of Components and environmental conditions for the study  Sample size estimation Lab 5 Relevant Statistics  Statistical Confidence Interval  Parameter estimation  Analysis of Ni/Au plated BGA Lab 6 Isothermal Ageing  Shear test to evaluate effects of isothermal ageing  Analysis of Acquired data  Failure Detection and Analysis Lab 7 Test Data Analysis  Models to estimate device or system reliability

Table 3: REAL Curriculum – Laboratory Topics

Conclusions

The NSF CCLI A&I grant has provided an excellent opportunity to enhance the manufacturing engineering technology curriculum and its focus in electronics manufacturing. The development of the reliability curriculum and laboratory components has been a great learning experience for faculty involved and will definitely increase the job opportunities for graduates. Industry will benefit tremendously with the availability of well trained workforce and also the capability for applied research projects. The use of LabVIEW virtual instrumentation will enable real time acquisition of failure data. This will also provide a link to the application of real time data acquisition that students learn through a separate LabVIEW programming course.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the National Science Foundation for funding the proposal, without which this would not have been possible. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. DUE-0411075. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to the Dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at RIT for supporting the project with additional funding for equipment and personnel. Page 11.1221.10

Bibliography

1. Joshi, Yogendra et al., “A New Graduate Educational Program in Electronic Packaging and Reliability (EPAR)”, Journal of Engineering Education, April 1997, pp. 183-187.

2. http://www.viginia.edu/crmes/center.html , “Risk, Uncertainty, and Reliability of Engineering Systems”, The Center for Risk Management, University of Virginia.

3. Evans, Don, “What will Engineering Education of the Future Look Like”, Center for research on Education in Science, Math, Engineering and Technology, Arizona State University, September 2001.

4. Annual Evaluation Report of Project Lead the Way, A National Program to Grow and Sustain America’s Technology Workforce, Hezel Associates of Syracuse, NY, October 2002. Page 11.1221.11