| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| MEMS and NEMS Group | Thursday Sessions |
| Session MN-ThA |
| Session: | Multi-scale Interactions of Materials and Fabrication at the Micro- and Nano-scale |
| Presenter: | Madhav Rao, The University of Alabama |
| Authors: | M.R. Rao, The University of Alabama J.C. Lusth, The University of Alabama S.L. Burkett, The University of Alabama |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
liquid state (reflow), the free faces of the pattern fold upwards, out of the plane, to form the desired polyhedron. The wetting of solder with regards to coverage of metallic faces has been described previously, but the lateral bridging between the metal faces remains relatively unexplored. The goal of this work is to characterize the parameters influencing the bridging and folding process for two different ways of dip-soldering: face and edge soldering. Face soldering refers to the complete wetting of metal faces while edge soldering refers to selectively applying solder on the edges of a face that come in contact with other faces when folded. Our work explores bridging yield for various gap sizes and face thicknesses for eight different polyhedral patterns. Experiments show that the thickness and gap size strongly influence successful bridging. Experiments also show that improved control over the bridging process increases the yield of folded structures. In particular, gap size is positively correlated to face thickness for successful folding. Moreover, face soldering results in higher
yields than edge soldering for all patterns.