In this study, UBM material systems for flip chip solder bumps on Cu pads were investigated using the electroless copper (E-Cu) and electroless nickel (E-Ni) plating methods; and the effects of the interfacial reaction between UBMs and Sn–36Pb–2Ag solders on the solder bump joint reliability were also investigated to optimize UBM materials for flip chip on Cu pads. For the E-Cu UBM, scallop-lik...

Nickel-coated carbon fibre (NiCCF) is an important composite material, which finds numerous engineering applications, primarily within: computer, telecommunication, automotive and military industries. In general, NiCCF can be produced by one of the three methods, namely: chemical vapour deposition (CVD), electroless, and electrochemical (galvanic) deposition of Ni on a carbon fibre tow material...

The fabrication of nanoporous poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and PVDF/nickel nanocomposites from semicrystalline block copolymer precursors is reported. Polystyrene-block-poly(vinylidene fluoride)-block-polystyrene (PS-b-PVDF-b-PS) is prepared through functional benzoyl peroxide initiated polymerization of VDF, followed by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene. The crystalliz...

We report the first investigation into the potential of electroless nickel deposition to form ohmic contacts on single layer graphene. To minimize the contact resistance on graphene, a statistical model was used to improve metal purity, surface roughness, and coverage of the deposited film by controlling the nickel bath parameters (pH and temperature). The metalized graphene layers were pattern...

This work relates to wafer bumping technologies for flip chip packaging applications in the electronics industry. Nickel and its alloys are alternative under bump metallization (UBM) materials because of their slower reaction rates with Sn-based solder as compared to Cu-based UBMs. In this study, we compared the morphologies of the intermetallic compounds (IMC) formed between Sn-bearing solders...