Indium Corporation’s technical experts will share a variety of presentations on topics ranging from e-Mobility, achieving low voiding through solder preforms, high-performance metal thermal interface materials, low-temperature solder alloys, and low-temperature solder paste for wafer-level packaging at IPC APEX Expo, Jan. 24-26, San Diego, Calif., U.S.
Tuesday, Jan. 24
- Using Flux-Coated Preforms to Repeatably Achieve Low Voiding Under Power ICs: An Automotive Case Study by Regional Technical Manager and Technologist – Advanced Applications Andreas Karch
Wednesday, Jan. 25
- High-Performance Phase Change Metal TIMs by Product Development Specialist for Thermal Interface Materials Miloš Lazić
Thursday, Jan. 26
- e-Mobility/EV Automotive Technical Conference Special Session, co-chaired by Global Head of e-Mobility and Infrastructure BrianO’Leary.
- Energy Consumption Reduction Using Low-Temperature Solder Alloys by Senior Product Development Specialist Claire Hotvedt
- A Lower-Temperature Lead-Free Solder Paste for Wafer-Level Package Application That Outperforms SAC305 by R&D Manager, Alloy Group HongWen Zhang
Karch provides technical support, including sharing process knowledge and making technical recommendations for the use of Indium Corporation’s materials for customers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Products include solder paste, solder preforms, fluxes, and thermal management materials. He has more than 20 years of automotive industry experience in PCB assembly and power electronics, including the advanced development of customized electronics. He received an award for developing one of the top 10 innovative patents for automotive LED assembly. Andreas is an ECQA-certified integrated design engineer and earned his Six Sigma Yellow Belt. His thorough understanding of process technologies and project management skills reinforces Indium Corporation’s commitment to providing world-class service to our customers in Europe.
Lazić is responsible for developing new thermal materials and products, and providing solutions for customer challenges and applications. He also develops new testing methods to evaluate power and thermal products, and gathers data on new and existing products for marketing presentations. He joined Indium Corporation in March 2018 as a Technical Support Engineer, primarily responsible for servicing the troubleshooting and application needs of customers in the Northwest, California, and Rocky Mountain regions. In 2018, he took on the role of Coordinator for the Live@ Program—a global initiative designed to align Indium Corporation and its industry partners in the promotion of agile response, resource management, and efficiency improvement. Prior to joining Indium Corporation, he worked as the Deputy Technical Director at Radio-Television Nis in Serbia. He earned his master’s degree in electronics engineering and his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nis in Serbia. He is an Energy Efficiency Engineer certified by the Serbian Chamber of Engineers in Belgrade; a Certified SMT Process Engineer; and is fluent in English, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian. Lazić was awarded the Silver Quill Best Paper Award in 2020.
Hotvedt plays a highly visible and critical role in the future of Indium Corporation’s solder paste business. This role exists in a cross-functional team environment in which she facilitates team initiatives to execute the new product development process and deliver fully scaled, launched, marketable product solutions for PCB Assembly solder pastes. Additionally, Claire provides training to the Sales & Tech teams about new products and is responsible for introducing these products to industry-leading customers. Hotvedt joined Indium Corporation in May 2018 as a Research Technologist. In 2019, she took on the role of Product Development Specialist, where she has been integral in the development and commercialization of the Durafuse™ LT technology and other high-reliability alloy offerings, including Indalloy®276 and Indalloy®292. Prior to joining Indium Corporation, she was employed as a product development engineer at a Rochester-based photoresist developer and as a validation engineer at a Syracuse-based firm. She was first introduced to Indium Corporation as a summer intern in 2014, where she researched the extraction of indium from LCD screens. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester, with a minor in Mandarin Chinese. In college, she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Societies. She is a Certified SMT Process Engineer (CSMTPE).
O’Leary is responsible for promoting Indium Corporation’s full range of products and services for e-Mobility, which includes electric cars, trucks, eVTOLs, charging stations, etc. He joined Indium Corporation in 2014 and has more than 20 years of experience in the electronics industry. He authored two books on thermal profiling called Profiling Guide for Profitability and Profiling Guide for Six Sigma. He currently serves as the chair of the IPC e-Mobility Quality & Reliability Advisory Council. In addition to regular technical conference participation, he co-hosts a free monthly webcast—EV InSIDER Live—with Loren McDonald of EVAdoption and a high-profile industry stakeholder as a guest. In the webcast, they discuss current pressing issues and hot topics in the rapidly evolving electric vehicle landscape.
Zhang is manager of the Alloy Group in Indium Corporation’s Research & Development Department. His focus is on the development of lead-free solder materials and the associated technologies for high-temperature and high-reliability applications. He and Dr. Ning-Cheng Lee invented the mixed-alloy solder technique to combine the merits of constituents to improve wetting, reduce processing temperatures, modify the bonding interface, and control the joint’s morphology, thus improving reliability. On the basis of this technique, the BiAgX® solder system was invented as an alternative high-temperature lead-free solder. Dr. Zhang has a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical physical chemistry from Central South University of China, a master’s degree in materials science and engineering from the Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Science, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. in material science and engineering from Michigan Technological University. He has extensive experience in various aluminum (Al) alloys and fiber/particle-reinforced Al-based composite materials, and Al-rich and ZrHf-based amorphous alloys. Dr. HongWen Zhang co-authored two book chapters on high-temperature lead-free bonding materials. He and his colleagues had seven patents granted globally and numbers of patents filed. He has published approximately 20 journal publications in the field of metallurgy, materials science and engineering, physics, electronics materials, and mechanics. He has also been invited as a peer reviewer for numerous journals. Dr. Zhang has a Six Sigma Green Belt from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. He is also a certified IPC Specialist for IPC-A-600 and IPC-A-610D.
About Indium Corporation
Indium Corporation® is a premier materials refiner, smelter, manufacturer, and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil®. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Germany, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email jhuang@indium.com. You can also follow our experts, From One Engineer To Another® (#FOETA), at www.linkedin.com/company/indium-corporation/ or @IndiumCorp.
About IPC APEX Expo
IPC APEX EXPO is the premier event for the electronics manufacturing industry, attracting more than 9,000 professionals from 45 countries. From the industry’s leading technical conference and professional development courses to the innovation-driven exhibit floor, IPC APEX EXPO2023 will provide attendees with the opportunity to exceed their usual limits as they participate in the transformation of the industry.
