These are tough economic times, and there is greater a need to balance short term needs with long term strategic goals of technology advancement in preparation for the next cycle of products. CAVE³ is a NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC). The center provides an ideal forum in which academia and industry work in partnership on identification of key road blocks relevant to electronics in harsh environments and development of innovative technologies for enabling cost-effective solutions.

        The center is focusing on pre-product space with a mix of higher-risk, high-return programs to complement the industry's internal research and devel- opment efforts. In this newsletter, I have highlighted some of the recent scientific advancements made by CAVE³ researchers.

        Prognostics has gained increased visibility with the efforts to transition from a schedule based maintenance to a condition based maintenance. Advancements in this area have the potential of providing significant cost savings simultaneously with assuring needs of high reliability in electronics systems functioning in harsh environments. CAVE³ researchers have been developing damage precursors based approaches for prognostication of electronics in harsh environments. A new approach has been developed for anomaly detection and fault mode classification of interconnect reliability in shock and vibration. Methods have also been developed for the interrogation of system state in electronic systems subjected to multiple thermal environments. The advancements are part of a larger prognostic health monitoring system in development at CAVE³. You will find more information on the above mentioned advancements presented in the newsletter in greaterdetail. I encourage you to contact the center researchers in each case for further information.

        On May 19, 2009, I attended the first Pb-Free Electronics Manhattan Project (PERM) meeting in Hunt Valley Maryland to present the reliability concerns related to leadfree packaging for defense applications. It was clear that significant gaps existed in knowledge related to harsh environment reliability of leadfree electronics. The component manufacturers have largely transitioned to or are completely transitioning to leadfree electronic parts. However, reliability in long-life electronic systems subjected to harsh environments and dormant storage is yet to be completely characterized. In the interim, there are several solutions and accompanying potential problems including but not limited to mixed alloys, re-balled leadfree parts and mixed assemblies. CAVE³ researchers have been investigating the constitutive and damage behavior in these assemblies. Experimental results show that thermal aging adversely effects reliability of several of the SnAgCu formulation alloys which have been widely adopted as the front runners for leadfree transition. An overview of our findings is available inside.

        I am also glad to welcome Vortant Technologies and Advanced Thermal Technologies to the CAVE³ Industrial Membership. Our next technical review is on September 9-10, 2009 and I hope to see you all at the review. A preliminary listing of projects is attached inside.