This article presents an overview of the electric and magnetic parameters and discusses the significance of these parameters for electronic applications. It describes the components of analog and digital electronic circuits. The article reviews the augmenting technologies: magnetic and special technologies such as electrooptical.

In a typical semiconductor integrated circuits (SICs) component, corrosion may be observed at the chip level and at the termination area of the lead frames that are plated with a solderable metal or alloy, such as tin and tin-lead alloys that are susceptible to corrosion. This article focuses on the key factors contributing to corrosion of electronic components, namely, chemicals (salts containing halides, sulfides, acids, and alkalis), temperature, air (polluted air), moisture, contact between dissimilar metals in a wet condition, applied potential differences, and stress. It discusses the chip corrosion and oxidation of tin and tin-lead alloys (solders) in SIC. The article also addresses the corrosion of the device terminations resulting in lead (termination) tarnishing that are caused by various factors, including galvanic corrosion, chemical residues, base metal migration and plating additives.

Gallium-base components can be found in a variety of products ranging from compact disk players to advanced military electronic warfare systems, owing to the factor that it can emit light, has a greater resistance to radiation and operates at faster speeds and higher temperatures. This article discusses the uses of gallium in optoelectronic devices and integrated circuits and applications of gallium. The article discusses the properties and grades of gallium arsenide and also provides information on resources of gallium. The article talks about the recovery techniques, including recovery from bauxite, zinc ore and secondary recovery process and purification. The article briefly describes the fabrication process of gallium arsenide crystals. Furthermore, the article gives a short note on world supply and demand of gallium and concludes with research and development on gallium arsenide integrated circuits.

This article introduces various techniques commonly used in the characterization of semiconductors, namely single-crystal, polycrystalline, amorphous, oxide, organic, and low-dimensional semiconductors and semiconductor devices. The discussion covers material classification, fabrication methods, sample preparation, bulk/elemental characterization methods, microstructural characterization methods, surface characterization methods, and electronic characterization methods.

Ceramic materials serve important insulative, capacitive, conductive, resistive, sensor, electrooptic, and magnetic functions in a wide variety of electrical and electronic circuitry. This article focuses on various applications of advanced ceramics in both electric power and electronics industry, namely, dielectric, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, sensing, magnetic and superconducting devices.

This article discusses the basic principles of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), covering different instruments used for performing ICP-MS analysis. The instruments covered include the sample-introduction system, ICP ion source, mass analyzer, and ion detector. Emphasis is placed on ICP-MS applications in the semiconductor, photovoltaic, materials science, and other electronics and high-technology areas.

This article discusses the application of amorphous and crystalline films through plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from the view point of microelectronic device fabrication. It describes the various types of PECVD reactors and deposition techniques. Plasma enhancement of the CVD process is discussed briefly. The article also describes the properties of amorphous and crystalline films deposited by the PECVD process for integrated circuit fabrication.

This article presents an overview of advanced composites, namely, polymer matrix composites, metal-matrix composites, ceramic-matrix composites, and carbon-matrix composites. It also provides information on the properties and applications of the composites in thermal management and electronic packaging.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) approach enables essentially simultaneous examination of microstructural features through imaging from lower magnifications to atomic resolution and the acquisition of chemical and crystallographic information from small regions of the thin specimen. This article discusses fundamentals of the technique, especially for solving materials problems. Background information is provided to help understand basic operations and principles, including instrumentation, the physics of signal generation and detection, image formation, electron diffraction, and spectrometry techniques with data analysis.

This article reviews the performance of power electronics components, namely, power rectifiers, insulated-gate bipolar transistors, metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors, diodes, and silicon-controlled rectifiers. It provides information on induction heating power supplies with multiple heat stations, such as switching units and multiple (zone) outputs. The article describes power supply operational control and power supply protection circuits. It details duty cycle, power factor, and harmonics of power supplies. The article also describes system parameters, software analysis-calculations, human analysis-decisions, multiple system arrangements, and zone control systems for power supply selection. It provides information on the maintenance of induction power supplies, detailing the safety precautions to be taken and the need for routine inspection and servicing.

This article focuses on the various types of corrosion-related failure mechanisms and their effects on passive electrical components. The types include halide-induced corrosion, organic-acid-induced corrosion, electrochemical metal migration, silver tarnish, fretting, and metal whiskers. The passive electrical components include resistors, capacitors, wound components, sensors, transducers, relays, switches, connectors, printed circuit boards, and hardware.

This article focuses on laboratory atomic force microscopes (AFMs) used in ambient air and liquid environments. It begins with a discussion on the origin of AFM and development trends occurring in AFM. This is followed by a section on the general principles of AFM and a comprehensive list of AFM scanning modes. There is a brief description of how each mode works and what types of applications can be made with each mode. Some of the processes involved in preparation of samples (bulk materials and those placed on a substrate) scanned in an AFM are then presented. The article provides information on the factors applicable to the accuracy and precision of AFM measurements. It ends by discussing the applications for AFMs in the fields of science, technology, and engineering.

Design and analysis of electrical/electronic systems and components tends to be different from the corresponding process for most mechanical and hydraulic systems. This article provides an overview of three overlapping phases followed in electrical design: functional, electrical, and physical. It also presents information on the simulation and testing carried out to evaluate the design behavior.

This article reviews the origins and development of scratch tests, the experimental configurations used in these tests, and the application of the tests to characterize the mechanical response of materials. It provides information on the measurement of indentation hardness. The article describes the important parameters of the scratch test. Finally, it discusses the sliding indentation fracture process of brittle materials.

X-ray spectroscopy is generally accepted as the most useful ancillary technique that can be added to any scanning electron microscope (SEM), even to the point of being considered a necessity by most operators. While “stand-alone” x-ray detection systems are used less frequently in failure analysis than the more exact instrumentation employed in SEMs, the technology is advancing and is worthy of note due to its capability for nondestructive analysis and application in the field. This article begins with information on the basis of the x-ray signal. This is followed by information on the operating principles and applications of detectors for x-ray spectroscopy, namely energy-dispersive spectrometers, wavelength-dispersive spectrometers, and handheld x-ray fluorescence systems. The processes involved in x-ray analysis in the SEM and handheld x-ray fluorescence analysis are then covered. The article ends with a discussion on the applications of x-ray spectroscopy in failure analysis.

This article discusses the basic principles of and chemical effects in Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), covering various factors affecting the quantitative analyses of AES. The discussion covers instrumentation and sophisticated electronics typically used in AES for data acquisition and manipulation and various limitations of AES. Various examples highlighting the capabilities of the technique are also included.

Superabrasives collectively refer to the diamond and cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasives used in grinding applications. This article discusses the classification of superabrasive wheels according to a variety of sizes and shapes, construction, concentration, and bond systems. It provides information on the applications of the superabrasive wheels depending on the factors of the grinding system. These factors include machine tool variables, work material, wheel selection, and operational factors. The article describes the methods available for superabrasive wheel truing in production grinding operations, namely, stationary tool, powered, and form truings. It reviews the truing methods, such as truing with abrasive wheels and hard ceramics, for batch production. The article explains practical methods available for dressing CBN wheels, namely, abrasive stick, abrasive-jet, slurry, and high-pressure waterjet dressing. It concludes with information on the conditioning process of the CBN wheel.

Chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) of metals is described as mechanically accelerated corrosion, erosion corrosion, or metallic corrosion enhanced by wear. This article reviews the history, process, chemistry, electrochemistry, and defect issues for CMP. It provides an overview of CMP through a schematic illustration of CMP process equipment. The applications of CMP to tungsten and copper alloys are of prime interest in the semiconductor industry. The article discusses copper CMP and tungsten CMP in detail and analyzes polishing mechanism during CMP by application of direct current potentiodynamic polarization and alternating current impedance measurements. It concludes with information on chemically induced defects such as pitting corrosion, galvanic corrosion, and chemical etching.

This article describes the principal cladding processes and methods for calculating properties of clad metals. It reviews the designing processes of clad metals to achieve specific requirements. The article discusses six categories of clad metal systems designed for corrosion control: noble metal clad systems, corrosion barrier systems, sacrificial metal systems, transition metal systems, complex multilayer systems, and clad diffusion alloys.