Student Spotlight: Deng Yun Chen

news story image

Deng Yun Chen is one of CALCE's student researchers, focusing solder joint durability under complex non-standardized temperature cycling history. As a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Michael Osterman and Prof. Abhijit Dasgupta, he has worked on accelerated life tests and finite element analysis of the tested assemblies, as well as fatigue model development.

Regarding the current methods of assessing solder joint durability, Deng says, "There isn't a clear approach to translate the result from the tests to the field because the temperature history in the field is often complex." Through his research, Deng is working to develop a systematic approach to estimate the fatigue life of solder joints under a complex load history using the results from standardized accelerated life tests.

Before his work as a CALCE researcher, Deng earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a Clark Graduate Fellow and has been a member of the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student Association, as well as the UMD chapter of SMTA (Surface Mount Technology Association) since 2018. During the summer of 2019, Deng worked as a Hardware Engineering Intern at Google. During his time at Google, Deng conducted environmental stress assessments of accelerated life tests and developed qualification tests for adhesives under high strain rate loads. Additionally, he worked on predicting solder joint fatigue life through finite element analysis.

Electronic reliability is a complex issue that requires knowledge in thermal, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and as well as material science. With the development of health monitoring techniques for electronics, data science is also part of the game. Many engineers may not have experience or education in the many disciplines needed to understand issues in reliability, but Deng believes his experience as a CALCE researcher has prepared him to work in a multidisciplinary field: “Prior to coming to CALCE, I have not encountered any field that requires almost all aspects of engineering. Working on projects in CALCE has allowed me to gain multidisciplinary engineering skills. With the ever-increasing demand for smaller, faster, and more reliable electronics, the problems will become more challenging and exciting.”

 

Deng’s most recent research with CALCE can be found here:

  1. Development of a Cycle Counting Algorithm with Temporal Parameters
  2. Energy-Based Modeling for Temperature Cycling Induced Tin Silver Copper Solder Interconnect Fatigue Life

 

Published May 28, 2020