Page 6


www.us- tech.com


December, 2017


Using Light to Assemble Electronic Components


Published By:


Mid-Atlantic Tech Publications, Inc.


Phoenixville, PA 19460


Established January, 1986 U.S. TechWorld HQ


Advertising&Editorial Offices


U.S. Tech 10 Gay Street Phoenixville, PA 19460


Phone: Fax:


e-mail: Web:


(610) 783-6100 (610) 628-3891


mail@us-tech.com www.us-tech.com


Publisher and President: Jacob Fattal


General Manager / Web Editor: Steve Leberstien


Office Manager: Megan Riley


Editor: Walter Salm


Associate Editor: Mike Skinner


Contributing Columnist: Philip Stoten


Art Director: Mike Swavola


Cartoonist: Ted Goff


Account Executive Joseph Zummo


Copyright © 2017 Mid-Atlantic Tech Publications, Inc.


Contents not be reproduced or reprinted in any form without written permission


from the publisher. Opinions expressed on Tech Op-Ed pages and by our columnists are the views of the person or persons au- thoring the material.


Web: www.pcbsmt.cn China in


AdvertisingSales Offices WELLINK


INTERNATIONAL


BUSINESS SERVICES, CO., LTD.


Hong Kong Office Unit 06, 13th Fl. Ricky Centre Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: 852-311-16973 Fax: 852-311-16975 E-mail: pcbsmt1997@163.com


Shenzhen Office Room 2301-2302 Chuangshan Centre, No. 6007 Shennan Road, Futian District Schenzhen City, China Tel: 0755-61319388-136 Fax: 0755-83867058 E-mail: pcbsmt1997@163.com


Washington, DC — An international team of researchers has developed a light-based manipulation method that could one day be used to mass produce electronic components. Optical traps, which use light to


hold and move small objects in liq- uid, are a promising, non-contact method for assembling electronic and optical devices. In The Optical Society (OSA)


journal Optics Express, researchers in Steven Neale’s micromanipulation research group, University of Glas- gow, Scotland, have detailed their method for using an advanced optical trapping approach known as opto- electronic tweezers to assemble elec- trical contacts. With an innovative


freeze-drying method developed by Shuailong Zhang, a member of Neale’s research group, the liquid could be removed without disturbing the assembled components. The researchers demonstrated


the technique by assembling a pat- tern of tiny solder beads with an op- toelectronic trap, removing the liq- uid, and then heating the pattern to fuse the beads together. “The optoelectronic tweezers


and freeze-drying technique can be used to not only assemble solder beads, but also to assemble a broad range of objects such as semiconduc- tor nanowires, carbon nanotubes, mi- crolasers and microLEDs,” says Zhang. Web: www.osa.org r


Spinning Light Used to Make Ultra Sensitive Sensor


Continued from page 1


spheres are blown from sealed and pressurized cylindrical


cavities


etched into a silicon substrate. Using a glassblowing technique, the thin glass wafer, under high heat and ex- ternal vacuum pressure, forms an al- most perfect bubble. The researchers grew arrays of spheres from 230 µm to 1.2 mm (0.009 to 0.05 in.) in diam- eter, with wall thicknesses between 300 nm and 10 µm (0.01 and 0.4 mil). “The bottom of the sphere is


thinned until it is basically a hole,” Tadigadapa says. “You can put the light on the outside of the sphere, but do all the chemistry on the inner face of the shell. You can bring in any ana- lyte that you want to identify, but it goes on the inner surface. That brings in a lot of possibilities. You can do chemical sensing, vapor sensing, bio- physical sensing, pressure sensing, and really outstanding temperature sensing.” After many failed attempts, the


Intelligent Dry Storage™


team discovered that the key to mak- ing a high-quality sensor lays in making sure that the equatorial plane of the sphere, its center, is above the surface of the chip. To get an understanding of the


quality of their spheres, Tadigadapa’s doctoral student Chenchen Zhang and recent doctoral graduate Eugene Free- man worked with Alexander Cocking, a doctoral student in the lab of Penn State laser expert Zhiwen Liu, profes- sor of electrical engineering. “We make the bubbles and then


take them to Dr. Liu’s lab to get the resonance levels and make the meas- urements,” says Zhang, lead author on a paper describing their work, which has been published in Scientif- ic Reports, an online, open-access journal. This result could have par- ticular significance for lab-on-a-chip biophysical sensing for disease sens- ing. “Or, by adding a polymer coating on the inside of the bubble, you could make a really sensitive humidity sensor,” says Zhang. Web: www.psu.edu r


Contents


Fast Recovery Time  <3 minutes provides constant access to stored parts.


Industry 4.0 Ready  all SmartDRY™ 


SmartBAKE™ Mode (SD-10 only)  manually set temperature, humidity 


1.800.323.4548 | www.smartdry.com MADE IN USA


Tech-Op-Ed ........................... 4 Tech Watch ........................... 10 Supply Chain ........................... 12 People.................................... 14 Business News......................... 16 Business Briefs........................ 17 Management......................... 18 EMS .................................... 20 ElectronicMfg. Prods............. 26 Production............................ 48 Partnering............................. 50 Distribution........................... 52 New Products....................... 68 High-Tech Events................... 88 Editorial Calendar................. 88 Advertisers Index................... 90


Special Focus: Components and Dist................ 54


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92