ISSE 2025 Keynote Speakers

Keynote Speaker / Distinguished Lecturer: James Morris
Job position: Emeritus Professor
Company: Portland State University
E-mail: j.e.morris@ieee.org

Title of the presentation:
Applications of Discontinuous Metal Thin Films to Electronics Packaging

Short CV:

Jim is a retired Professor with over 60 years of teaching experience, 8 published books, 33 book chapters, over 170 refereed research publications ranging from tunnel diodes to discontinuous metal and ITO thin films to automotive engine control to switched mode power supplies to electrically conductive adhesives to engineering education, and one patent. He is an IEEE Life Fellow and a Past-President of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council.

Abstract:

When a metal is deposited on insulating substrate, e.g., Au on glass in vacuo it initially grows as discrete nanoscale metal islands separated by nm gaps. Such films conduct charge by interisland tunnelling with an electrostatic activation energy. The presentation will briefly cover the widely accepted conduction model and a revised contact injection version which explains most of the former’s problems as an introduction. There is a large body of literature on discontinuous metal thin film (DMTF) applications as strain gauges and hydrogen sensors which both have potential applications as reliability sensors in electronics packaging, but the presentation will cover a much wider range of less developed technologies, especially one suggested by a recent analysis of AC data. Early interest in these DMTFs was frustrated by a lack of reproducibility in their fabrication and subsequent drift in properties and the presentation will briefly survey some suggestions to solve both the reproducibility and reliability problems. It will conclude with the description of a fabrication technique which holds the promise of manufacturability and commercial applications.