Alpha, the world leader in the production of electronic soldering and bonding materials, had a strong presence at the first annual LED Assembly, Reliability, Testing Symposium organized by SMTA that was recently held in Atlanta, Georgia. Alpha was an integral part of the program as an organizer, exhibitor and presenter.

Dr. Robert Karlicek, LED industry luminary and Director of RPI’s Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center, presented a Keynote address titled “Emerging Trends in LED Packaging, Applications and Systems” in which he reviewed cutting edge trends in the LED industry.

In his keynote address, Kurt-Juergen Lang, LED Key Expert at Osram Opto Semiconductors presented “Reliability for LEDs and LED Lighting Systems,” where-in he covered the basics of LED reliability, assembly process impacts on reliability and reliability requirements for key end uses. He also presented the results of a joint study between Osram Opto Semiconductors and Alpha, which studied the impact of solder alloy selection on LED assembly reliability.  

Amit Patel, Project Manager, Engineer – LED for Alpha, presented his paper, Characterization and Optimization of Board Warpage for Linear LED Lighting Assemblies. His presentation focused on board warpage issues faced by manufacturers of LED T-8 tubes and ways of overcoming these issues.

Gyan Dutt, Technical Marketing Manager – LED for Alpha served on the Technical Committee for the LED A.R.T. Symposium and helped organize the event. In addition, hepresented LED Die Attach Selection: Trends and Considerations in which Gyan discussed the varied die attach requirements of multiple LED device structures and applications, and LED die attach material solutions for these needs.

The event included over 70 attendees, 16 exhibiting companies and a total of 18 technical presentations over the course of two days. The material discussed had direct industry applications for the whole supply chain with unique emphasis on product realization with LEDs.

“The information provided during the LED A.R.T. Symposium helped to bridge the gap between LED device physics and the architectural design level issues in LED supply chain,” said Ravi Bhatkal, Vice President, Energy Technologies at Alpha. 

“We were delighted to participate and share our findings and insights with the industry and believe this was a great forum to explore the reliability assessment and qualification of LED lighting products and potential solutions.”

The symposium concluded with a tour of Georgia Institute of Technology’s Packaging Research Center and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN).