Swansea University's College of Engineering, in association with Microsemi Microelectronics Limited, invite applications for a fully-funded MSc by Research scholarship. 

Supervisors: Davide Deganello and Tim Claypole, Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating, College of Engineering, Swansea University.

The project will be performed in collaboration with Microsemi Microelectronics Limited, a specialist electronics design and manufacturing business based in South Wales. The business manufactures radio modules for implantable heart pacemakers. A key customer requirement is to have the pacemaker as small as possible. This project will seek to reduce the size of the module by eliminating the PCB and encapsulation. Microsemi is interested therefore in developing a novel more compact approach in IC design. This will be achieved by integrating aerosol jet deposited features on silicon die. As an additive masterless technology, aerosol jet deposition will allow the production of small numbers of interconnections in silicon components, without the costs associated with silicon technologies.

The project will include the following research activities:

1. Investigation of appropriate ink systems for aerosol jet deposition on silicon dies, characterising deposition, drying requirements, reliability and electrical properties
2. Investigation into deposition over edge transitions on a die
3. Investigation of process scale-up for multiple dies

The scholarship is funded by Swansea University’s College of Engineering; collaborating companies; and the Nano & Micro Technologies for Healthcare (NMH) Project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) via the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO).

Application