Cillian Burke B Mech Eng
PhD Research Postgraduate (2008-2011)

e: cillian.burke@ul.ie

t: +353-61-233619

Cillian Burke graduated from the University of Limerick with a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2008. He was awarded an IRCSET scholarship to conduct a research PhD and commenced at the Strokes Institute in September 2008. His primary interest is in the reliability of electronic packages and assemblies.

He gained industrial experience in Analog Devices Limerick while on nine month Co-op placement within the Assembly department in 2006. Much knowledge was acquired in the electronics field with many different product lines being supported by the engineering group. Expertise was acquired in the use of cross sectioning equipment and other failure analysis techniques while on placement. He successfully spent the summer of 2007 as an intern within the Stokes Institute. As part of this placement an experimental vibration test rig was built to investigate the natural frequency of a virgin PCB board using a LDV.

His Final Year Project dealt with subjecting chip resistor assemblies using different lead free solder pastes to vibration excitation. The test parameters were derived from industry standards.

PhD Project Title: Analysis of hermetically sealed silicon capped devices packaged in plastic for use in the electronics industry.

Project Background: In electronic applications it is vital that the electrical properties of the system remain constant. Electronic devices such as MEMS and IR sensors which are hermetically sealed maintain their characteristics only as long as hermeticity is held. When this seal is broken and contaminants and atmospheric gases leach into the device the reliability of the device is compromised and the electrical profile of the device is adversely affected. The processing involved in manufacturing silicon capped devices and then encapsulating these in a plastic package is complex. Characterisation of the process steps and a model of the effects of the process will be derived. From here advancements can be made to increase reliability, ensure hermeticity thereby maintaining electrical performance after manufacture.