The Computer Aided Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE)Center For Electronic Packaging is presently an NSF/IUCRC, with an annual budget of over $900,000. The activities of the existing Center will be expanded to conduct research and development of high volume, highly-reliable and internationally competitive commercial electronic products. The program will incorporate cost effectiveness, producibility and supportability as well as high reliability, into a concurrent product development process to enhance the economic development and competitiveness of the electronic industry in the United States. Manufacturability, product yield, quality, reliability and life cycle costs will be addressed concurrently during the design phase, and there will be rapid transfer of improved methods, technologies and logistics into product development. To accomplish this, the Center research is organized into four interdisciplinary research thrust areas, each with defined core and non-core activities: (1) design development for product performance; (2) product producibility and supportability; (3) life cycle modeling and assessment; and (4) experimentation and validation. The results will be transferred directly to the industrial members through developed software, guidelines and standards. New technologies will be incorporated directly into software through improved algorithms and enhanced databases which will in turn aid industry's capability to achieve designs for improved producibility, reliability and supportability. Technology transfer activities include workshops, short courses, training and consulting sessions at local community colleges and state-sponsored organizations for small-business initiatives, in addition to current technology transfer activities at the CALCE Center and at member sites. The State of Maryland, industry and NSF will provide matching funds totalling $750,000 in the first year.
