Yan Li of MediaTek

While heterogeneous integration offers maximum performance, it complicates the path to mass production. As packaging evolves toward 3D and 3.5D configurations, traditional fault isolation (FI) and failure analysis (FA) methods face significant challenges. This presentation provides an overview of industry trends in advanced packaging technology development and offers a technical deep dive into the practical challenges of FI and FA within complex interconnect environments, such as hybrid bonding and micro-bump arrays. Attendees will gain insight into current industry troubleshooting workflows and a forward-looking roadmap of the tools and techniques being developed to address advanced packaging failures.

Biography:

Dr. Yan Li  received her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, U.S.A. in 2006, and her M.S and B.S degree in Physics from Peking University, China. After more than 17 years in Intel Arizona and 3 years in Samsung Advanced Packaging group in San Jose focusing on advanced packaging technology developments, she joined Media Tek USA as a Principal Engineer of Packaging Technology in 2026. Dr. Li has been an active member of Minerals Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society for Metals (ASM), and Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society (EDFAS). She has been appointed as International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA) annual conference organizer since 2011, EDFAS board member since 2019, EDFAS vice president since 2024, International Roadmap on Failure Analysis (IRFA) Packing council co-chair since 2023, IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) Applied Reliability sub-committee member since 2024, and ISTFA general Chair in 2024. Dr. Li has published numerous papers and patents in the microelectronic packaging area. She is an associate editor of “Microelectronics Reliability” and the co-editor of three semiconductor industry highly recognized books on 3D Microelectronic Packaging and Autonomous Vehicles.

Address:United States

David Hu of Indium Corp.

The rapid growth of HPC and AI is driving unprecedented power density and packaging complexity, creating simultaneous challenges in thermal management and assembly. Metallic thermal interface materials (TIM) offer high thermal conductivity and low interfacial resistance of efficient heat dissipation, while low temperature solders reduce assembly warpage and thermomechanical stress in advanced packages. This presentation reviews recent developments in metallic TIMs and low temperature solder paste technologies, and their potential roles in enabling reliable, scalable next-generation hardware.

Biography:

David Hu is an Application Manager, responsible for delivering applications support and driving sales initiatives for Indium Corporation’s customers in the semiconductor markets. He closely collaborates with Sales, R&D, Product Management, Operations, and Quality departments across the company. David has worked for Indium Corporation for 17 years, and during his tenure with the company, he has held the roles of Sales Engineer, Technical Manager, Market Development Manager. Currently based in California, David holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Fudan University in Shanghai. He has a Six Sigma Black Belt and is an SMTA Certified Engineer.

Address:United States

Audrey Chamoire of Covalent

Biography:

Dr. Audrey Chamoire is multidisciplinary engineer with a background in Materials Science. She is passionate about technology and has been an expert in new materials synthesis, characterization, optimization and process development for the past 10+ years, with experience in both academia and industry. She has been mostly involved in new materials synthesis and methods development for thin films, crystals, nanocrystals, bulk and powder. She is fluent with most of the chemical and structural characterization methods (SEM-EDS, XRD, XRF, DSC, TGA…), mechanical characterization methods (hardness, ductility, tensile, Fracture, toughness, shock drop, tensile and compressive strength) and physical characterization methods (thermal, electrical, career concentration…). She has also been working on materials integration, along with data analysis, materials or process optimization and qualification. She is an expert in data interpretation and correlation with materials composition, structure, thermal history, or physical properties. She has been working on a wide range of materials such as steel, copper and aluminum alloys, rare earth, lead free solder and a lot of different semiconductors. Audrey holds a PhD degree in Materials science and engineering from the University of Montpellier in France and did her postdoctoral research at Ohio State University.

Jeff Gelb of Applied Materials

The rise of 3D integration has intensified inspection demands across the full range of semiconductor packaging length scales, from populated printed circuit boards down to sub-micron defects within individual die and interconnects. Recent advancements in computed laminography address board-level inspection, resolving faults across populated PCBs non-destructively without desoldering or removing components, preserving the assembly for further electrical or thermal testing. Recent advancements in computed tomography reach the few-hundred-nanometer regime for diced or singulated specimens, resolving fine defects such as voiding, cracking, and delamination that previously required destructive cross-sectioning to observe. Together, these techniques form a continuous, non-destructive inspection pathway spanning semiconductor packaging, from board-level triage down to die-level root cause confirmation, within state-of-the-art laboratory X-ray systems.

Biography:

Jeff Gelb is the Director of X-ray Microscopy at Applied Materials, X-Ray Control Technologies. He holds degrees in Physics from UC Santa Barbara and Materials Engineering from San Jose State University and has spent two decades working with advanced X-ray instrumentation, including diffraction, tomography, and 3D imaging. Jeff began his career at X-ray start-up Xradia in 2006, which became part of Zeiss in 2013. He then joined the start-up Sigray in 2017 and is now part of Applied Materials, where he leads efforts in automated 3D X-ray for semiconductor inspection & metrology.

Austin Barnes of Covalent

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) play a critical role in connecting GPUs to keep up with the computation demand of AI models. PICs convert electrical signals into modulated light, transmitting the data through an optical path. The performance and reliability of PICs depend heavily on packaging quality. Differences in thermal expansion among semiconductor dies, substrates, epoxies, die-attach materials, and pressure-sensitive adhesives can generate mechanical stress during fabrication and operation. These stresses may produce delamination, voiding, cracking, and interfacial defects that degrade optical alignment or lead to premature failure. Trace organic residues introduced during fabrication and assembly can also increase optical loss, interfere with adhesion, and compromise device performance. This talk will examine how advanced metrology can help identify and address these packaging challenges. Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) will be discussed as a nondestructive method for detecting subsurface interfacial defects and evaluating package integrity. Photo-induced force microscopy (PiFM), an AFM-based infrared technique, will be presented as an approach for chemically identifying nanoscale contamination. Together, these techniques provide spatially resolved structural and chemical information that can support failure analysis, process development, and improved reliability of photonic hardware for AI systems.

Biography:

Dr. Austin Barnes is a physical chemist with expertise in scanning probe techniques. He earned his PhD in Chemistry from UCSB in 2019. Shortly after, he joined Covalent as a Member of the Technical Staff. He is now Director of Operations of the Materials, Chemistry, and Surfaces (MCS) group. In his free time, he enjoys mountain biking, playing soccer, and watching scary movies.