Xuanyi Ding: Master of Engineering

Originally from Beijing, China, Xuanyi Ding received his undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Materials Science and Engineering and is a current Materials Science and Engineering Master of Engineering student here at Cornell University. Xuanyi chose the Cornell University MSE MEng program because felt it would give him an advantage when pinpointing a career in industry after the program. In his free time, Xuanyi enjoys table tennis, rock climbing, hiking, and practicing karate. After graduation, Xuanyi is interested in pursuing a career focused in processing, RD&E, or consulting. Xuanyi is interested in gaining career experience before determining if he is interested in pursuing a PhD.

Seeking a silver lining, Xuanyi Ding’s project, “Characterization of Pressure-Less Silver Sintering Joints” for the Indium Corporation, explored soldering conditions. The project deliverables were paper reviews in the field, silver sintering materials under different conditions, mechanical testing on said materials, and reliability tests including power cycling and temperature cycling. It has been found that the silver sintering joints prepared under pressure-less sintering conditions outperform the high lead solder and lead-free solder materials in terms of thermal cycling tests. Understanding the reliability of pressure-less sintering materials is essential to improve high temperature working condition materials like hybrid cars and aircraft. A literature search resulted in a better understanding of silver sintering materials and reliability tests. Understanding the theory behind silver sintering helped the project focus on the characterization of silver sintering materials under different conditions. Some of the parameters related to sintering material quality are joint bondline thickness, temperature, voids, and porosity, which are important for the manufacturing process.