Background
Received BEng in Materials Science and Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology China; MSc in Corrosion Wear and Protection from Institute of Metals Research of Chinese Academy of Science; and PhD of Engineering Design and Manufacture from Hull University UK.
Previous roles include Assistant Professor in Institute of Metals Research of Chinese Academy of Science, and Postdoctoral Researcher at Birmingham University.
Joined Wolfson School of Loughborough University from 2000 as a Research Fellow, and became Professor of Electronics Manufacture since 2011.
Qualifications and awards
- Fellow of Higher Education Academy
- Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Inc. USA
- Committee member of IEEE flagship conferences: ECTC, ESTC, EPTC, ICEPT
- Royal Society Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor of City University of Hong Kong, (2012)
My research is centred around the Electronics Manufacturing Research to address the challenges in the design, integration, materials and manufacture of electronics intensive products, applicable across multiple industrial sectors including telecom, transport, energy, healthcare/bio-medical, IoTs/wearable electronics and space/aerospace.
Aligned closely with potential industrial applications concerning the development of novel Advanced Interconnect Materials (AIMs) which are manufacturable, reliable and affordable, my research team conducts the underpinning research into advanced materials and manufacturing processes to enable 3D heterogeneous embodiment, integration and miniaturisation of future generation complex multifunctional devices. Our work has a primary emphasis on the research challenges commonly presented in terms of multi-material interfacial interactions/behaviour across meso- micro- to nano-scale and the evolutions under the harsh, severe and extreme environments. In order to fulfil the material microstructural stability and functional robustness, a wide range of manufacturing routes have been exploited to achieve the goal, for instance, through novel soldering, sintering or bonding with micro- and nano-particles, pastes and preformed thin films, electrochemical process, selective, additive and subtractive processes. Over several decades, the team participated and delivered numerous research projects through active engagement with the industrial consortia, national and international groups, in initiating, leading and participating in multi-institutional and multi-national research activities.
My recent research efforts have been diversified into two ever challenging and adventurous fields: (i) Advanced materials and manufacturing processes for interconnection and integration of power electronics exploiting high performance/reliability of third-generation Wide-band Gap (WBG) semiconductor devices. (ii) Across disciplinary research into diverse materials and construction methods of bioelectronics and smart wearable/implantable electronics embodying multifunctional attributes for medical and healthcare applications.
Grants and contracts
- 2018 – 2023: Quasi-ambient bonding to enable cost-effective high temperature Pb-free solder interconnects, in collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Manchester, EPSRC Ref: EP/R032203/1, PI.
- 2017 – 2022: Heterogeneous integration to enable manufacture and assembly of power electronics: EPSRC Underpinning Power Electronics 2017, in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, Ref: EP/R004501/1, Co-PI.
- 2017 – 2019: Precondition Parameters for Solderability Test of Tin-containing Coating, HIRPO20160804, Huawei Technology, Ref: HO2016050002BH, PI.
- 2015 –2016: Novel under-bump metallisation to enable low cost Pb-free solder interconnects for power electronics, EPSRC Centre of Power Electronics, Ref: FS14/Cliu , PI.
- 2011-2015: Micro- Multi-Material Manufacture to Enable Multifunctional Miniaturised Devices (M6), European Union, FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IRSES: No. 269113, PI.
External links
Industrial collaborators:
TRIBUS-D, TT Electronics/Semelab, HVMC-MTC, Dynex Semiconductors, Indium Corporation, Oclaro, MacDermid Enthone Industrial Solutions, Micross Components, STFC-RAL(Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), Huawei Technology, GE Aviation, Conpart AS Norway, Printed Electronics Ltd, Xaar, VTT, Oulu, Finland.
Academic collaborators:
- Tennessee Technological University, USA
- Fraunhofer IZM, Berlin, Germany
- University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern (FHKL), Zweibrücken, Germany
- Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore
- National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan
- University of Milan, Milan, Italy
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China
- Xi’an Jiaotong Univesrity, Xi’an, China
- Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, India
- Warwick University, Coventry, UK
- City University of Hong Kong
- Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
- Imperial College London, UK
- Manchester University, Manchester, UK
- King’s College London, UK