KUASE Third Year Doctoral Student Receives the ICMR 2022 Young Researcher Award

KUAS Graduate School of Engineering third-year doctoral course student Keisuke Wakamoto, a member of the Nanomechatronics Laboratory (a lab that specializes in nanomechanics, nanotechnology, and functional materials, directed by Dr. Takahiro Namazu), has received the Young Researcher Award from the 6th International Conference on Material and Reliability (ICMR 2022) held in Yamaguchi Prefecture for his presentation titled “Sintered Silver Degradation Assessment by Thermal and Mechanical Cyclic Tests”. This award recognizes young researchers both for their outstanding research and for their “best oral presentation” delivered at the conference. Being only one of 120 oral presentations, Mr. Wakamoto’s research and presentation were positively evaluated as outstanding, resulting in him the award.

The Nanomechatronics Laboratory is developing a novel and reliable wafer bonding technology for silicon-carbide (SiC) power devices. SiC devices have low resistive and switching losses during electric power conversion and are expected to be used in applications having large electrical power density. Silver sintering (s-Ag) bonding technology using Ag nanoparticles has recently attracted much attention as a SiC power device die bonding material. The s-Ag has superior heat conductivity and higher melting point compared with typical solders, even though are disadvantages such as the existence of pores. For practical use, experimentally understanding the fracture mechanism involving pore and microstructure changes inside the s-Ag layer should lead to better thermal reliability for SiC devices using s-Ag bonding.

Mr. Wakamoto commented, “My research life at the Namazu Laboratory was a series of new challenges for me. It is a great honor for my research results and hard work to be recognized at ICMR 2022. I would like to say thanks to professors and colleagues always supporting me. Without your support, I could not earn this award.” Prof. Namazu responded to his words of gratitude, saying, “Congratulations Keisuke! You made it! I and all the lab members are very happy. This award will encourage all the KUASE graduate and undergraduate students.”