Development and Testing of Cold gas Sprayed Circuit Boards for Power Electronics Applications
Within the framework of the presented project, new mounting concepts for power electronics were implemented by applying Al/Cu coat systems to insulators by means of cold gas spraying (CGS). The layers sprayed with cold gas were investigated and good material properties are observed. The applied metallizations show an extremely small porosity, no thermally induced phase conversions or process-related oxides and a high adhesive strength. Also the processing of assemblies with standard processes such as a soldering, adhesive bonding and heavy wire bonding is possible. The temperature shock stability of the new substrates was determined in temperature cycle experiments and it was compared with the temperature shock stability of the DCB substrates. The substrates were tested actively but also passively in bicameral temperature shock chamber and in power cycling experiments at power electronic function samples. The accomplished reliability investigations showed that the characteristic lifetime of the cold gas sprayed substrates is approximately 80% of the characteristic lifetime of the DCB substrates. These demonstrate that the substrates produced in cold-gas technology can be used for power electronic applications.
Effect of Heat Treatment on the Structure and Properties of Cold Sprayed Copper

 Deposition of copper by cold gas dynamic spraying has attracted much interest in recent years because of the capability to deposit low porosity oxide free coatings. However, it is generally found that as-deposited copper has a significantly greater hardness, and potentially lower ductility, than bulk material. This paper will describe work undertaken to investigate the effect of annealing heat treatments on the structure and mechanical properties of freestanding cold sprayed copper. After de-bonding from substrates these tracks were annealed for one hour at a range of temperatures up to 600 °C. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were all employed to examine the microstructure. The peak widths in XRD were analysed according to the Hall – Williamson method so that changes in grain size and microstrain (i.e. dislocation content) could be quantified. Mechanical behaviour of the deposits was studied by microhardness measurements and tensile testing. The influences of annealing on mechanical properties are rationalised in terms of microstructure evolution and its effect on strengthening and recrystallization mechanisms in metals. The softening behaviour of cold sprayed Cu is explained considering the low stacking fault energy of Cu and the possibility of dynamic recystallization occurring during spraying.
To What Extent Can English-as-a-Second Language Learners Read Economic News Texts?
In decision making in the economic field, an especially important requirement is to rapidly understand news to absorb ever-changing economic situations. Given that most economic news is written in English, the ability to read such information without waiting for a translation is particularly valuable in economics in contrast to other fields. In consideration of this issue, this research investigated the extent to which non-native English speakers are able to read economic news to make decisions accordingly – an issue that has been rarely addressed in previous studies. Using an existing standard dataset as training data, we created a classifier that automatically evaluates the readability of text with high accuracy for English learners. Our assessment of the readability of an economic news corpus revealed that most news texts can be read by intermediate English learners. We also found that in some cases, readability varies considerably depending on the knowledge of certain words specific to the economic field.