Lucas James Email and Phone Number

Engineering tool owner responsible for various manufacturing processes and metrology tools at a flexible PCB shop, including electrolytic copper, nickel, and gold pattern plating lines; XRF and drop gauge tools; and wet processing area DI water supply.Key achievements include:• Developed a computer program in LabView to control DC power supplies for electroplatinglines, with an easy-to-use HMI for plating recipe entry, auto-generation of run logs, andcurrent/voltage trace output; program was major improvement over existing process thatrequired manual run logging and rectifier configuration.• Installed and qualified a vacuum-chuck stage for an XRF spectrometer using statistical tests,correlation studies, and gage R&R’s; vacuum chuck reduced gage variation by over 50% andcut setup time 6-fold.• Upgraded shop DI water supply system by purchasing and installing PLC with web-based HMIthat enabled 24-7 remote water quality datalogging with programmed alarms.• Increased flex PCB electroplating process yields by implementing process control limits,tracking Cpk, and performing process characterization studies using design of experiments(DOE) principles.• Supported factory throughput improvement efforts by designing larger plating tank fixtures using CAD software and qualifying a larger-volume copper plating line, work that enabled larger workpiece sizes.• Standardized operations and best practices on the floor of a plating shop by writing SOPs andrelated training materials.

Served as the main process engineer on a NextFlex-funded collaborative project between MicroConnex and the University of Washington that developed a hybrid process for manufacturing sub-50-um space and trace interconnects on flex using roll-to-roll seed layer printing and subsequent electrodeposition. At the end of the project, a provisional patent application was filed for the hybrid print-plate process. Key tasks and achievements:• Characterized the flexographic printing parameter space for producing high-resolution metal interconnects on flex using nanoparticle-based inks.• Developed custom electrolyte chemistry designed for copper electrodeposition onto fragile high-resistivity seed layers.• Used COMSOL finite element software to model current distribution when plating onto high-resistance electrodes.• Performed optical inspection and trace width measurements of printed-and-plated circuits using ImageJ, and analyzed this as well as electrical test data using JMP.• Used ImageJ’s Java scripting language to write code to semi-automate the optical inspection and dimensioning process to facilitate analysis of large experimental datasets.• Wrote quarterly and final reports and prepared and presented webinars to the NextFlex community

Worked on a team that developed novel nanostructured wear- and corrosion-resistant electrodeposited coatings. Tasks included:• Conducting electrochemistry experiments using various analytical techniques and using the results to characterize electrolyte bath properties and understand relationships between processing parameters and coating properties• Utilizing design of experiments (DOE) principles to guide electrochemical work, develop models for process-structure-performance relationships, and propose process improvements based on those models• Working on an industrial electroplating line, plating hundreds of parts and resolving various production issues that arose, ranging from coating adhesion problems to electrolyte contamination and aging• Designing and building tools such as racks, anodes, flow cells, and measurement techniques that were used to both conduct better experiments and produce a wider variety and higher throughput of test parts

• Synthesized nanoparticles, nanowires, and other nanomaterials via solution-phase processing and formulated printable inks of these materials• Coated thin films for electronics applications such as photovoltaics, photodetectors, transparent conductors, and nanowire composites• Characterized nanomaterials and thin-film devices using common techniques such as SEM, XRD, etc.• Evaluated quality of thin films and tested thin-film electronic devices and carried out experiments to improve their quality and performance• Presented data and summarized experiments for senior scientists and head of the science team

• Wrote Mathematica scripts to determine the limiting efficiency of ideal single-junction and multijunction solar cells under both standard and cloudy spectra • Performed solution-phase synthesis of earth-abundant chalcogenide nanocrystals from precursors for use in solar cells• Characterized materials using UV-Vis and FTIR spectroscopy and investigating reaction pathways• Tackled difficulties with the UV-Vis and FTIR instruments such as detector saturation, inconsistent results, and low signal-to-noise ratios• Gave oral presentations to professor and graduate researches to communicate results

• Wrote simple scripts in MATLAB to model fluid flow and seismic particle motion• Analyzed and interpreted seismic data using computer software• Communicated results to a primary investigator and collaborated with him to synthesize our results• Presented results in poster sessions for general audiences