Tambalacoque. For a formal account of the gist of a scholarly argument

Argumentation as reflected in a short communication from the published literature of botany and zoology is discussed. Trying to capture the logic structure of the argument, however imperfectly, is relevant to information science and depends on a particular goal: namely, to potentially benefit the task of sketching the relationship between bibliographic entries in a better manner than is possible with present-day bibliometric or scientometric practice. This imposes tight limits on the depth of analysis of the text.

Scheduling for parallel dedicated machines with a single server

This paper examines scheduling problems in which the setup phase of each operation needs to be attended by a single server, common for all jobs and different from the processing machines. The objective in each situation is to minimize the makespan. For the processing system consisting of two parallel dedicated machines we prove that the problem of finding an optimal schedule is NP-hard in the strong sense even if all setup times are equal or if all processing times are equal. For the case of m parallel dedicated machines, a simple greedy algorithm is shown to create a schedule with the makespan that is at most twice the optimum value. For the two machine case, an improved heuristic guarantees a tight worst-case ratio of 3/2. We also describe several polynomially solvable cases of the later problem. The two-machine flow shop and the open shop problems with a single server are also shown to be NP-hard in the strong sense. However, we reduce the two-machine flow shop no-wait problem with a single server to the Gilmore-Gomory traveling salesman problem and solve it in polynomial time. (c) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An open shop scheduling problem with a non-bottleneck machine

This paper considers the problem of processing n jobs in a two-machine non-preemptive open shop to minimize the makespan, i.e., the maximum completion time. One of the machines is assumed to be non-bottleneck. It is shown that, unlike its flow shop counterpart, the problem is NP-hard in the ordinary sense. On the other hand, the problem is shown to be solvable by a dynamic programming algorithm that requires pseudopolynomial time. The latter algorithm can be converted into a fully polynomial approximation scheme that runs in time. An O(n log n) approximation algorithm is also designed whi finds a schedule with makespan at most 5/4 times the optimal value, and this bound is tight.

Intermetallic phase detection in lead-free solders using synchrotron X-ray diffraction

The high-intensity, high-resolution x-ray source at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) has been used in x-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments to detect intermetallic compounds (IMCs) in lead-free solder bumps. The IMCs found in 95.5Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu solder bumps on Cu pads with electroplated-nickel immersion-gold (ENIG) surface finish are consistent with results based on traditional destructive methods. Moreover, after positive identification of the IMCs from the diffraction data, spatial distribution plots over the entire bump were obtained. These spatial distributions for selected intermetallic phases display the layer thickness and confirm the locations of the IMCs. For isothermally aged solder samples, results have shown that much thicker layers of IMCs have grown from the pad interface into the bulk of the solder. Additionally, the XRD technique has also been used in a temperature-resolved mode to observe the formation of IMCs, in situ, during the solidification of the solder joint. The results demonstrate that the XRD technique is very attractive as it allows for nondestructive investigations to be performed on expensive state-of-the-art electronic components, thereby allowing new, lead-free materials to be fully characterized.

Wetting and Reaction of Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi Solder with Cu and Ni Substrates

The wettability of newly developed Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi lead-free solder on Cu and Ni substrates was assessed through the wetting balance tests. The wettability assessment parameters such as contact angle (ϑc) and maximum wetting force (Fw) were documented for three solder bath temperatures with three commercial fluxes, namely, no-clean (NC), nonactivated (R), and water-soluble organic acid flux (WS). It was found that the lead-free Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi solder exhibited less wetting force, i.e., poorer wettability, than the conventional Sn-37Pb solder for all flux types and solder bath temperatures. The wettability of Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi lead-free solder on Cu substrate was much higher than that on Ni substrate. Nonwetting for Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi and Sn-Pb solders on Ni substrate occurred when R-type flux was used. A model was built and simulations were performed for the wetting balance test. The simulation results were found very close to the experimental results. It was also observed that larger values of immersion depth resulted in a decrease of the wetting force and corresponding meniscus height, whereas the increase in substrate perimeter enhanced the wettability. The wetting reactions between the solder and Cu/Ni substrates were also investigated, and it was found that Cu atoms diffused into the solder through the intermetallic compounds (IMCs) much faster than did the Ni atoms. Rapid formation of IMCs inhibited the wettability of Sn-2.8Ag-0.5Cu-1.0Bi solder compared to the Sn-Pb solder.