To access a schedule of supplementary courses, click on the respective links:

ENME-Mechanical Engineering Department
ENEE-Electrical Engineering Department
ENMA-Materials Engineering Department
MATH-Math Department

To determine if any of the listed courses have seats available for the upcoming semester, click here . This link will tak you to Testudo, the University of Maryland's comprehensive listing of course schedules by departments.
 
 
 

Course Descriptions

                   Microelectronic Components Engineering
                   Failure Mechanics and Reliability

Undergraduate Courses:

ENME 474 Electronic Product Development. Offered every spring. This course merges technology, analysis, and design concepts into a single focused activity that results in the completed design of an electronic product.  A set of product requirements are obtained from an industry partner; the students in the course create a specification for the product, iterate the specification with the industry partner, then design and analyze the product.  Issues associated with transferring of the design to manufacturing and selection of manufacturing facilities are also addressed.
 

Intermediate Graduate Courses:

ENME 808ZMechanical Fundamentals of Electronic Systems. Offered every fall. This course provides the student with an understanding of the fundamental mechanical principles used in the design of electronic devices, and their integration into electronic systems.  It focuses on the effect of materials compatibility, thermal stress, mechanical stress, and environmental exposure on product performance, durability and cost.  Both electronic devices and package assemblies are considered.  Through student projects, package assemblies are analyzed to understand thermal and mechanical stress effects.

ENME 808QHigh Density Electronic Assemblies and Interconnects. Offered every spring. This course presents the mechanical fundamentals needed to address reliability issues in high-density electronic assemblies. Potential failure sites and the potential failure mechanisms are discussed for electronic interconnects at all packaging levels from the die to electronic boxes, with special emphasis on thermomechanical durability issues in surface mount interconnects.  Models are presented to relate interconnect degradation and aging to loss of electrical performance.  Design methods to prevent failures within the life cycle are developed.

ENME 808K Failure Mechanisms and Reliability. Offered every spring. This course presents classical reliability concepts and definitions based on statistical analysis of observed failure distributions.  Techniques to improve reliability, based on the study of root-cause failure mechanisms, knowledge of the life-cycle load profile, and product architecture and material properties, are presented Techniques to prevent operational failures through robust design and manufacturing practices are discussed.  Students gain the fundamentals and skills in the field of reliability as it directly pertains to the design and the manufacture of electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical products.

Specialized Graduate Courses:

ENME 808Y Mechanics of Photonic Systems. Offered every fall in the even year, e.g. 2000, 2002, 2004 etc. This course presents key principles for the design of photonic component packages to achieve reliable performance in high performance environments.  Methods in thermal, mechanical, and optical analysis, as well as the impact of thermal, mechanical and chemical stresses are reviewed.  General approaches using life-cycle engineering principles are also covered.

ENME 808W Thermal Issues in Electronic Systems. Offered every spring in the odd year, e.g. 2001, 2003, 2005 etc. This course addresses a range of thermal issues associated with electronic products life cycle.  Topics include: Passive, active, and hybrid thermal management techniques for electronic devices and systems, as well as computational modeling approaches for various levels of system hierarchy.  Advanced thermal management concepts including single phase and phase change liquid immersion, heat pipes, and thermoelectrics are also included.

ENME 808A Life Cycle Cost Analysis. Offered every fall in the odd year, e.g. 2001, 2003, 2005 etc. This course melds elements of traditional engineering economics with manufacturing process modeling and life cycle cost management concepts to form a practical foundation for predicting the cost of commercial products. Methodologies for calculating the cost of systems are presented. Product life cycle costs associated with scheduling, design, reliability, design for environment  (life cycle assessment), and end-of-life scenarios are discussed. In addition, various manufacturing cost analysis methods are presented, including: process-flow, parametric, cost of ownership, and activity based costing. The effects of learning curves, data uncertainty, test and rework processes, and defects are considered.  This course uses real life design scenarios from integrated circuit fabrication, electronic systems assembly, and substrate fabrication, as examples of the application of the methods mentioned above.

ENME 808D Manufacturing Technologies for Electronic Systems. Offered every spring in the even year, e.g. 2000,  2002, 2004 etc. This highly multi-disciplinary course presents the mechanical fundamentals of manufacturing processes used in electronics assemblies.  The emphasis is on quantitative modeling of the intrinsic impact that processing has on structure, properties, performance and durability. Students learn how to quantitatively model many of the key manufacturing steps from mechanistic first principles, so that sensitivity studies and process optimization can be performed in a precise manner. Processes considered include: wafer-level processes such as polishing, lithography, etching and dicing; packaging operations such as die attachment, wirebonding, flip chip bonding, and plastic encapsulation; multilevel high-density substrate fabrication processes; and assembly processes such as reflow and wave soldering of surface-mount components to electronic substrates.

ENME 808I High-Power and High-Temperature Electronics. Offered every fall in the even year, e.g. 2000, 2002,  2004 etc. This course focuses on understanding the technologies and developing packaging strategies for manufacturing reliable high temperature, high power electronic systems. Included issues are related to silicon power device selection (IGBT, MCT, GTO, etc.), the characteristics of silicon device operation at temperatures greater than 125C, and the advantages of devices based on SOI and SiC.  The course also discusses passive components and packaging materials selection for distributing and controlling power, focusing on the critical limitations to the use of many passive components and packaging materials at elevated temperatures.  The course also covers techniques for thermal management to reduce the temperature elevation caused by power dissipation.  Finally, models for failure mechanisms in high temperature and high power electronics are presented together with a discussion of design options to mitigate their occurrence.

ENME 808T Micro- and Nano-Structural Characterization. Offered every spring in the odd year, e.g. 2001, 2003, 2005 etc. This course teaches various methodologies for characterization of micro to nano-scale structures.  The specific areas include (1) advanced failure analysis, (2) characterization of material properties and (3) quantitative stress analysis.  The students learn the basic principles of the methods and develop skills for research investigations by participating in student projects.

ENME 808D Principles for Electronic Enclosure Design and Manufacturing. Offered every fall in the odd year, e.g. 2001, 2003, 2005 etc. This course examines the impact of enclosure and joint design on electromagnetic interference (EMI) in electrical systems. The course reviews the fundamental relationships between material properties and electrical behavior, in the context of EMI effects.  Students learn systematic strategies for design and evaluation of enclosures and analytical methods for testing and assessment.

ENME 808-4 Advanced Packaging: MEMS, sensors, 3-D, Multi Chip Modules. Offered every spring in the even year, e.g. 2000, 2002, 2004 etc. Concepts and technologies associated with the design and analysis of packaging of advanced electronic components and systems are presented.  Technologies treated include: hybrids, multichip modules, wafer scale integration, MEMS, sensors, and 3D packaging.  Concepts introduced in the course include mechanical reliability, system testability and design for test, advanced electrical analysis of systems, and various other design topicsranging from system partitioning and tradeoff analysis to layout and routing.

ENME 808-X Microelectronic Components Engineering. Offered every fall. The process of component selection is at the heart of the design of electronic systems. This process includes application-independent considerations such as part manufacturer selection, manufacturer quality, part family quality and integrity, and distributor quality assessment. Also included are application-specific considerations including the determination of the life cycle environment, reliability assessment, performance assessment, assembly requirements and constraints assessment, life cycle mismatch (obsolescence) assessment, legal liabilities, part acceptance and rejection criteria, and risk management functions.  The course covers all the aspects of part selection and management and ties them together with the knowledge of electronic component materials, construction and manufacturing.  The course presents case studies, as well as involving students in projects with electronic equipment manufacturing companies.

Supplementary Courses:

To promote a firm understanding of basic engineering principles, the above listed EPS graduate courses are supplemented with other courses in mechanics, vibrations, reliability, thermal engineering and computer aided design, as well as other specialized courses in materials science, electrical engineering or reliability engineering. Typically, about half of the total courses in an approved graduate program are EPS courses, and the other half is usually selected from other courses such as:

ENME 616 Computer Aided Manufacturing.  Prerequisites: ENME 412.  Introduction to the computer control of manufacturing processes. Topics include fundamental of instrumentation, transducers and devices that lead to on-line process monitoring, control of machining processes, and automated material handling. Laboratory exercises include CNC machining and part verification on coordinate measuring machines.

ENME 631 Advanced Conduction and Radiation Heat Transfer. Prerequisites: ENME 315, 321 and 700 (at least concurrent) or equivalent or permission of instructor.  Theory of conduction and radiation. Diffused and directional poly- and mono-chromatic sources. Quantitative optics. Radiation in enclosures. Participating media. Integro-differential equations. Multi-dimensional, transient and steady state conduction. Coordinate system transformations.

ENME 632 Advanced Convection Heat Transfer. Prerequisites: ENME 315, 342, 343, and 700 or equivalent or permission of instructor.Statement of conservation of mass, momentum and energy. Laminar and turbulent heat transfer in ducts, separated flows, and natural, convection. Heat and mass transfer in laminar boundary layers. Nucleate boiling, film boiling, Leidenfrost transition, condensation, industrial applications such as cooling towers, condensers. Heat exchanger design.

ENME 633 Advanced Classical Thermodynamics. Prerequisite: ENME 315 or equivalent or permission of instructor. Laws of thermodynamics, concepts of energy, entropy and energy. Applications include chemical processes, power generation, refrigeration and thermodynamic design.

ENME 662 Linear Vibrations. Prerequisite: ENME 360 or equivalent or permission of instructor. Development of the equation of small oscillation of discrete and continuous models using Newton's equations, Lagrange's equations, influence coefficient matrices, finite elements, and partial differential equations. Analysis of free vibration, damping, forced harmonic vibration, and transient vibration, and transient vibration of mechanical systems. Numerical methods. Random vibration of linear  mechanical systems.

ENME 673 Energy and Variational Methods.  Prerequisite: None. Application of variational principles to mechanics. Includes virtual work, potential energy, strain energy, Castigliano's generalized complementary energy, and the principles of Hellinger-Reissner and Hamilton. Legendre transforms and the foundations of the calculus of variations.  Singularities and stability in potential energy function. Applications to rigid, linear and non-linear elastic, and non-conservative examples. Approximation techniques such as Ritz, Petrov-Galerkin, least-squares, etc. Presents the basis for the finite element method.

ENME 680 Experimental Mechanics. Prerequisite: Undergraduate course in instrumentation or equivalent. Advanced methods of measurement in solid and fluid mechanics. Topics covered include scientific photography, moire, photoelasticity, strain gages, interferometry, holography, speckle, NDT techniques, shock and vibration, and laser anemometry.

ENME 684 Modeling Material Behavior. Prerequisite: ENME 670 or permission of instructor. Constitutive equations for the response of solids to loads, heat, etc. based on the balance laws, frame invariance, and the application of thermodynamics to solids. Non-linear elasticity with heat conduction and dissipation. Linear and non-linear non-isothermal viscoelasticity with the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle. Classical plasticity and current viscoplasticity using internal state variables. Maxwell equal areas rule, phase change, and metastability and stability of equilibrium states. Boundary value problems. Introduction to current research areas.

ENME 808C Applied Finite Element Methods.  Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Application of finite element methods to the solution of engineering problems - such as stress analysis, thermal conductivity, fluid flow analysis, electro-magnetic field analysis and coupled boundary value problems. Emphasis is on the application of the techniques to the solution of problems. Basic theory is covered at beginning of course.

ENME 808J Active Vibration Control. Prerequisite: None. Biological systems, biomimetics, smart structures and materials concepts. Review of actuator and sensor materials including piezolectric ceramics and polymers, share memoryalloys, electrorheulogical fluids, strain gages, MEMS, optical fiber sensors, and others. Design and manufacturing of smart structures, integration mechanics, damage detection and repair, and applications.

ENME 808X Engineering Decision Making. Decision-making is a key construct in the design process.  This course introduces a perspective of engineering design that emphasizes decision-making.  Course themes include generating design alternatives, modeling decision-maker preferences and assessing alternatives from a realistic viewpoint that requires acknowledgements of risk and uncertainty.

ENMA 659 Special Topics in Electronic Materials.

ENEE 680  Electromagnetic Theory.  Prerequisite: ENEE 381 or equivalent. Theoretical analysis and engineering applications of Maxwell's equations. Boundary value problems of electrostatics and magnetostatics. See the indepth course description for more information.

ENEE 694  Physics and Simulation of Semiconductor Devices.  A detailed analysis of electron transport in submicron semiconductor devices. The effects of band structure and collisions. The Boltzmann transport equation, the hydrodynamic model and the drift-diffusion model. Numerical techniques to solve these transport equations. CAD tools for designing modern microelectronic circuits.

ENEE 719R Design and Fabrication of Micor-Electro-Mechanical Systems.  Topics selected, as announced every semester, from the field of microelectronics and its applications.

Mathematics Courses:

For a list of mathematics courses recommended for Mechanical Engineering and EPS students, M.S. and Ph.D., click here.