Carol Handwerker, the Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering and Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, has been appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC), part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Carol Handwerker, the Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Professor of Materials Engineering and Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering

The IAC, established in late 2021, provides guidance to the secretary of commerce, through NIST, on the science and technology needs of the nation’s domestic microelectronics industry, the effectiveness of the national strategy in supporting U.S. leadership in microelectronics manufacturing, the research and development programs and other advanced microelectronics activities funded through CHIPS for America, and opportunities for new public-private partnerships.

Handwerker is one of 24 committee members selected from a broad range of disciplines in the microelectronics field, including academia, the semiconductor industry and federal laboratories, among others.

“CHIPS is the catalyst for action we need to encourage American companies to build new chip manufacturing plants here in the U.S. instead of outsourcing to overseas facilities. Through CHIPS, the federal government is making unprecedented investments in semiconductor manufacturing, advanced microelectronics R&D, and building national supply chains for microelectronics,” Handwerker said. “I’m honored to have a seat at the table alongside this amazingly qualified group and excited to help guide the future direction of semiconductor innovation.”

Handwerker has been an international leader in advanced packaging since 1995 and has worked with major semiconductor companies such as Intel, NXP, Texas Instruments, and AMD in advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration. Her research areas include:

• Developing innovative technologies for next-generation microelectronics and solar cells
• Improving the reliability of Pb-free solder interconnects, particularly for high-performance, military, and aerospace electronic systems
• Integrating sustainability in the design of new materials, processes, and products
• Identifying and implementing strategies to move R&D into manufacturing and commercialization, and using roadmapping, techno-economic analysis, and formation of self-assembling socio-ecological systems

Handwerker is PI for the Lead-Free Defense Electronics Project, a five-year, $42-million U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) program aimed at ensuring that defense systems are manufactured with the most reliable solders possible, depending on the specific use conditions. She also is co-PI for the Scalable Asymmetric Life Cycle Engagement Program (SCALE), recently expanded through $10.8 million in additional funding, with a ceiling of $99 million. The intent of this five-year DOD program is to create a major pipeline of knowledgeable, engaged students for employment in the defense microelectronics workforce. She is co-chair of the Education and Workforce Development Technical Working Group within the NIST-funded, SRC-led Roadmap for Microelectronic and Advanced Packaging Technologies (MAPT).

An active participant in the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) since 1999, Handwerker was first involved in the NEMI Pb-Free Assembly Project and then as the NIST representative to the Technical Committee and helped launch major iNEMI initiatives in sustainability. She served as director of the Purdue-Tuskegee Integrative Graduate and Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), a program on globally sustainable electronics funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with iNEMI. The program supported 28 two-year fellowships from 2012-2019.

In addition, she, along with representatives from Intel, Dell, Lenovo and others, directed projects on materials recycling from electronics and value recovery for end-of-life electronics while serving on the organization’s Environmental Leadership Steering Committee. She also has serves as co-chair of the iNEMI Roadmap in Sustainable Electronics in the last three roadmap cycles, including the current roadmap, sits on the iNEMI Roadmap Technical Advisory Committee, and is an active member of the INEMI project, BiSn-Based Low-Temperature Soldering Process and Reliability.

Handwerker served for several years as a member of the Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) leadership team, leading CMI programs on accelerating technology transition of CMI R&D in recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing.

Before joining Purdue in 2005, Handwerker was chief of the NIST Metallurgy Division and was one of the leaders in advanced packaging within the NIST Office of Microelectronic Programs.