SEPTEMBER 2026 NEWSLETTER

Webinar: Information Management for Long-Term Storage of Electronic Assemblies

Printed circuit boards, subassemblies, and final assembled products are often stored for the long term. While significant work has been done and various standards are available for storing electronic components, the scope of hardware storage beyond the component level remains a matter of individual companies’ decision-making. As a result, organizations are often limited by personal experiences, and companies continue to repeat the same mistakes across the industry. For successful, cost-effective storage of printed circuit board assemblies, there is a need for information collection and management to support storage planning and execution. …

Dr. Diganta Das

Thursday, September 17, 2026

11:00 am to 12:00 noon US Eastern Time

CALCE Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium - Fall 2026

On October 14, 2026, the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering will hold its Reliability Science for Electronics Symposium. This meeting will be held in the Kay Boardroom at the Kim Engineering Building. A Zoom option will be available for those who cannot attend in person. The meeting will include an overview of CALCE research activities with several research project presentations. The meeting is free and open to CALCE members and invited guests.

Registration is now Open.

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Failure Analysis of Electronics Short Course

This intensive 4-day course consists of classroom instruction, demonstrations, and hands-on laboratory training. The course will cover analysis techniques applicable to electronic assemblies, components, and devices. Lecture topics include physics-of-failure root cause analysis, guidelines for selecting analytical tools, and practical instruction in laboratory techniques. The laboratory portion of the course includes demonstrations and step-by-step, hands-on sample preparation using metallographic techniques on the latest failure-analysis equipment. In addition, a number of critical non-destructive and destructive analysis techniques will be demonstrated.

November 17 - November 20, 2026

CALCE Research Featured in Batteries Editor’s Choice Articles

A research paper by CALCE researchers Sahithi Maddipatla, Lingxi Kong, and Michael G. Pecht has been recognized as an Editor’s Choice Article by Batteries, an international journal published by MDPI. Selected among just 10 Editor’s Choice articles published in 2024 and 2025, the paper represents CALCE’s ongoing contributions to advancing battery research and improving our understanding of battery performance and safety. The featured paper, "Safety Analysis of Lithium-Ion Cylindrical Batteries Using Design and Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis," was published in Batteries in 2024. …

CALCE Battery Research: Strain Sensors for Lithium-Ion Battery Safety

Sahithi Maddipatla, a doctoral candidate, presented her work on the applicability and benefits of using strain sensors for the early detection and prevention of thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries at the 5th International Battery Safety Workshop (IBSW). The workshop was hosted by UL Research Institutes and Sandia National Laboratories. It covered topics spanning the entire battery safety lifecycle, including materials and cell-level safety, thermal runaway mechanisms, monitoring and early detection, data analytics and AI, thermal runaway mitigation, battery energy storage system (BESS) safety, and recycling safety. …

Prof. Jay Lee Receives Best Paper Award

Prof. Jay Lee has received the 2025 Best Paper Award at the North American Manufacturing Research Conference (NAMRC 54) for his paper, “Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems and Industrial Metaverse for Remote Manufacturing,” published in Manufacturing Letters.

Co-authored by Prof. Jay Lee and Dr. Pradeep Kundu, the paper explores the integration of cyber-physical systems, digital technologies, and industrial metaverse concepts for next-generation remote manufacturing. The award recognizes the paper’s contribution to advancing Industrial AI, smart manufacturing, and cyber-physical systems. …

The Strategic Weaponization of Discovery Incompleteness: Information Asymmetry as Litigation Advantage

This article addresses a fundamental pathology: the exploitation of discovery incompleteness by producing parties who possess informational advantages that requesting parties lack the capability to detect or remedy. Strategic incompleteness is a function of informational advantage, not litigation posture: any producing party—plaintiff, defendant, or third-party respondent—with superior knowledge of the document universe can exploit the information asymmetry inherent in discovery, undermining settlement negotiations, distorting case valuations, and extracting substantial litigation advantage from procedural compliance that masks substantive evasion. …

Prognostic Approaches for Early Detection of Thermal Runaway in Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Thermal runaway in a lithium‐ion cell is an uncontrollable self‐heating process, which can result in a fire, smoke, or in some cases, an explosion. Since thermal runaway cannot always be prevented, there is interest in detecting it prior to its onset. This paper reviews experimental and modeling studies focused on the early detection of thermal runaway, including methodologies that incorporate voltage, current, impedance, state of charge, temperature, force, strain, pressure, acoustic, and gas-emission indicators. …

Probabilistic Electrostatic Discharge Risk Assessment in High-Reliability Electronics Manufacturing

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) remains a reliability threat in high-reliability electronics manufacturing despite industry adoption of ESD standards and control programs. ESD standards provide baseline requirements through defined grounded electrostatic protected workspaces, compliance verification, and device qualification; however, they are deterministic and do not quantify ESD risk. Prior research demonstrates that ESD-induced failures occur within fully compliant protected areas, that human-induced body voltage follows statistical distributions influenced by task and environment, and that device failure due to ESD exposure occurs over a range of voltage levels rather than at fixed thresholds. …

Derating Approach for Lithium-Ion Batteries

While lithium-ion batteries are rated for specific operational and storage limits, their performance degrades over time, even when operated within these rated conditions. To meet the target lifetime requirements, designers operate and store batteries at derated capacity, voltage, current, and temperature. Although derating strategies and battery life-extension models have been reported in the literature, they do not specify what degradation data are required or how the datasheet-rated limits can be converted into quantitative derating margins. …