AUBURN, AL – The Defense Electronics Consortium is awarding $7 million to Auburn University as part of the university’s participation in the Pb-free defense electronics industrial base, according to reports. The award will be distributed during a period of five to seven years.

Auburn faculty will partner with researchers from Purdue University and the University of Maryland to focus on the Lead-Free Defense Electronics Project. For the first year of the project, $830,000 goes to Auburn Engineering, with a total fund of $3.9 million.

Auburn faculty, led by principal investigator Sa’d Hamasha, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, will develop an evaluation system for solder selection to meet specific defense-related requirements.

“The outcome of this research is a lead-free Solder Users Handbook to ensure a safe transition of aerospace and defense electronics to lead-free technology,” he said. “The lead-free project includes a plan for developing a comprehensive solder agnostic evaluation system for defense lead-free technology. The goal is to enable future new solders and electronics packaging technologies and processes for specific defense use cases.”

Auburn’s facilities will be used to fill the gaps in thermal cycling, drop shock and vibration testing.

The DEC was established by the US Partnership for Assured Electronics through an award from the US Department of Defense. The total award is expected to exceed $42 million.

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