Comparison of Interface Stresses and Strains for Onlay and Inlay Unicompartmental Tibial Components

There are two main designs used for unicompartmental tibial components. The first design, an all plastic component called an inlay, preserves bone on the outer edge of the tibia which is feasible using a robotically-controlled burring tool. Also, the depth of resection is small, preserving the strongest cancellous bone which is near the surface. The second design, called an onlay, resects the entire condyle and includes a metal backed plate which rests on the resected tibia. This component requires more bone removal but metal-backing has previously been shown to distribute the load more uniformly. The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that while inlay components require less bone removal, the peak stresses and strains at the surface of the bone will be greater when compared to onlay components.

Femur Design Parameters and Contact Stresses at UHMWPE Hip Joint Cup

The contact stress that occurs in the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) hip joint cup has been shown to be correlated with the implant wear rate. The wear of the hip joint is considered as one of the main factors that affect the long term performance of the implant. The contact stress that occurs in the UHMWPE hip joint cup is affected by the implant dimensions and materials. In this study, four different femur materials and geometries were used to investigate the effects of femur design parameters on the resultant contact stress on the UHMWPE cup. The results of the finite element (FE) simulation show that the contact stresses at the UHMWPE cup decreases dramatically with increasing the femur diameter. Also the results indicated that the contact stresses on the UHMWPE cup decrease significantly when using functionally graded (FG) femur with low modulus of elasticity. The presence of metal backing results in a slight reduction in the UHMWPE cup contact stresses especially for small femurs. Finally, the presence of a gap between the UHMWPE cup and the femur results in a remarkable increase in the cup stress especially for a small femur. The hip joint femur dimensions and materials are thought to play an important role in the transition of load in the implant and should be taken into consideration during the design of the hip joint.

Partially Transparent Jaumann-Like Absorber Applied to a Curved Structure

A Jaumann absorber with its metal backing replaced with a combined low-pass and polarizer FSS is investigated with respect to its absorption and its polarization-dependent low-frequency transparency properties. This structure is applied to an idealized curved wing-front end, and its monostatic radar cross-section is determined. The FSS-Jaumann structure preserves an absorption similar to the planar Jaumann absorber in the higher frequency interval and enables a partial transparency in the TEzpolarization at 1 GHz. In addition, once the structure is applied to the wing-front end, a significant reduction in two-dimensional radar cross-section for both the TMzand TEzpolarization over 2–16 GHz is observed. A sensitivity analysis shows that the resistivity of the inner resistive layer has a large impact on the 1 GHz transmission.

The Influence of the Pelvic Bone on the Computational Results of the Acetabular Component of a Total Hip Prosthesis

The computational models developed to evaluate the hip joint performance usually neglect the presence of the pelvic bone. However, deformation depends on the stiffness of the underlying bone, and thus, the inclusion of the pelvic bone in the model influences the computed contact pressure and wear. This work discusses the influence of the pelvic bone, and how it depends on the acetabular component stiffness. It was modeled as two different polyethylene acetabular cups, considering or not a metal-backing for both 28 mm and 32 mm diametric cups. Two finite element models are developed, considering either the acetabular component rigidly fixed or attached to the deformable bone. Results present 28% and 42% difference on the contact pressure for a polyethylene cup without metal-backing when the support conditions are changed, for the 28 mm and 32 mm cups, respectively. Linear wear results present 21% and 31% difference for the same type of cups of 28 mm and 32 mm, correspondingly. The numerical results obtained in the present work show that to model the pelvic bone of the patient with a metal-backed cup did not greatly affect contact pressures and linear wear. However, when a total hip replacement is performed with an all-polyethylene acetabular cup, the presence of the pelvic bone in the model has a major influence.

Reliability of BGA and CSP on Metal-Backed Printed Circuit Boards in Harsh Environments

Increased use of sensors and controls in automotive applications has resulted in significant emphasis on the deployment of electronics directly mounted on the engine and transmission. Increased shock, vibration, and higher temperatures necessitate the fundamental understanding of damage mechanisms, which will be active in these environments. Electronics typical of office benign environments uses FR-4 printed circuit boards (PCBs). Automotive applications typically use high glass-transition temperature laminates such as FR4-06 glass∕epoxy laminate material (Tg=164.9°C). In application environments, metal backing of printed circuit boards is being targeted for thermal dissipation, mechanical stability, and interconnections reliability. In this study, the effect of metal-backed boards on the interconnect reliability has been evaluated. Previous studies on electronic reliability for automotive environments have addressed the damage mechanics of solder joints in plastic ball-grid arrays on non-metal-backed substrates (Lall et al., 2003, “Model for BGA and CSP in Automotive Underhood Environments,” Electronic Components and Technology Conference, New Orleans, LA, May 27–30, pp. 189–196;Syed, A. R., 1996, “Thermal Fatigue Reliability Enhancement of Plastic Ball Grid Array (PBGA) Packages,” Proceedings of the 1996 Electronic Components and Technology Conference, Orlando, FL, May 28–31, pp. 1211–1216;Evans et al., 1997, “PBGA Reliability for Under-the-Hood Automotive Applications,” Proceedings of InterPACK ’97, Kohala, HI, Jun. 15–19, pp. 215–219;Mawer et al., 1999, “Board-Level Characterization of 1.0 and 1.27mm Pitch PBGA for Automotive Under-Hood Applications,” Proceedings of the 1999 Electronic Components and Technology Conference, San Diego, CA, Jun. 1–4, pp. 118–124) and ceramic ball-grid arrays (BGAs) on non-metal-backed substrates (Darveaux, R., and Banerji, K., 1992, “Constitutive Relations for Tin-Based Solder Joints,” IEEE Trans-CPMT-A, Vol. 15, No. 6, pp. 1013–1024;Darveaux et al., 1995, “Reliability of Plastic Ball Grid Array Assembly,” Ball Grid Array Technology, Lau, J., ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 379–442;Darveaux, R., 2000, “Effect of Simulation Methodology on Solder Joint Crack Growth Correlation,” Proceedings of 50th ECTC, May, pp. 1048–1058). Delamination of PCBs from metal backing has also been investigated. The test vehicle is a metal-backed FR4-06 laminate. The printed circuit board has an aluminum metal backing, attached with pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA). Component architectures tested include plastic ball-grid array devices, C2BGA devices, QFN, and discrete resistors. Reliability of the component architectures has been evaluated for HASL. Crack propagation and intermetallic thickness data have been acquired as a function of cycle count. Reliability data have been acquired on all these architectures. Material constitutive behavior of PSA has been measured using uniaxial test samples. The measured constitutive behavior has been incorporated into nonlinear finite element simulations. Predictive models have been developed for the dominant failure mechanisms for all the component architectures tested.