Karan Pawar

Ph.D. Research Scholar

Prime Minister's Research Fellow

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

About Me

I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. I have received the prestigious Prime Minister's Research Fellowship for my Ph.D. program. I am working on Electroless Deposition as my Ph.D. dissertation. I will develop 3D microstructures on fused silica and use Electroless Plating to deposit a thin seed layer for succeeding electroplating of the microfeatures for MEMS industrial applications.

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Education

Ph.D. | Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

2021 – Present

M.Tech. | Mechanical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

2018 – 2020

B.E. | Mechanical Engineering

University of Mumbai

2014 – 2017

Courses done in PhD

1) VLSI Technology

2) Structural Characterization of Materials

3) Introduction to Microsystems Packaging

4) MEMS- Design, Fabrication, and Characterization

5) Statistical Design of Experiments

6) Mathematical Methods in Engineering

7) Machining Processes

8) Welding Processes

9) Liquid Material Processing

PhD Progress

Project Title- Electroless seed layer deposition on glass substrates for microsystems packaging

Glass is a suitable candidate as a substrate material in microsystems packaging due to electrical insulation, physical strength, ultra-low flatness
Metalization of the glass is an essential step to realizing glass as a substrate material
Limitations of vacuum-based physical vapor deposition, such as requirement of vacuum and substrate size limitation
On the contrary, electroless deposition process is an all-wet process that metallizes insulating substrates using chemical reactions
Electroless deposition is a well-accepted process in the PCB manufacturing industry; however, the adhesion of the electroless deposited layer on the glass is poor
My research work includes adhesion improvement of the electroless seed layer, deposition of electroless layers in Blind and through glass vias, and fabrication of embedded passive devices

Research Gaps and Objectives

Supervisor

Prof. Pradeep Dixit

Associate Professor

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Research Plan and Progress

Publications

Journals

PhD Thesis Research

1) Pandey Harsh, Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2024). Fabrication of through alumina vias (TAV) by ultrasonic micromachining for advanced packaging applications, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 185, 108923, DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2024.108923

2) Pawar Karan, Pandey Harsh, Dixit Pradeep (2024). Localized surface roughening to improve adhesion of electroless seed layer in through-glass vias, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 189, 108757, DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2024.108757

3) Pawar Karan, Pandey Harsh, Dixit Pradeep (2024). Continuous Electroless Seed Layer Deposition in Through-Glass-Vias by Ultrasonic Agitation, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, 14:7, 1292-1299, DOI: 10.1109/TCPMT.2024.3419836

4) Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2024). Facilitating electroless metalization of blind holes in glass substrates by electrochemical discharge-assisted surface roughening, Materials Letters, 358, 135853, DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2023.135853

5) Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2022). A critical review of copper electroless deposition on glass substrates for microsystems packaging applications, Surface Engineering, 38:6, 576-617, DOI: 10.1080/02670844.2022.2142002

PhD Side Project

1) Pawar Karan, S Harsha, Dixit Pradeep (2022). Investigation of Cu-Sn-Cu transient liquid phase bonding for microsystems packaging, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 38(3), 284-294, DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2024.108923

MTech Research

1) Arab Julfekar, Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2021). Effect of tool-electrode material in through-hole formation using ECDM process, Materials and Manufacturing Processes

2) Verma Aman, Mishra Dileep, Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2020). Investigation into surface morphology of glass microfeatures formed by pulsed electrochemical discharge milling for microsystems packaging, Microsystems Technologies

3) Mishra Dileep, Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2020). Effect of tool-electrode gap in the microchannel formation by electrochemical discharge machining, ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology

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International Conferences

PhD Research

1) Pawar Karan, Pandey Harsh, Dixit Pradeep (2023). Through Glass Vias Fabrication using Ultrasonic Micromachining and Electroless Deposition. IEEE 25th Electronics Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC), Singapore, pp. 1090-1093. DOI: 10.1109/EPTC59621.2023.10457889

2) Pawar Karan, Pandey Harsh, Dixit Pradeep (2022). Electrochemical Discharge-assisted Roughening to Improve the Adhesion of Electroless Nickel with Glass Substrate. 2022 International Conference on Precision, Meso, Micro and Nano Engineering (COPEN12), IIT Kanpur.

3) Pandey Harsh, Pawar Karan, Dixit Pradeep (2022). Adhesion improvement of the electroless film deposited on glass by the ultrasonic machining process. 5th World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing (WCMNM), Belgium.

MTech Research

1) Mishra Dileep, Arab Julfekar, Pawar Karan, Pandey Harsh, Dixit Pradeep (2019). Fabrication of deep microfeatures in glass substrate using electrochemical discharge machining for biomedical and microfluidic applications. IEEE 21st Electronics Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC), Singapore.

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