Dr. Jean-Paul Clech, founder and principal of EPSI Inc. (since 1995), is a materials / mechanical / electronic packaging engineer.  He consults in the areas of circuit board and surface component design and assembly, electronic packaging (SMT, BGA, CSP, Flip-Chip etc…), assembly quality and reliability, for clients across the electronics industry worldwide.  He also assists law firms in patent or product litigation cases.  Jean-Paul is the principal developer of the Solder Reliability Solutions (SRS) model and software for reliability assessment of SnPb electronic assemblies and has consulted on the design of small to large circuit boards and components in low to high reliability applications.  His current research interests are in harsh environments, lead-free properties and reliability, and flexing and vibration of circuit boards.   Jean-Paul previously was a member of technical staff and then consultant at AT&T Bell Laboratories (1985-90 and 1992-95).  He also worked as manager of electronic packaging at a super-computer start-up company in France (1990-92), with main responsibilities for electronic packaging and cooling of a multi-chip, multi-processor Central Processor Unit (CPU).

He received the Diplôme d’ Ingénieur (Materials Science major) from Ecole Centrale de Paris, France, in 1981 and  M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL., in 1982 and 1985, respectively.  He has authored over 45 papers and three book chapters, and has been a workshop instructor and invited speaker at corporations and various venues in Asia, Europe and North America.  He is an active member of ASME, IEEE, IMAPS, SMTA and TMS and serves as a reviewer of several of those societies’ technical journals.

In 2003, Jean-Paul received the Member of Distinction Award from the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA).  In 2006, he was presented with the IPC’s Distinguished Committee Service award in appreciation and recognition of his contribution to the development of IPC-9701A, Performance Test Methods and Qualification Requirements for Surface Mount Solder Attachments.  In 2009, he was rated as a “Speaker of Distinction” by the technical program committee of the Surface Mount Technology Association International (SMTAI) Conference.  His 2009 SMTAI paper: “Closed form, strain energy based acceleration factors for thermal cycling of lead-free assemblies“, by J-P. Clech, Ph. D., Henshall, G., Ph. D. and Miremadi, J., presented with co-authors from the Hewlett-Packard Corporation at the 2009 SMTA International (SMTAI) conference, received the SMTAI Conference Best of Proceedings Award.