Dr Andy Cobley

Head of Materials

The Sonochemistry Centre at Coventry University

Dr Andy Cobley graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1986 with an honours degree in applied chemistry and after a short spell at the International Tin Research Centre he joined British Aerospace (now BAe Systems) working in their metal finishing and PCB fabrication facility. In this role he learned the basics of PCB manufacture from drilling and metallisation to imaging and defect analysis. In 1989 he moved to Shipley Europe (now Rohm and Haas, now Dow Electronic Materials) initially in their technical service division where he was a trouble-shooter working at some of the biggest PCB facilities in Europe. In addition he worked on several collaborative projects with companies such as Fuba, Sony, Siemens, Ericsson, Viasystems etc. He then moved to the R&D group at Rohm and Haas where he developed electroless and electroplating processes being named as an inventor on several US, European and international patents. In 2002 Andy completed a PhD at Loughborough University and in 2006 he joined the Coventry University Sonochemistry Centre where he now heads the materials group. The current focus of this group is the search for more sustainable methods of surface modification in electronic manufacturing and energy efficient (e.g. low temperature) plating processes. The group also has projects investigating novel methods for the metallisation of non-conductive materials. Andy is a councillor for the Institute of Circuit Technology (ICT) who he also lectures for on training courses whilst he regularly gives presentations at trade events and conferences such as the EIPC. In addition, Andy is a Chartered Chemist, a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Member and Councillor of the Institute of Metal Finishing for whom he also sits on the publications committee.  He is also an expert reviewer for the EU FP7 project on embedded dies (HERMES).