Accreditation criteria and employer expectations increasingly require that engineering students obtain “real world” design experience before graduation. To enhance this experience for Materials Science and Engineering majors at the University of California, Davis, the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science offers a senior design course called Materials in Engineering Design (EMS 188). The central feature of the course is a collaborative design project that is taught jointly by department professors and an engineer from industry. In Spring 2003, students worked together as a team to define, justify and develop a cost effective process for lead-free solder assembly of a hybrid microelectronic package used in the test and measurement industry (a “real” project of ongoing interest to Agilent Technologies). To define and develop this process, the students needed to consider the desired material properties, as dictated by the component design, and how the material selection and solder process affects the properties. In order to justify the project, the team was expected to address economic, regulatory and environmental/safety issues associated with the proposed process design and its development. The team conducted experiments and tests at UC Davis to compare the properties between the standard lead bearing solder and candidate lead-free solders. A pull test was designed to determine germane mechanical properties. Optical microscopy was performed on the tested specimens and scanning electron microscopy was preformed on the fracture surfaces of selected specimens. Solder process development, including furnace profiling and package assembly using the top lead-free solder alloy candidates, was conducted at Agilent facilities in Santa Rosa, California. Through applied research and testing it was concluded that eutectic Sn90-Au10 solder can be used as a lead-free replacement for eutectic Sn62-Pb36-Ag2 in Agilent Technologies’ 50 GHz Microwave Amplifier.