Industry News | 2008-10-29 16:47:50.0
Greeley, CO � October 2008 � Florida CirTech Inc., a leading chemical blender to the Printed Circuit and Electronic Assembly industry, announces that Genesis Materials Technology (GMT) has recently dramatically improved the ENIG resistance of Florida CirTech's water-based AQ2000 LPI solder mask. AQ2000 LPI is now able to withstand the harsh chemical conditions found in the ENIG process.
Industry News | 2011-01-18 13:46:21.0
Time and again, a major challenge lies in attaching integrated circuits (ICs) to highly integrated circuit board substrates in a space-saving manner. Würth Elektronik took this challenge on and found an ideal solution with the ESC (encapsulated solder connection) process. The chips are soldered and at the same time glued 'face-down" in their exact position.
Industry News | 2020-11-03 13:18:05.0
MacDermid Alpha Electronics Solutions announces the release of CircuEtch 200, a high performance anisotropic final etch for circuit formation in Semi-Additive and modified-Semi-Additive processes (SAP/mSAP) utilized in IC substrate and substrate-like HDI manufacturing.
Industry News | 2021-10-07 15:38:24.0
Averatek is pleased to announce that it will present a paper during the during the SMTA International Conference Nov. 1-4, 2021 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Divyakant Kadiwala, Nazarali Merchant, Ph.D., and Benny Lam co-authored "Reliability of Solder Joints on Flexible Aluminum PC Boards."
Technical Library | 2014-08-07 15:13:44.0
Gold embrittlement in SnPb solder is a well-known failure mechanism in electronic assembly. To avoid this issue, prior studies have indicated a maximum gold content of three weight percent. This study attempts to provide similar guidance for Pb-free (SAC305) solder. Standard surface mount devices were assembled with SnPb and SAC305 solder onto printed boards with various thicknesses of gold plating. The gold plating included electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and electrolytic gold of 15, 25, 35, and 50 microinches over nickel. These gold thicknesses resulted in weight percentages between 0.4 to 7.0 weight percent.
Technical Library | 2016-05-12 16:29:40.0
Advances in miniaturized electronic devices have led to the evolution of microvias in high density interconnect (HDI) circuit boards from single-level to stacked structures that intersect multiple HDI layers. Stacked microvias are usually filled with electroplated copper. Challenges for fabricating reliable microvias include creating strong interface between the base of the microvia and the target pad, and generating no voids in the electrodeposited copper structures. Interface delamination is the most common microvia failure due to inferior quality of electroless copper, while microvia fatigue life can be reduced by over 90% as a result of large voids, according to the authors’ finite element analysis and fatigue life prediction. This paper addresses the influence of voids on reliability of microvias, as well as the interface delamination issue.
Technical Library | 2021-07-06 21:20:38.0
The evolution of internet-enabled mobile devices has driven innovation in the manufacturing and design of technology capable of high-frequency electronic signal transfer. Among the primary factors affecting the integrity of high-frequency signals is the surface finish applied on PCB copper pads – a need commonly met through the electroless nickel immersion gold process, ENIG. However, there are well-documented limitations of ENIG due to the presence of nickel, the properties of which result in an overall reduced performance in high-frequency data transfer rate for ENIG-applied electronics, compared to bare copper.
Technical Library | 2023-02-13 19:23:18.0
Spontaneously forming tin whiskers, which emerge unpredictably from pure tin surfaces, have regained prevalence as a topic within the electronics research community. This has resulted from the ROHS-driven conversion to "lead-free" solderable finish processes. Intrinsic stresses (and/or gradients) in plated films are considered to be a primary driving force behind the growth of tin whiskers. This paper compares the formation of tin whiskers on nanocrystalline and conventional polycrystalline copper deposits. Nanocrystalline copper under-metal deposits were investigated, in terms of their ability to mitigate whisker formation, because of their fine grain size and reduced film stress. Pure tin films were deposited using matte and bright electroplating, electroless plating, and electron beam evaporation. The samples were then subjected to thermal cycling conditions in order to expedite whisker growth. The resultant surface morphologies and whisker formations were evaluated.
Technical Library | 2023-01-10 20:15:42.0
Over the past years there has been consistent growth in the use of electroless nickel / immersion gold (ENIG) as a final finish. The finish is now frequently being used for PBGA, CSP, QFP and COB and more recently gathered considerable interest as a low cost under-bump metallization for flip chip bumping application. One of the largest users for this finish has been the telecommunication industry, were millions of square meters of PCBs with ENIG have been successfully used. The nickel layer offers advantages such as multiple soldering cycles and hand reworks without copper dissolution being a factor. The nickel also acts as a reinforcement to improve through-hole and blind micro via thermal integrity. In addition the nickel layer offers advantages such as co-planarity, Al-wire bondability and the use as contact surface for keypads or contact switching. Especially those pads, which are not covered by solder need a protective coating in corrosive environment – such as high humidity or pollutant gas.
Industry News | 2018-10-18 11:08:03.0
Different Techniques for Plating