Technical Library | 2017-01-05 16:55:11.0
The July 2006 implementation of ROHS exempted automotive applications from converting to lead free technology. Nine years later, all major OEM and Tier 1 automotive manufacturers have converted or are in the process of converting to lead free circuit assembly processing. Starting with SAC (SnAgCu) alloys as a baseline for lead free soldering, in the last years several specific alloys were developed in order to improve resistance to high temperature creep, vibration survival and the ability to withstand thermal cycling and thermal shock.The paper compares three different solder alloys and two flux chemistries in terms of void formation and mechanical / thermal fatigue properties. Void content and reliability data of the alloys will be presented and discussed in relation to the acceptance criteria of a Tier 1 /OEM automotive supplier. As a result, a ranking list will be presented considering the combined performance of the alloys. In order to analyze the void formation and mechanical behavior of different solder alloys and flux chemistry combinations, statistical methods are used.
Technical Library | 2017-04-20 13:51:14.0
The one constant in electronics manufacturing is change. Moore's Law, which successfully predicted a rate of change at which transistor counts doubled on Integrated Circuits (ICs) at lower cost for decades, is ceding to be an appropriate prediction tool. Increasing technical and economic requirements, deriving from the semiconductor environment, are cascaded down to the printed circuit and in particular to the IC substrate manufacturers. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for IC Substrate manufacturers, when dealing with the demands of the packaging market. (...)This paper introduces two new electroless copper baths developed for IC substrates manufacturing based on Semi Additive Process (SAP) technology (hereafter referred to as E'less Copper IC) and HDI production (hereafter referred to as E'less Copper HDI) and optimized for high throw into BMVs. An introduction to reliable throwing power measurement methods based on scanning electron microscope (SEM) is given, followed by a compilation and discussion of key performance criteria for each application, namely throwing power, copper adhesion on the substrate, dry film adhesion and reliability.
Technical Library | 2017-10-16 15:03:32.0
The miniaturization and advancement of electronic devices have been the driving force of design, research and development, and manufacturing in the electronic industry. However, there are some issues occurred associated with the miniaturization, for examples, warpage and reliability issues. In order to resolve these issues, a lot of research and development have been conducted in the industry and university with the target of moderate melting temperature solder alloys such as m.p. 280°C. These moderate temperature alloys have not resolve these issues yet due to the various limitations. YINCAE has been working on research and development of the materials with lower temperature soldering for higher temperature application. To meet this demand, YINCAE has developed solder joint encapsulant paste to enhance solder joint strength resulting in improving drop and thermal cycling performance to eliminate underfilling, edge bonding or corner bonding process in the board level assembly process. This solder joint encapsulant paste can be used in typical lead-free profile and after reflow the application temperature can be up to over 300C, therefore it also eliminates red glue for double side reflow process. In this paper, we will discuss the reliability such as strength of solder joints, drop test performance and thermal cycling performance using this solder joint encapsulant paste in detail.
Technical Library | 2018-04-05 10:40:43.0
The miniaturization of microchips is always driving force for revolution and innovation in the electronic industry. When the pitch of bumps is getting smaller and smaller the ball size has to be gradually reduced. However, the reliability of smaller ball size is getting weaker and weaker, so some traditional methods such as capillary underfilling, corner bonding and edge bonding process have been being implemented in board level assembly process to enhance drop and thermal cycling performance. These traditional processes have been increasingly considered to be bottleneck for further miniaturization because the completion of these processes demands more space. So the interest of eliminating these processes has been increased. To meet this demand, YINCAE has developed solder joint encapsulant adhesives for ball bumping applications to enhance solder joint strength resulting in improving drop and thermal cycling performance to eliminate underfilling, edge bonding or corner bonding process in the board level assembly process. In this paper we will discuss the ball bumping process, the reliability such as strength of solder joints, drop test performance and thermal cycling performance.
Technical Library | 2018-09-21 10:12:53.0
Moisture accumulates during storage and industry practice recommends specific levels of baking to avoid delamination. This paper will discuss the use of capacitance measurements to follow the absorption and desorption behaviour of moisture. The PCB design used in this work, focused on the issue of baking out moisture trapped between copper planes. The PCB was designed with different densities of plated through holes and drilled holes in external copper planes, with capacitance sensors located on the inner layers. For trapped volumes between copper planes, the distance between holes proved to be critical in affecting the desorption rate. For fully saturated PCBs, the desorption time at elevated temperatures was observed to be in the order of hundreds of hours. Finite difference diffusion modelling was carried out for moisture desorption behaviour for plated through holes and drilled holes in copper planes. A meshed copper plane was also modelled evaluating its effectiveness for assisting moisture removal and decreasing bake times. Results also showed, that in certain circumstances, regions of the PCB under copper planes initially increase in moisture during baking.
Technical Library | 2019-02-13 13:45:11.0
Development of information and telecommunications network is outstanding in recent years, and it is required for the related equipment such as communication base stations, servers and routers, to process huge amount of data in no time. As an electrical signal becomes faster and faster, how to prevent signal delay by transmission loss is a big issue for Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) loaded on such equipments. There are two main factors as the cause of transmission loss; dielectric loss and conductor loss. To decrease the dielectric loss, materials having low dielectric constant and low loss tangent have been developed. On the other hand, reducing the surface roughness of the copper foil itself to be used or minimizing the surface roughness by modifying surface treatment process of the conductor patterns before lamination is considered to be effective in order to decrease the conductor loss. However, there is a possibility that reduction in the surface roughness of the conductor patterns will lead to the decrease in adhesion of conductor patterns to dielectric resin and result in the deterioration of reliability of PCB itself. In this paper, we will show the evaluation results of adhesion performance and electrical properties using certain type of dielectric material for high frequency PCB, several types of copper foil and several surface treatment processes of the conductor patterns. Moreover, we will indicate a technique from the aspect of surface treatment process in order to ensure reliability and, at the same time, to prevent signal delay at the signal frequency over 20 GHz.
Technical Library | 2019-07-17 17:56:34.0
The increased demand for electronic devices in recent years has led to an extensive research in the field to meet the requirements of the industry. Electrolytic copper has been an important technology in the fabrication of PCBs and semiconductors. Aqueous sulfuric acid baths are explored for filling or building up with copper structures like blind micro vias (BMV), trenches, through holes (TH), and pillar bumps. As circuit miniaturization continues, developing a process that simultaneously fills vias and plates TH with various sizes and aspect ratios, while minimizing the surface copper thickness is critical. Filling BMV and plating TH at the same time, presents great difficulties for the PCB manufactures. The conventional copper plating processes that provide good via fill and leveling of the deposit tend to worsen the throwing power (TP) of the electroplating bath. TP is defined as the ratio of the deposit copper thickness in the center of the through hole to its thickness at the surface. In this paper an optimization of recently developed innovative, one step acid copper plating technology for filling vias with a minimal surface thickness and plating through holes is presented.
Technical Library | 2019-11-07 08:59:14.0
Inductors realized with high permeable MnZn ferrite require, unlike iron-powder cores with an inherent dis-tributed gap, a discrete air gap in the magnetic circuit to prevent saturation of the core material and/or tune the inductance value. This large discrete gap can be divided into several partial gaps in order to reduce the air gap stray field and consequently the proximity losses in the winding. The multi-gap core, realized by stacking several thin ferrite plates and inserting a non-magnetic spacer material between the plates, however, exhibits a substan-tial increase in core losses which cannot be explained from the intrinsic properties of the ferrite. In this paper, a comprehensive overview of the scientific literature regarding machining induced core losses in ferrite, dating back to the early 1970s, is provided which suggests that the observed excess core losses could be attributed to a deterioration of ferrite properties in the surface layer of the plates caused by mechanical stress exerted during machining.
Technical Library | 2021-06-15 18:36:00.0
To compensate for the insufficiency and instability of solder paste dispensing and printing that are used in the SMT (Surface Mount Technology) production process, a noncontact solder paste jetting system driven by a piezoelectric stack based on the principle of the nozzle-needle-system is introduced in this paper, in which a miniscule gap exists between the nozzle and needle during the jetting process. Here, the critical jet ejection velocity is discussed through theoretical analysis. The relations between ejection velocity and needle structure, needle velocity, and nozzle diameter were obtained by FLUENT software. Then, the prototype of the solder paste jetting system was fabricated, and the performance was verified by experiments. The effects of the gap between nozzle and needle, the driving voltage, and the nozzle diameter on the jetting performance and droplet diameter were obtained. Solder paste droplets 0.85 mm in diameter were produced when the gap between the nozzle and needle was adjusted to 10 _m, the driving voltage to 80 V, the nozzle diameter to 0.1 mm, and the variation of the droplet diameter was within _3%.
Technical Library | 2022-10-31 17:09:04.0
The global transition to lead-free (Pb-free) electronics has led component and equipment manufacturers to transform their tin–lead (SnPb) processes to Pb-free. At the same time, Pb-free legislation has granted exemptions for some products whose applications require high long-term reliability. However, due to a reduction in the availability of SnPb components, compatibility concerns can arise if Pb-free components have to be utilized in a SnPb assembly. This compatibility situation of attaching a Pb-free component in a SnPb assembly is generally termed "backward compatibility." This paper presents the results of microstructural analysis of mixed solder joints which are formed by attaching Pb-free solder balls (SnAgCu) of a ball-grid-array component using SnPb paste. The experiment evaluates the Pb phase coarsening in bulk solder microstructure and the study of intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between the solder and the copper pad.
