Technical Library | 2018-08-01 11:25:59.0
With complexities of PCB design scaling and manufacturing processes adopting to environmentally friendly practices raise challenges in ensuring structural quality of PCBs. This makes it essential to have a good 'Design for Test' (DFT) to ensure a robust structural test. (...)During the course of the DFT review, can we realize a good test strategy for the PCBA. How can the test strategy of the PCBA be partitioned as to what portions of the design can be covered structurally and what is covered functionally, in a way that provides best diagnostics to discover faults
Technical Library | 2013-01-29 15:48:08.0
Choosing a new wire Cutting and Stripping (C&S) machine can be like shopping for a new car. With so many choices, where does one start? A nice, little sports car might be fun to have, but how often will it just sit there because it can’t carry a car load of kids or some odd-sized goods from the local home improvement store? You just might be better off with a midsize SUV that does a pretty good job at doing everything you need it to do.
Technical Library | 2015-04-23 18:48:18.0
Smart phones are complex, costly devices and therefore need to be reworked correctly the first time. In order to meet the ever-growing demand for performance, the complexity of mobile devices has increased immensely, with more than a 70% greater number of packages now found inside of them than just a few years ago. For instance, 1080P HD camera and video capabilities are now available on most high end smart phones or tablet computers, making their production more elaborate and expensive. The printed circuit boards for these devices are no longer considered disposable goods, and their bill of materials start from $150.00, with higher end smart phones going up to $238.00, and tablets well over $300.00.
Technical Library | 2007-11-15 15:54:44.0
At the contractor level once a product is required to be soldered with lead-free solders all the processes must be assessed as to insure the same quality a customer has been accustomed to with a Sn63Pb37 process is achieved. The reflow, wave soldering and hand assembly processes must all be optimized carefully to insure good joint formation as per the appropriate class of electronics with new solder alloys and often new fluxes.
Technical Library | 2008-05-07 17:54:58.0
Tracking goods through manufacturing was originally accomplished with pencil, paper and human input. Barcodes introduced an automated, machine-readable tracking mechanism that streamlined all types of manufacturing. But modern printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies are running into limitations because of barcode labels. And though barcodes and RFID tags will co-exist, the relatively large barcode labels have to find increasingly scarce real estate on high density boards.
Technical Library | 2018-09-05 21:41:30.0
In recent years, a growing number of electronic devices are being incorporated into automotive and other high reliability end products where the challenge is to make these devices more reliable. The package size of the devices is largely driven by the consumer industry with their sizes getting smaller making it harder to assemble and be reliable at the same time. For automotive and other high reliability electronics product, it is of the utmost priority to secure high reliability because it directly involves human life and safety. Challenges include selecting an appropriate solder alloy and having good reliability of the solder paste flux.
Technical Library | 2009-03-05 15:46:54.0
In a recent survey of 89 organizations conducted by Whataboutquality.com, respondents were asked what few key characteristics defined quality, in the eyes of their customer, the most popular response was: the product or service met my requirements. The next two most popular responses were: it worked like I expected and it was a good value, worth what I paid for it (...) So how do you continue to exceed customer expectations and simultaneously reduce costs? There are two paths to take. You can find and reduce the variation in your process and you can eliminate as much of the non-value-added waste in your operation.
Technical Library | 2016-01-12 11:09:47.0
In order to meet the increasing demand of device miniaturization, high speed, more memory, more function, low cost, and more flexibility in device design and manufacturing chain, underfilling has increasingly become an essential process for the good reliability of electronic devices. Filled capillary underfill has been selected for used in package-level where there is large thermal stress caused by CTE mismatch issue, but the underfill is usually not reworkable. Unfilled capillary underfill has been used for board-level application such as BGA/CSP, POP, WL-CSP where there is need for mechanical shock resistance, the underfill is usually reworkable.
Technical Library | 2022-06-27 16:50:26.0
Electronics industry is one of the fastest evolving, innovative, and most competitive industries. In order to meet the high consumption demands on electronics components, quality standards of the products must be well-maintained. Automatic optical inspection (AOI) is one of the non-destructive techniques used in quality inspection of various products. This technique is considered robust and can replace human inspectors who are subjected to dull and fatigue in performing inspection tasks. A fully automated optical inspection system consists of hardware and software setups. Hardware setup include image sensor and illumination settings and is responsible to acquire the digital image, while the software part implements an inspection algorithm to extract the features of the acquired images and classify them into defected and non-defected based on the user requirements. A sorting mechanism can be used to separate the defective products from the good ones. This article provides a comprehensive review of the various AOI systems used in electronics, micro-electronics, and opto-electronics industries. In this review the defects of the commonly inspected electronic components, such as semiconductor wafers, flat panel displays, printed circuit boards and light emitting diodes, are first explained. Hardware setups used in acquiring images are then discussed in terms of the camera and lighting source selection and configuration. The inspection algorithms used for detecting the defects in the electronic components are discussed in terms of the preprocessing, feature extraction and classification tools used for this purpose. Recent articles that used deep learning algorithms are also reviewed. The article concludes by highlighting the current trends and possible future research directions.
Technical Library | 2023-07-25 16:42:54.0
Printing solder paste for very small components like .3mm pitch CSP's and 01005 Chip Components is a challenge for the printing process when other larger components like RF shields, SMT Connectors, and large chip or resistor components are also present on the PCB. The smaller components require a stencil thickness typically of 3 mils (75u) to keep the Area Ratio greater than .55 for good paste transfer efficiency. The larger components require either more solder paste height or volume, thus a stencil thickness in the range of 4 to 5 mils (100 to 125u). This paper will explore two stencil solutions to solve this dilemma. The first is a "Two Print Stencil" option where the small component apertures are printed with a thin stencil and the larger components with a thicker stencil with relief pockets for the first print. Successful prints with Keep-Outs as small as 15 mils (400u) will be demonstrated. The second solution is a stencil technology that will provide good paste transfer efficiency for Area Ratio's below .5. In this case a thicker stencil can be utilized to print all components. Paste transfer results for several different stencil types including Laser-Cut Fine Grain stainless steel, Laser-Cut stainless steel with and w/o PTFE Teflon coating, AMTX E-FAB with and w/o PTFE coating for Area Ratios ranging from .4 up to .69.
