Technical Library | 2020-11-09 16:59:53.0
A customer contacted ACI Technologies regarding a high failure rate of their assemblies. They provided assemblies to be X-rayed and inspected for the purpose of identifying any process related issues such as (but not limited to) solder and assembly workmanship and evidence of damage due to moisture related problems during reflow (a.k.a. "popcorning"). Moisture damage usually appears as physical damage to the component. The first indication of moisture damage would be externally observable changes to the package in the form of bulging or fractures to the outer surface of the component, an example of which is shown in Figure 1. Internally observable indicators of moisture damage typically include fractures to the die inside the package and lifted or fractured wire bonds. These conditions would be apparent during transmissive X-ray inspection. Another symptom of moisture related damage would be inconsistent solder joint sizes that result from package deformation during the liquidus phase of the reflow process. None of these indicators of moisture related damage were present on the customer samples.
Technical Library | 2019-06-11 09:34:37.0
Recently ACI Technologies was asked to perform failure analysis on a hermetically sealed transistor for potential electrostatic discharge (ESD) or electrostatic overstress (EOS). ACI was asked to determine if the field-failed transistor was damaged by ESD or EOS. In order to properly assess the failure, additional samples were requested.
Technical Library | 2021-09-02 08:17:07.0
We are a professional manufacturer of PCB depaneling machines, which is workable for all boards, including flex and regid boards, v-scored boards and routed boards. Laser pcb depaneling is non-contact way without mechanical stress,this solution is good for modern precision PCB depaneling. It has below advantages: 1. No dust The production environment of the circuit board industry is carried out in the dust-free workshop. The traditional pcb depaneling equipment, such as blade moving type machine, will inevitably produce residues and micro powder, which will pollute the 10000 and 1000 class dust-free workshops and affect the conductivity of products. The UV laser PCB cutting machine is a vaporization processing process, which will not produce dust and is conducive to the conductivity of the product. 2. High cutting precision The processing gap of high-precision traditional processing equipment can not reach the gap width of less than 100 microns, which will cause certain damage to the lines on the edge or PCBA circuit board containing components. The focus spot of the laser cutting machine is small, and the ultraviolet cold processing mode has little thermal impact on the edge of the circuit board. The cutting position accuracy is less than 50 microns, and the cutting size accuracy is less than 30 microns, which will not affect the edge of the circuit board, and the precision is high. 3. No stress Traditional processing methods generally have V-grooves, which will cause certain damage to the board in the manufacturing process. The UV laser PCB cutting machine can directly cut the bare board without making V-grooves. In addition, the traditional processing methods directly use tools to act on the circuit board, especially the stamping method has a great impact on the circuit board, which is easy to cause board deformation. The laser cutting machine is a non-contact processing mode, which acts on the surface of the material through the high-energy beam, which will not cause the influence of stress and the deformation and damage of the circuit board. 4. For special-shaped cutting, it is easy to automate The UV laser PCB cutting machine can cut for any shape without replacing any props and fixtures, and without steel mesh. The same equipment can meet special-shaped and straight-line cutting, which is easy to realize assembly line automatic production and high flexibility. It is easy to improve production efficiency and save production process and production cycle. In particular, it can quickly and efficiently meet the needs of rapid proofing, directly import the drawing, and then locate the cutting. 5. High compatibility The UV laser PCB cutting machine can process the materials around the circuit board, such as PCB, FPC, covering film, pet, reinforcing board, IC, ultra-thin metal cutting, etc. it has strong practicability, is compatible with the processing of a variety of materials, is easy to operate, can be imported into the drawing, does not need to adjust any mechanical parts, and is easy to operate and maintain. 6. Good cutting edge effect The cutting edge is smooth and neat without burr. It can be processed and formed directly according to the size of the drawing, which is conducive to improving the yield of the product. It can be directly installed into the subsequent process without further processing. For more details about UV laser depaneling, please feel free to contact us. www.pcbdepanelingrouter.com
Technical Library | 2007-02-01 10:08:40.0
The increased replacement of high lead count SMT devices with BGAs and other high ball count area array packages has brought increased challenges to PCB rework and repair. Often solder mask areas surrounding BGA pad areas are damaged when components are removed.
Technical Library | 2015-08-27 15:32:16.0
Ever since there has been a widespread usage of surface mount parts, the trend of continued shrinkage of devices with ever finer pitches has continued to challenge PCB assemblers for the rework of same. Todays' pitches are commonly 0.5 to 0.4mm with packages of tiny outline sizes, 5 -10mm square, making the rework of such devices a challenge. In addition to the handling and inspection challenges comes the board density. Spacing to neighboring components continues to be compressed so the rework techniques should not damage neighboring components.
Technical Library | 2016-03-31 17:39:52.0
Electrical overstress causes damage to sensitive components, including latent damage. A significant source of EOS is high-frequency noise in automated manufacturing equipment. This paper analyses sources of such noise, how it affects components and how to mitigate this problem.
Technical Library | 2013-01-05 22:21:01.0
More and more countries legislate to forbib lead usage in solder material. However, the lead-free solder wire has higher melting point and soldering temperature, increase soldering iron temperature may damage the PCB or components. How to solve this problem?
Technical Library | 2017-11-08 23:22:04.0
Due to the ongoing trend towards miniaturization of power components, the need for increased thermal conductivity of solder joints in SMT processes gains more and more importance. Therefore, the role of void free solder joints in power electronics becomes more central. Voids developed during soldering reduce the actual thermal transfer and can cause thermal damage of the power components up to their failure. For this reason, the company has developed a new technique to minimize the formation of these voids during the soldering process.
Technical Library | 2012-12-20 14:36:09.0
The increased function of personal electronic devices, such as mobile phones and personal music devices, has driven the need for smaller and smaller active and passive components. This trend toward miniaturization, occurring at the same time as the conversion to RoHS-compliant lead-free assembly, has been a considerable challenge to the electronics assembly industry. The main reason for this is the higher reflow process temperatures required for Pb-free assembly. These higher temperatures can thermally damage the PCB and the components. In addition, the higher reflow temperatures can negatively affect the solder joint quality, especially when coupled with the smaller paste deposits required for these smaller components. If additional thermal processing is required, the risk increases even more. First Published at SMTA's International Conference on Soldering and Reliability in Toronto, May 2011
Technical Library | 2015-07-01 16:51:43.0
Aerospace and military companies continue to exercise RoHS exemptions and to intensively research the long term attachment reliability of RoHS compliant solders. Their products require higher vibration, drop/shock performance, and combined-environment reliability than the conventional SAC305 alloy provides. The NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project confirmed that pad cratering is one of the dominant failure modes that occur in various board level reliability tests, especially under dynamic loading. One possible route to improvement of the mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of solder joints is the use of Pb-free solders with lower process temperatures. Lower temperatures help reduce the possibility of damaging the boards and components, and also may allow for the use of lower Tg board materials which are less prone to pad cratering defects. There are several Sn-Ag-Bi and Sn-Ag-Cu-Bi alloys which melt about 10°C lower than SAC305. The bismuth in these solder compositions not only reduces the melting temperature, but also improves thermo-mechanical behavior. An additional benefit of using Bi-containing solder alloys is the possibility to reduce the propensity to whisker growth
