Technical Library | 2007-12-20 16:28:08.0
Despite much research and discussion on the subject of reflow profiling, many questions and a good deal of confusion still exist. What is clear is that the pains often associated with profiling can be reduced if there is a strong understanding of the variables that can be encountered during the reflow process, as well as the metallurgical dynamics of the soldering process. This paper shall provide a brief outline of the reflow profile in general, with specific emphasis placed upon the suggested time spent above the melting temperature of the solder. The guidelines for soldering to various surfaces and with alternative solder alloys also are discussed.
Technical Library | 2009-06-17 18:52:27.0
The increased interest in halogen-free assemblies is a result of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) exerting pressure on electronic equipment manufacturers to eliminate halogens. The NGOs primary focus is on resolving global environmental issues and concerns. As a result of an increase in the enormous "e-waste" dump sites that have begun showing up around the world, NGOs are pushing consumer electronic manufacturers to ban halogen-containing material in order to produce "green" products. Not only are these sites enormous, but the recycling methods are archaic and sometimes even illegal.This stockpiling and dumping has created growing political and environmental issues. In order to deal with this issue, the question of why halogens are a focal point must be addressed.
Technical Library | 2013-04-12 08:20:15.0
There is much to read about the shifting sands of electronics manufacturing, including current moves by OEMs to alter their EMS relationships to better mitigate risk and cost, while EMS companies look for additional ways in which to adjust their business models in an attempt to improve their profitability. Electronics outsourcing over time evolved from a means to buffer manufacturing demand fluctuations into a wide scale shift in capabilities, in part in order to deal with vastly shorter product life cycles. Following the global economic crash of 2000, aka “the internet bubble,” more and more EMS providers responded by transferring their manufacturing to low cost labour regions, and in particular China.
Technical Library | 2013-12-19 16:57:50.0
With the adoption of RoHS and implementation of Lead Free solders a major concern is how this will impact reliability. Both commercial and military hardware are impacted by this change even though military hardware is considered exempt from the requirements of RoHS. As the supply chain has moved to the new lead free alloys both markets are being forced to understand these impacts and form risk mitigation strategies to deal with the change. This paper documents the effect of mixing Leaded and Lead Free alloys on BGA devices and how this impacts reliability. Three of the most common pitch BGA packages are included in the study to determine if the risk is the same as pitches decrease
Technical Library | 2014-10-09 17:51:35.0
Over the last years more and more international newspapers reported in Europe / USA and Japan: "Tunnel train got stuck under the Channel – thousands of people stranded", "Recall of thousands of cars to workshops for control and repair", "Power Failures left households without energy for hours." Very often news like this relate to malfunctions of electric and electronic circuits under adverse conditions or sometimes even in normal operating environment (...) The presentation will deal with all kinds of aspect of cleaning to ensure the reliability of electronic circuitry in ever changing operation conditions in the most important industrial areas.
Technical Library | 2015-02-05 20:25:41.0
In the past 20 yrs the solvent industry has gone through a great deal of change. In the early 1990s, CFC-113 and 1,1,1-trichloroethane were the workhorses of the industry. The Montreal Protocol to phase-out substances that deplete the Earth's protective Ozone Layer was implemented in the mid 1990s. After phase-out of the CFC solvents, the solvent industry fragmented to a variety of cleaning solutions. The electronics industry was a large user of CFC solvents and many of these applications changed to aqueous based cleaners (...) But those alternatives are now facing various problems: e.g. aqueous based cleaners use a lot of energy, require long drying times, use equipment that requires frequent maintenance, and require a large footprint; no-clean fluxes leave flux residues; and trichloroethylene and n-propyl bromide have toxicity issues. In response to these serious issues newer solvents and blends are being introduced in the marketplace
Technical Library | 2016-05-13 11:44:16.0
The process of manufacturing and qualifying IC's consists of many steps while Temperature forcing systems play a crucial role in the final testing process. These environmental tests assure quality and reliability by stressing the device on one hand as well as helping to characterize and validate it on the other hand (making sure manufacturing outcome meets the design requirements). At later stages the temperature testing can support failure analysis effort and root cause analysis. AS common practice we are dealing with few different kinds of temperature forcing systems: Chambers, Thermal Stream systems and Direct Thermal Head systems. In this article I would like to focus on the practical aspects of utilizing Thermal Stream systems and Direct Thermal Head systems.
Technical Library | 2023-11-14 19:33:57.0
Wave soldering is an established technology and is commonly used where large unit volumes occur with low product variety. However, if a wave soldering machine is getting old or if technological changes or new PCB designs limits its manufacturing capabilities, consideration should be given to whether selective soldering would be a better choice. Anyone who deals with soldering through-hole and surface mount mixed-technology printed circuit assemblies will quickly discover that a selective soldering machine is not only less expensive that wave soldering, but selective soldering also offers the opportunity to meet customer requirements with significantly more flexibility. One such company is Thomas Preuhs GmbH. Located in Geislingen, Germany, Thomas Preuhs GmbH manufactures a variety of electronic assemblies for solar and HVAC data systems, automotive and white goods products as well as electric drive systems.
Technical Library | 2011-10-06 13:59:04.0
The desire to have more functionality into increasingly smaller size end products has been pushing the PCB and IC Packaging industry towards High Density Interconnect (HDI) and 3D Packaging (stacked dies, embedded packaged components). Many companies in the high-end consumer electronics market place have been embedding passive chip components on inner PCB and IC Packages for a few years now. However, embedding packaged components on inner layers has remained elusive for the broader market due to lack of proper design tools and high cost of embedding components on inner layers (...) This paper will highlight several key industrialization aspects addressed in the frame of the European funded FP7 HERMES* project to build a manufacturing environment for products with embedded components. The program entered its third year and is now dealing with the manufacturing of functional demonstrators as an introduction to industrialization.
Technical Library | 2019-05-02 13:47:39.0
Automating electronics assembly is complex because many devices are not manufactured on a scale that justifies the cost of setting up robotic systems, which need frequent readjustments as models change. Moreover, robots are only appropriate for a limited part of assembly because small, intricate devices are particularly difficult for them to assemble. Therefore, assembly line designers must minimize operational and readjustment costs by determining the optimal assignment of tasks and resources for workstations. Several research studies address task assignment issues, most of them dealing with robot costs as fixed amount, ignoring operational costs. In real factories, the cost of human resources is constant, whereas robot costs increase with uptime. Thus, human workload must be as large and robot workload as small as possible for the given number of humans and robots. We propose a new task assignment method that establishes a workload balancing that meet precedence and further constraints.
