Technical Library | 2010-08-26 21:06:17.0
Driven by high-profile regulations compliance like the TREAD Act, warranty management has become a hot topic across industries worldwide. Recalls are costly and time-consuming events that should be avoided entirely. But without adequate process traceability and product genealogy, too many customers will get defective products and too many products will be recalled for repair or replacement even though they are not defective. Both scenarios have enormous implications for the quality-conscious manufacturer that gets rated on the number of recalls it performs - not to mention the enormous direct costs. The core issue is visibility into product quality.
Technical Library | 2008-05-14 15:44:58.0
This paper will review some basic past and present flux chemistries that affect flux collection methodology. It will also review some of the most common flux collection methods, self-cleaning techniques, and maintenance goals. And, finally, data will be presented from high volume production testing of an advanced flux management system.
Technical Library | 2022-12-23 20:44:54.0
One of the upcoming reliability issues which is related to the lead-free solder introduction, are the headin-pillow solderability problems, mainly for BGA packages. These problems are due to excessive package warpage at reflow temperature. Both convex and concave warpage at reflow temperature can lead to the head-in-pillow problem where the solder paste and solder ball are in mechanical contact but not forming one uniform joint. With the thermo-Moiré profile measurements, this paper explains for two flex BGA packages the head-in-pillow. Both local and global height differences higher than 100 µm have been measured at solder reflow temperature. This can be sufficient to have no contact between the molten solder ball and solder paste. Finally, the impact of package drying is measured
Technical Library | 2014-03-06 19:04:07.0
Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the rate of Head-in-Pillow component soldering defects which interrupts the merger of the BGA/CSP component solder spheres with the molten solder paste during reflow. The issue has occurred across a broad segment of industries including consumer, telecom and military. There are many reasons for this issue such as warpage issues of the component or board, ball co-planarity issues for BGA/CSP components and non-wetting of the component based on contamination or excessive oxidation of the component coating. The issue has been found to occur not only on lead-free soldered assemblies where the increased soldering temperatures may give rise to increase component/board warpage but also on tin-lead soldered assemblies.
Technical Library | 2016-09-12 10:16:04.0
It is hard to open an Industry newsletter or visit an equipment manufacturer’s website without coming across a mention of the Internet of Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, SMART Manufacturing or ‘big data’. The accessibility to obtain data will only increase and this information and its real-time processing will become one of the most important resources for companies in the future. Production machinery will no longer simply processes the product, but the product will communicate with the machinery to tell it exactly what to do. Industry 4.0 has the vision to connects embedded system technologies and SMART production processes to drastically transform industry and production giving way to the SMART factory development. Future development in oven technology will allow machines to be controlled more intelligently and remotely resulting in the lowest cost model for manufacturing flow.
Technical Library | 2023-11-20 18:49:11.0
Non-destructive testing during the manufacture of printed wiring boards (PWBs) has become ever more important for checking product quality without compromising productivity. Using x-ray inspection, not only provides a non-destructive test but also allows investigation within optically hidden areas, such as the quality of post solder reflow of area array devices (e.g. BGAs, CSPs and flip chips). As the size of components continues to diminish, today's x-ray inspection systems must provide increased magnification, as well as better quality x-ray images to provide the necessary analytical information. This has led to a number of x-ray manufacturers offering digital x-ray inspection systems, either as standard or as an option, to satisfy these needs. This paper will review the capabilities that these digital x-ray systems offer compared to their analogue counterparts. There is also a discussion of the various types of digital x-ray systems that are available and how the use of different digital detectors influences the operational capabilities that such systems provide.
Technical Library | 2013-01-24 19:16:35.0
The electronics industry has mainly adopted the higher melting point Sn3Ag0.5Cu solder alloys for lead-free reflow soldering applications. For applications where temperature sensitive components and boards are used this has created a need to develop low melting point lead-free alloy solder pastes. Tin-bismuth and tin-bismuth-silver containing alloys were used to address the temperature issue with development done on Sn58Bi, Sn57.6Bi0.4Ag, Sn57Bi1Ag lead-free solder alloy pastes. Investigations included paste printing studies, reflow and wetting analysis on different substrates and board surface finishes and head-in-pillow paste performance in addition to paste-in-hole reflow tests. Voiding was also investigated on tin-bismuth and tin-bismuth-silver versus Sn3Ag0.5Cu soldered QFN/MLF/BTC components. Mechanical bond strength testing was also done comparing Sn58Bi, Sn37Pb and Sn3Ag0.5Cu soldered components. The results of the work are reported.
Technical Library | 2023-05-02 19:06:43.0
As 0402 has become a common package for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, research and development on mounting 0201 components is emerging as an important topic in the field of surface mount technology for PWB miniaturization. In this study, a test vehicle for 0201 packages was designed to investigate board design and assembly issues. Design of Experiment (DOE) was utilized, using the test vehicle, to explore the influence of key parameters in pad design, printing, pick-andplace, and reflow on the assembly process. These key parameters include printing parameters, mounting height or placement pressure, reflow ramping rate, soak time and peak temperature. The pad designs consist of rectangular pad shape, round pad shape and home-based pad shape. For each pad design, several different aperture openings on the stencil were included. The performance parameters from this experiment include solder paste height, solder paste volume and the number of post-reflow defects. By analyzing the DOE results, optimized pad designs and assembly process parameters were determined.
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 | 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
