Technical Library | 2020-07-29 20:12:52.0
Aluminum is a metal that it is hard to solder due to the high surface tension difference between it and molten solder alloy. This occurs because aluminum rapidly forms a tenacious oxide layer whenever it is exposed to oxygen in the air. The oxide layer is responsible for the high surface tension difference between the aluminum and the solder and impedes the solder from spreading evenly on an aluminum surface. There are hundreds of aluminum alloys available in the marketplace; it is important to identify the form of aluminum that is being soldered. Once this is done, an appropriate soldering technique can be chosen for soldering the specific aluminum alloy under consideration. Direct aluminum soldering eliminates using expensive plating techniques to prepare the aluminum surface for soldering.
Technical Library | 2013-07-18 12:12:40.0
Lead-free nanosolders have shown promise in nanowire and nanoelectronics assembly. Among various important parameters, melting is the most fundamental property affecting the assembly process. Here we report that the melting behavior of tin and tin/silver nanowires and nanorods can be significantly affected by the surface oxide of nanosolders.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Massachusetts
Technical Library | 2021-12-29 19:52:50.0
Medtronic seeks to quantify the thermal aging limits of electroless Ni-electroless Pd-immersion Au (ENEPIG) surface finishes to determine how aggressive the silicon burn-in process can be without loss of solderability. Silicon burn-in (power testing at elevated temperature) is used to eliminate early field failures, critical for device reliability. Thermal aging due to burn-in or annealing causes Ni and Pd diffusion to and oxidation on the surface. Surface oxides limit wetting of the PbSn solder, affecting electrical connectivity of components soldered afterburn-in. Isothermal aging of two ENEPIG surface finishes was performed at 75°C-150°C for 100 hrs-1500hrs to test the thermal aging limits and identify how loss of solderability occurs.
Technical Library | 2007-07-19 15:15:11.0
ROSA is a surface restoration technique that removes hard to reduce species like metal oxides or sulfides. At the time of its development, the focus was on solderability and compliance to environmental regulations. Industry trends and regulatory changes as a result of the Montreal Protocol were the driver for much of the concern over environmental compliance. The result was an increase in the development of no-clean and water soluble fluxes and the removal of halogenated cleaning chemistries.
Technical Library | 2019-07-02 23:02:05.0
The introduction of lead-free solders resulted in a selection of different chemistries for solder pastes. The higher melting points of lead-free alloys required thermal heat resistant rosin systems and activators that are active at elevated temperatures. As a result, more frequent maintenance of the filtration systems is required and machine downtime is increased.Last year a different method of cleaning reflow ovens was introduced. Instead of cooling down the process gasses to condensate the residues, a catalyst was used to maintain the clean oven. Catalytic thermal oxidation of residues in the nitrogen atmosphere resulted in cleaner heating zones. The residues were transformed into carbon dioxide. This remaining small amount of char was collected in the catalyst. In air ovens the catalyst was not seen as a beneficial option because the air extracted out of the oven was immediately exhausted into the environment. When a catalyst is used in an air environment there is not only the carbon dioxide residues, but also water. When a catalyst is used in an air reflow oven the question is where the water is going to. Will it condensate in the process part of the oven or is the gas temperature high enough to keep it out of the process area? A major benefit of using a catalyst to clean the air before it is exhausted into the environment is that the air pollution is reduced dramatically. This will make environmental engineers happy and result in less pollution of our nature. Apart from this, the exhaust tubes remain clean which reduces the maintenance of air ovens.This paper will give more detailed information of catalyst systems during development and performance in production lines.
Technical Library | 2017-02-28 12:39:50.0
During the last 5 years mobile phones and other portable consumer electronics have been extremely popular and spread all over the world in different climate zones in very high volumes. At the same time the mobile phone terminal for many people has become a necessity that is brought with them in any activity they practice. These changes in user behavior have heavily changed the impact on handheld terminals from moisture, sweat, corrosive atmospheres and mechanical drop. As a result of this the requirement to solder joint reliability, corrosion stability and wear resistance are heavily increasing to keep a high reliability of the terminal.Immersion Ni/Au has been the overall dominant surface finish on Printed Wiring Boards (PWB's) for the last 10 years, but a paradigm shift to avoid use of this thin and porous surface finish is ongoing nowadays because it can’t address these challenges in a satisfactory way.In today's handheld terminals, Organic Solder Preservative (OSP) has replaced Immersion Ni/Au on solder pads. Carbon surface finish for Key- and spring contact-pads, combined with the right concept design can make use of Immersion Ni/Au unnecessary in the near future. The result will be higher reliability with less expensive and simpler processes.This paper will discuss the various considerations for choice of surface finish and results from the feasibility studies performed.
Technical Library | 2019-02-20 16:35:24.0
The High Density Packaging (HDP) User Group has completed a project evaluating the high frequency loss impacts of a variety of imaged core surface treatments (bond enhancement treatments, including chemical bonding and newer low etch alternative oxides) applied just prior to press lamination. Initial high frequency Dk/Df electrical test results did not show a strong correlation with any of the methods utilized within this project to measured surface roughness. The more significant factor affecting the measured loss is the choice of pre-lamination surface treatment. Most of the new chemical treatment systems outperform the older existing systems which depend upon surface roughness techniques to promote adhesion.
Technical Library | 2014-07-31 16:36:59.0
Metal whiskers often grow across leads of electric equipment and electronic package causing current leakage or short circuits and raising significant reliability issues. The nature of metal whiskers remains a mystery after several decades of research. Here, the existence of metal whiskers is attributed to the energy gain due to electrostatic polarization of metal filaments in the electric field. The field is induced by surface imperfections: contaminations, oxide states, grain boundaries, etc. A proposed theory provides closed form expressions and quantitative estimates for the whisker nucleation and growth rates, explains the range of whisker parameters and effects of external biasing, and predicts statistical distribution of their lengths.
Technical Library | 2018-05-23 12:12:43.0
Driven by miniaturization, cost reduction and tighter requirements for electrical and thermal performance, the use of lead-frame based bottom-termination components (LF-BTC) as small-outline no-leads (SON), quad-flat no leads (QFN) packages etc., is increasing. However, a major distractor for the use of such packages in high-reliability applications has been the lack of a visible solder (toe) fillet on the edge surface of the pins: because the post-package assembly singulation process typically leaves bare copper leadframe at the singulation edge, which is not protected against oxidation and thus does not easily solder-wet, a solder fillet (toe fillet) does not generally develop.
Technical Library | 2014-06-23 14:50:52.0
It was unusual to see chip terminations change colors when tin lead solders were used but with the introduction of lead free reflow soldering and the corresponding increases in reflow temperatures terminations are now changing colors. Two conditions are present when reflow temperatures are increased for lead free solder alloys that leads to discoloration. Reflow temperatures are above the melting point of tin (Sn MP is 232oC). Air temperatures commonly used in forced convection reflow systems are high enough to both melt the tin plating on the termination allowing it to be pulled into the solder joint due to solder joint liquid solder surface tension leaving behind the exposed nickel barrier. Now those metal oxide colors will be visible due to high air temperatures during reflow.
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