Aug 18, 2011 
For an industry that is constantly advancing, the technical conference at IPC Midwest Conference & Exhibition on September 21-22, in Schaumburg, Ill., will feature five sessions offering the latest research, methodologies and insights from industry experts to address critical challenges of manufacturing defect-free, quality electronics.
To help engineers meet increasingly stringent performance requirements, the session, “Test and Measurement Solutions,” will spotlight research from Robisan Laboratory, Foresite, Agilent Technologies, Kyzen, IEC Electronics and Precision Analytical Laboratory that addresses issues from nanotechnology-based measurements for evaluating roughness of copper conductors on printed boards to evaluations of the combination of materials and processes for determining surface insulation resistance and electrochemical migration performance. In addition, Trace Laboratories will review a means to develop a counterfeit inspection procedure for incoming materials.
In “Minimizing Defects in Assembly Processing,” experts from DfR Solutions, Research In Motion Ltd., and IPC will guide participants through critical issues that influence defect levels in assembly processing, including the utilization of design for reliability (DFR) concepts to eliminate common mistakes at the design level. Also, the latest work from the IPC Solder Products Value Council (SPVC) and a new industry standard addressing visual examination and cross-sectioning for the evaluation of underfills will be discussed.
Improving printed board functionality and minimizing space through the use of both embedded and bottom termination components have received increased industry focus, but each comes with its own set of implementation challenges. To address these challenges, presentations from Solberg Technical Consulting, Indium and Ray Prasad Consultancy will be featured in, “Bottom Termination and Embedded Component Challenges.“ In addition, the session will cover the difficulties of achieving good yields due to package and printed board planarity issues that bottom termination components pose (with their absence of solder balls), as well as voiding, resulting from the outgassing of solder paste flux in proximity to thermal pads.
In “Lead-Free Solder Alloys and Thermal Cycling Performance,“ experts from Indium, Rockwell Collins, Christopher Associates and Cobar Europe B.V. will address the minute changes in alloy content that can improve drop shock and thermal cycle reliability of low-silver alloys. Participants will also be privy to two revealing studies: an investigation of a solder joint integrity assessment of tin/bismuth component surface finishes in both tin-lead and lead-free free soldering processes under thermal cycling conditions, and a ten-year study of the consistency of alloys in wave soldering processes, including contamination and copper leaching.
New research from Continental Automotive Systems, DfR Solutions and Christopher Associates will highlight the last session on September 22, “Assembly Materials and Component Reliability Testing.” This session will provide test data on a number of programs, including a comparison of solder spread results for multiple printed board surface finishes using various lead-free solder pastes; a methodology for predicting the reliability of complex ICs, such as FPGAS, ADCs and memory; and a report of performance results for a new plasma polymer printed board surface finish, including storage robustness, corrosion resistance and solderability.
Complete information on the technical sessions at IPC Midwest is available at www.IPCMidwestShow.org/conference. Attendees who register by August 19 can take 20 percent off their registration fees. Other special registration packages and options, including free exhibit hall registration, may be viewed at www.IPCMidwestShow.org/Register.
IPC (www.IPC.org) is a global trade association based in Bannockburn, Ill., dedicated to the competitive excellence and financial success of its 3,000 member companies which represent all facets of the electronics industry, including design, printed board manufacturing, electronics assembly and test. As a member-driven organization and leading source for industry standards, training, market research and public policy advocacy, IPC supports programs to meet the needs of an estimated $1.85 trillion global electronics industry. IPC maintains additional offices in Taos, N.M.; Arlington, Va.; Stockholm, Sweden; Moscow, Russia; Bangalore, India; and Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing, China.
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