Dr. Mike Bixenman to Present during the Technical Conference at APEX

KYZEN is pleased to announce that Dr. Mike Bixenman will present two papers at the upcoming IPC APEX EXPO at the San Diego Convention Center. “Electrochemical Methods to Measure the Corrosion Potential of Flux Residues” will be presented during Session S04 on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017 from 1:30-3 p.m. The paper was co-authored by David Lober and Anna Ailworth, KYZEN, and Bruno Tolla, Ph.D., Jennifer Allen, Denis Jean and Kyle Loomis from Kester Corporation. The paper entitled, “Does Cleaning the PCB before Conformal Coating Add Value?” will be presented during Session S20 on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 from 1:30-3 p.m. The paper was co-authored by Mark McMeen and Jason Tynes, STI Electronics, and Gustavo Arredondo, ParaTech Coating.

A recent research study of both flux activator systems and cleaning under bottom terminated components found that different no-clean flux packages have chemical properties that induce failure at different rates. The study also found that residues that were not fully cleaned under leadless components could be a reliability risk. Electrochemical methods (EIS) provide insight into the corrosion potential of a residue, in this case, flux residue. Electrochemical methods have not been commonly used for assessing corrosion potential on electronic devices. The purpose of the “Electrochemical Methods to Measure the Corrosion Potential of Flux Residues” research study is to run electrochemical methods on the four flux systems used in the SIR study to determine if EIS data findings have commonality on the SIR data findings.

The purpose of “Does Cleaning the PCB before Conformal Coating Add Value?” is to research the value of cleaning under bottom terminated components before conformal coating. A QFN surface insulation resistance test vehicle, with sensors placed under the component termination will be used for this research. The designed experiment will study both cleaning and non-cleaning before poly-para-xylene coating. These response variables will be measured by: 1) Visual Inspection of Post Soldering Residues, 2) Site Specific Ion Chromatography, and 3) Surface Insulation Resistance using the IPC TM650 2.6.3.7 test method.

Dr. Mike Bixenman, CTO of KYZEN, has more than 20 years of experience in the design of electronic assembly cleaning materials and process integration. He was the chair of the 2008 IPC/SMTA Cleaning Symposium and is the current chair of the IPC Cleaning Handbook Task Group. Dr. Bixenman holds four earned degrees including a Doctorate in Business Administration.