Circuits Assembly - April 2006

Transcription

Welcome to the April 2006 digital edition of Circuits Assembly.
Click here to view this issue.
On the Forefront: What’s Up, Doc?, p. 18
APRIL 2006
circuitsassembly.com
LEAD-FREE WATCH
3 months
Countdown to July 1, 2006
Building Boards,
Atom by Atom
How nanotechnology may change
electronics manufacturing
Reducing Oven
Energy Use
Building a
Pb-Free Product:
A Case Study
Optimizing
Screen Printing
Mark Evans, 2005
On the Forefront: What’s Up, Doc?, p. 18
APRIL 2006
LEAD-FREE WATCH
3 months
Countdown to July 1, 2006
Building Boards,
Atom by Atom
How nanotechnology may change
electronics manufacturing
APRIL 2006 – Vol. 17 No. 4
Reducing Oven
Energy Use
Building a
Pb-Free Product:
A Case Study
FIRST PERSON
4 Caveat Lector
Optimizing
Screen Printing
ON THE COVER: Even as
technology pushes to the atomic level,
there is room for conventional
manufacturing practices.
Civics lesson.
Mike Buetow
14 Talking Heads
FEATURES
Fabrinet’s Mark Schwartz.
Mike Buetow
MONEY MATTERS
16 Global Sourcing
Thermal Profiling
24
A case study of how improved thermal profiling and process optimization tools reduce energy use.
Business software to get you moving.
David Wolff
TECH TALK
18 On the Forefront
What’s up, Doc?
E. Jan Vardaman
Piotr Kaênica
Cover Story
26
creative solutions to current dilemmas (including Pb-free soldering).
Dr. Alan Rae
Optimizing a process that you don’t own.
Joe Belmonte
Feeling used.
Phil Zarrow
How Nanotechnology Applies to Electronics
Manipulating atoms won’t obsolete assembly, but instead opens a window into fascinating and
20 Screen Printing
22 Better Manufacturing
The Effect of an Optimized Reflow Oven
Recipe on Energy Use
Parts Conversion
32
36 Soldering Tips
Conversion of Ongoing Products to RoHS
Compliance
A look at the materials and components aspects of the transition shows the magnitude of the
Tin whisker mitigation standards.
American Competitiveness Institute
task. Plus: examples of what worked – and what didn’t.
Gary Schulte
38 Wave Soldering
Preventing micro solderballs.
Gerjan Diepstraten
40 Test and Inspection
Design solutions that aid defect detection.
Tamara Pippert
41 Countdown to Pb-Free
The material declaration standard has arrived.
Richard E. Kubin
Pb-Free Case Study
34
The Creation and Building of a Pb-Free
Product
A case study in designing and building Pb-free 128Mb USB memory modules.
Srinivasa Aravamudhan, Joe Belmonte, Anand Bhosale, Alden Johnson, Pat Mattero,
Karl Moore and Dr. Gerald Pham-Van-Diep
44 Process Doctor
Diagnosis: WOA residues.
Terry Munson
45 Equipment Advances
Transition Automation’s self-cleaning
squeegee.
48 Technical Abstracts
DEPARTMENTS
6 Industry News
12 Market Watch
33 Assembly Insider
46 Nepcon East Product Preview
46 Ad Index
It’s time to get the lead out!
Make RoHS compliance an inherent part of your design process.
The RoHS deadline is approaching—will you be ready?
As the RoHS deadline looms, companies that have not begun the
process of becoming RoHS compliant are behind the curve. The
European deadline is July 1, 2006, and other countries follow soon
thereafter. Component manufacturers are already discontinuing
noncompliant parts, and every electronic product is impacted.
Lead-free conversion must begin now!
It’s more than a manufacturing problem
Conventional thinking suggests that you can solve the problem in
manufacturing. There are certainly significant manufacturing issues,
but simply replacing parts with lead-free equivalents creates new
issues. Not all replacement parts are compatible. Not all parts have
lead-free replacements. Late changes are costly and risky. The
consequences? Unpredictability. Recurring hidden costs. Wasted
manufacturing time. Delayed schedules. Lost market opportunities.
©2005 EMA Design Automation, Inc. All rights reserved in the U.S. and other countries.
EMA Design Automation, the EMA logo, and "Lead-Free by Design" are trademarks of EMA
Design Automation. Cadence and the Cadence logo are registered trademarks of Cadence
Design Systems, Inc.
Lead-Free by Design™
EMA offers a unique approach. We call it “Lead-Free by Design.”
This design methodology incorporates a database containing all
component data, including RoHS information, into the schematic
design tool, allowing an engineer to see part information and RoHS
compliance data while selecting parts. Using this design process, an
engineer can guarantee that parts used in the design are compliant.
We've put together the best tools and the most comprehensive
RoHS hazardous material content, so your engineering team can
make RoHS an inherent part of the design process. We can help you
change compliance issues from a time-consuming, complex, costly
problem to a one-time, manageable cost.
A Front-to-back, content-based solution
We’ve helped many companies with their RoHS compliance
challenges, and we can help your company too. Call us today at
800.813.7288. Or visit us on the Web at www.leadfreebydesign.com.
Editorial Office
Circuits Assembly
2400 Lake Park Drive, Ste. 440,
Smyrna, GA 30080
678-589-8800
Editor-in-Chief: Mike Buetow
(617) 327-4702, [email protected]
Associate Editor: Robin Norvell
Production Manager/Managing Editor:
Javier Longoria
Director of Audience Development: Jennifer Schuler
Marketing Manager: Ronda Faries
Exhibit Sales Manager: Brooke Anglin
Publisher: Pete Waddell
National Sales Manager: Susan Jones
Sales Associate: Kamden Robb
Asia (Except Korea): Jan Vardaman,
Tech Search International
Korea: Young Media
82 2 756 4819, [email protected]
Circulation Inquiries:
email: [email protected]
fax: (918) 496-9465
Reprints:
Electronic: [email protected]
Print: Joe Basil, FosteReprints
866-879-9144 ext. 135; fax: 219-561-2031
[email protected]
All reprints prior to March 2002: Karen Jacobs
516-562-7030; 800-682-4972 ext. 7030
[email protected]
List Rental:
Rubin Response; (847) 619-9800; fax: (847) 619-0149
Editorial Advisory Board:
John D. Borneman, Delphi Delco Electronics
Rich Breault, Lightspeed Manufacturing
Sue Mucha, Powell-Mucha Consulting
Chrys Shea, Cookson Electronics
UP Media Group, Inc.
President: Pete Waddell
PCB Show Group: (678) 589-8800
Subscription Policy
Circuits Assembly (ISSN 1054-0407/GST124513185/Agreement #1419676) is distributed without charge to
qualified subscribers. To all others in the USA and Canada: US$80 per year. Other countries: US$145 per year (air
service included, payment required in advance). Single copies US$8.50. Send requests for qualification forms
and changes of address (include old label) to: CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, P.O. Box 35646, Tulsa, OK
74153-0646, email: [email protected], fax (918) 496-9465. Periodicals postage
paid at Atlanta, GA 30339 and additional mailing offices.
Reproduction of text and illustrations is not allowed without express written permission. Authorization
to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by UP Media Group, Inc. for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center
(CCC) Transactional Reporting Service, provided that the base fee of $2.00 per copy, plus $0.25 per page
is paid directly to CCC, 21 Congress St., Salem, MA 01970. 0009-7306/86, $2.00 + $0.25. 16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm, 105mm microfiche and article and issue photocopies are available from University
Microfilms International, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106 (313) 761-4700. Canadian GST Permit
124513185.
Opinions expressed by authors are not necessarily those of the publisher, and this publication can
accept no responsibility in connection with any liability that might develop as a result of articles published.
Circuits Assembly is published monthly by UP Media Group, Inc., 2018 Powers Ferry Road, Suite 600,
Atlanta, GA 30339. POSTMASTER: Please send changes of address to CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY, P.O. Box 35646,
Tulsa, OK 74153-0646.
Circuits Assembly APRIL 2006
3
Caveat
Lector
Finger Pointing
o now China’s heavy-handed approach to human
rights is the tech industry’s fault.
For those who have better things to do than follow
C-SPAN all day, here are the accusations Congress is leveling at our industry (courtesy of the Associated Press):
S
WASHINGTON – Halfway through an extraordinary congressional hearing
Wednesday about the role of U.S. high-tech giants in censoring the Internet in
China, Rep. Tom Lantos tried to cut through all the legalese.
Executives from Google, Yahoo, Cisco Systems and Microsoft
had defended their actions as the unfortunate price of entry
into the world’s largest market, while several lawmakers
castigated them as collaborators with a repressive regime.
Raising the specter of corporate cooperation with Nazi Germany, Lantos, D-San Mateo, the only Holocaust survivor in
Congress, asked in his deep Hungarian accent: “Can you say
in English that you are ashamed of what you and your company and the other companies have done?'’
Later, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
announced legislation that would create a
code of conduct for companies operating in
China and call for a U.S. corporate and government push for “global Internet freedom.” Said the lawmaker in an interview after the hearing: “Whether it’s
witting or unwitting, once you find out that you’ve been
complicit with a dictatorship – you’ve got to reform what
you’re doing.” He added, “I hope they take some of that
back and start really robust discussions in their own
boardrooms because this is very serious stuff.”
Give us a break. This is the same body that writes and
passes the laws. The same body that has done little to
nothing to press China to live up to its obligations under
the WTO. The same body that has repeatedly ignored
Tech’s calls for China currency reform. And now that
China is exercising its sovereign (if abhorrent) rights,
Congress bellyaches that this is somehow Tech’s fault?
Hello kettle, you’re looking mighty black today.
Unfortunately, those hearings were not the only
shenanigans playing out in Washington of late. In
December in our weekly digital newsletter, PCB UPdate,
I congratulated Congress for having at long last taken the
initiative to properly fund domestic technology research.
In that editorial, I noted that The National Innovation
Act of 2005 would nearly double the National Science
Foundation’s research funding from 2007 through 2011.
In retrospect, I should have waited to start handing
out the cigars. A similar plan, this one put forth by President Bush and called the American Competitiveness Initiative, hits on most of the same topics. Like the National
Innovation Act, it calls for doubling the federal basic
research budgets (although over 10 years). But rather
4
than seeking wholly new funds for the initiative, Bush
proposes paying for the ACI via a permanent R&D corporate tax credit. (The previous credit expired last year.)
Some $50 billion of the $136 billion the ACI is budgeted
to cost over 10 years would come from a tax credit, not
new funding. In my book, that’s a tad bit deceptive.
Worse, the ACI allocates $1.3 billion for research
and teacher-training spending in fiscal 2007. That’s
actually $1.2 billion less than the cuts made to the
higher-education student-loan subsidies that were
approved in January as part of a fiscal 2006 budget reconciliation measure. As those of us whose family members hold student loans can attest, the lack of robust
federal funding is a huge disincentive to graduate-level
studies. To be sure, that’s money that gets paid back.
But from my perspective, the government is a much
easier lender to deal with than private firms, and offers
borrowers generous terms to ease the risk of loan
defaults. If the role of government is to protect its citizens, organize basic services and ensure educational
opportunities, Washington needs a refresher course.
Return of the turnkeys. Are we seeing a return of the
turnkey equipment supplier? For those lucky few who
walked the floor at Apex in February, it sure seemed so.
The latest entry onto North America turf – and perhaps the most prominent at the show – was Samsung
Techwin, whose familiar placement solutions have been
extended to dual-camera screen printers and 10-zone
reflow ovens. The company has installed 700 to 800 of
each worldwide.
At Essemtec, if you want it, you got it. The Swiss
company makes printers, dispensers, pick-and-place
machines, reflow ovens, wave soldering baths, even
board handlers, all available in standalone or integrated
configurations.
Several other companies are extending their reach.
Sony Manufacturing Systems, equipment arm of the
consumer electronics giant, sells small-sized placement
machines and printers for mid-sized and large format
boards. While primarily focused on Mexico, it continues
to keep its eye on the U.S. market. And although it did
not bring it to the show, placement OEM Mydata now
has a solder printer. Now all we need is for Dover to
bundle its equipment groups. Don’t get your hopes up,
though: Universal Instruments president Jeroen
Schmits quickly and emphatically dispelled that idea.
Mike Buetow, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
CSP
SMT
PROBLEM:
Voiding:
• Via-in-pad Voiding
• CSP Printing
SOLVED:
Indium5.1 Series
No-Clean Pb-Free
Solder Paste
• Brittle
Pb-Free Alloys
• Reduced
Joint Size
SOLVED:
NF260 No-Flow
Underfill:
•
•
•
•
• Low-voiding
• Print Deposit
Repeatability
• Excellent
Response-to-Pause
PROBLEM:
PTH
THERMAL
PROBLEM:
Cracking:
Overheating:
• Increased Power
• Decreased
Package Size
Air Reflow
High-strength
Low-voiding
Reworkable
PROBLEM:
Incomplete
Barrel Fill:
• Reduced Wetting
Ability Using
Pb-Free Alloys
• Insufficient
Solder Volume
SOLVED:
Wave Solder
Products:
SOLVED:
Solder TIM for
heat dissipation:
• WF7742 Wave Flux
• Flux-Coated SAC
Preforms
• Pin-In-Paste+ with
0603 Preforms
• Compliant Alloys
Problem? Solved: Contact [email protected] or visit www.indium/0204
S O L D E R
NEPCON Shanghai, Booth 2D35
Industry
NEWS
EMS Firms Continue Buying Ways
In Brief
EMS provider EPIC Technologies
(epictech.com) completed a rapid deployment
of Camstar's (camstar.com) Medical Device
Suite to control production for the electronic
top housing of a new transdermal drug delivery
device. EPIC jointly developed the new processes with a major medical device manufacturer.
DEK’s (dek.com) Shekou, China, manufacturing facility has obtained ISO 9001 quality management system certification, following an
independent assessment by accreditation body
BSI.
Digi-Key (digikey.com) will distribute Taiyo
Yuden’s (yuden.us) line of surface-mount and
leaded passive components.
Aqueous Technologies Corp. (aqueous
tech.com) appointed Kurt Whitlock Assoc. as
its representative in Florida.
Cobar BV (cobar.com) is the latest solder
vendor to use color-coding packaging to distinguish its Pb-bearing from Pb-free materials. Pbfree solder pastes will now be packaged in
green containers.
DesignAdvance Systems (design
advance.com), an EDA and CAD software
developer, has secured $3 million in funding
and has debuted its first product, CircuitSpace.
Partners include Cadence, Mentor and
Valor.
EMS provider Sparton Corp. (sparton.com)
won three contracts worth more than $24 million to manufacture sonobuoys for the U.S.
Navy. Production will take place in Sparton's
DeLeon Springs, FL, facility and is expected to
be completed by June 2007.
Kulicke & Soffa Industries (kns.com) will
sell its wafer test assets to SV Probe
(svprobe.com) and its package test assets to
Investcorp
Technology
Ventures
(investcorp.com), and tighten its focus on semiconductor assembly equipment and materials.
Endicott
Interconnect
(endicott
interconnect.com) and VisiLED (visiled.com)
entered a development and manufacturing
agreement for LED lights for medical offices.
6
Edited by Mike Buetow
Boston – EMS firms are on a first-quarter merger and expansion spree that makes up in quantity
what it lacks in size.
Top tier EMS firm Celestica (celestica.com) in February acquired the Philippines manufacturing operations of Powerwave Technologies, a supplier of wireless infrastructure gear, for $19 million in cash. The
transaction was expected to close in March. The deal includes the facility and a workforce of about 600.
Celestica will continue to supply product to Powerwave (powerwave.com), its customer since 2002.
The site, in Cabuyao Laguna (which is near Manila), produces power amplifiers for use in wireless
infrastructure networks. It was acquired by Powerwave from REMEC in September 2005.
On March 6, Celestica treasurer Paul Nicoletti on Monday suggested to an investor conference that
a large acquisition is possible in the company's future. "I would say right now the opportunities, call
it organic-slash-acquisition, are as high now as they've been over the last couple of years."
In Ottawa, Canada, Fabrinet (fabrinet.com), a top manufacturer of optical components, agreed to
acquire the local operations of JDS Uniphase Corp. The deal covers JDSU’s (jdsu.com) manufacturing
operations in Ottawa, and was expected to be completed by April 1. Fabrinet will close the plant, which
employs 300 and transfer the operations to lower-cost manufacturing locations. Fabrinet operates
plants in Thailand and China.
This is the sixth plant Fabrinet has acquired from JDSU, and according to the company it will be the last
piece of the relocation of operations to Asia. Previously, Fabrinet acquired JDSU plants in Fuzhou, China;
Mountain Lakes, FL; Ewing, NJ; Singapore; and Bintan, Indonesia. (For a related story, see page XXXX.)
Meanwhile, Wistron, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing services firm known for building
Xbox consoles and notebook PCs, is considering building a plant in Eastern Europe, the company’s
chairman said in an interview. Possible sites include the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, chairman Simon Lin said. A decision will be made by the second quarter, he told DigiTimes in mid-February.
By locating in Europe, Wistron (wistron.com) would join other Taiwan-based EMS migrants such as
Foxconn, Asustek, Quanta, Mitac, Inventec and Clevo (Inventec and Quanta have since closed their
Eartern European plants). Other large Asian EMS companies that operate plants in North America
include Foxconn, Beijing Brio of China and IMI of the Philippines.
Wistron, a spinoff from the Acer Group, currently operates two plants in China, plus facilities in the
Philippines and Houston.
And in early February CTS Corp. (ctscorp.com) said it added a Class 10,000 cleanroom and wire
bonding capability at its Moorpark, CA, EMS plant. The addition will permit CTS to process bare die
through complete assembly and test.
Solectron Raising $150M
Cayman Islands – Solectron Corp.’s (solectron.com) financial arm has sold $150 million worth of 8%
notes. The transaction was conducted by Solectron Global Finance Ltd., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Solectron based in the Cayman Islands.
The notes will mature March 15, 2016. Solectron did not immediately disclose what the capital
would be used for.
Malaysia: The Quiet Hot Spot
Kuala Lumpur – Overlooked by the media, but not by investors, Malaysia continues to be a quiet hot
spot for foreign investment in electronics manufacturing.
Outside investors poured $4.9 billion into manufacturing facilites in Malaysia last year, the highest
mark since 2001, according to the nation’s trade ministry. Electrical and electronics products accounts
for half the Southeast Asia nation’s annual exports.
Intel (intel.com) invested $274 million to expand a plant in Kedah state, while Flextronics
(flextronics.com) spent $272 million to expand its EMS facilities in Johor.
Overall, $8.3 billion was spent on manufacturing here last year, up 8%, the International Trade and
Industry said. The agency has set a goal of $6.7 billion in annual investment. By contrast, about $60
billion in annual foreign investment is spent in China each year.
Manufacturing accounts for nearly one-third of the domestic economy and employs 28.4% of the
labor force.
The U.S. was the leading outside investor in Malaysia last year, followed by Japan, Singapore, the
Netherlands and South Korea.
VIROMET®
> 90 Million
PCBs
m ade in service
No Higher Process Temperature Needed
Use Existing Reflow/Wave Temperature
A High-Quality High-Performance Line of Pb-free Solders
9
9
9
9
9
No process change needed
No component change needed
No board change needed
No added process cost
No more worry on heat sensitive
components
9
9
9
9
9
9
Proven Manufacturability
Excellent wetting
Minimal or No voids
No Nitrogen needed
Compatible with: Sn, AuNi, Ag, OSP, etc.
Available in Bar, Paste, Wire, Spheres
Visit: WWW.LeadFreeService.com
Certified ISO 14000, 9001, 9002, 9003
Asahi Technologies America, Inc.
26001 Miles Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44128 USA
E-mail: [email protected], Fax: 216-896-0405
Other Production/Service Facilities:
Singapore, Northern China, Central China, Southern China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
Industry
NEWS
People
CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Launches Blog
Reptron Electronics appointed Chris
O'Brien as VP of sales and marketing. He
has been an executive with Nu Horizons
Electronics, Arrow/Wyle Electronics and
Marshall Industries/Sterling Electronics.
Atlanta – CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY has launched its new Web log featuring up-to-the-minute reports and
commentary on the electronics manufacturing industry.
The Web log (or “blog”) is managed by CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY editor in chief Mike Buetow, and will
feature regular commentary from several leading technologists. Among them: Dr. Brian Toleno of
Henkel, who writes on adhesives and underfills.
The blog is located at http://circuitsassembly.com/blog/.
FocalSpot named David Phillips operations manager and Rolando Asuncion production manger. Phillips previously served at
Nicolet Imaging Systems/SRT, GenRad, Teradyne and SAIC. Asuncion also previously
worked at GenRad/Nicolet and Teradyne.
Tom Seratti joined OK International as
VP of global sales and marketing. He previously ran Marshall Industries/Avnet Production Supply and Test.
EPIC Technologies promoted Todd Baggett
to vice president of business development and
an officer of the company. He was previously
director of business development.
Data I/O Corp. appointed Megan Miller
as director of marketing. Miller served at
Data I/O from 1986 to 1998, and rejoined
the company in 2002 after working for an
enterprise software company.
Henkel promoted Dr.
Gordon Fischer to vice
president of sales, marketing and technical service,
Americas.
Kevin Brennan joined Promation Inc. as
sales manager, PCB Handling Solutions
division.
VJ Electronix hired Robert Kerwin as
worldwide service manager. He joins from
Brooks Automation where he was director of
North American field service.
Cencorp Corp. appointed Timo Hannukainen as vice president, quality and HR.
He has worked in quality management at
Nokia since 1994.
After five years at SMT Resource Group,
Philip Newbury has established a new
company, Ananta Enterprises, that provides
used SMT assembly equipment market.
Orbotech S.A. named Joachim Barthold
VP of sales for Central Europe and customer
support for electronics assembly Europe. He
has been with Orbotech since 1999 and was
managing director of Orbotech's R&D center
for electronics assembly in Germany.
8
SMTA, IPC Cite Best Papers
Minneapolis – Shatil Haque of Lumileds Lighting (Malaysia), Julia Y. Zhao of Analog Devices and Lars
Boettcher of Fraunhofer IZM Berlin took home best paper honors for the SMTA International conference in September 2005.
Michael Freda of Sun Microsystems and Dr. Donald Barker of the University of Maryland; and Dr. Christopher Hunt and Martin Wickham of the National Physical Laboratory won best paper awards for the IPC
Apex show in February. Doug Pauls of Rockwell Collins, and Courtney Slach and Nathan Devore of Iowa
State University; and George Riccitelli and Heather McCormick of Celestica received honorable mentions.
New iNEMI Roadmap to Include Printed Electronics
Herndon, VA – With products using organic or printed electronics coming online in prototypes, the
emerging technology will be highlighted in International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative’s 2007
Roadmap.
The technologies are required to produce flexible electronic media, to print conductive inks resulting
in active components (such as transistors) and to print organic materials onto flexible substrates. This
emerging area of electronics is initially being used for inventory control (e-packaging and e-labeling),
digital paper and signage, displays, and novelty and marketing applications, the trade group
(inemi.org) said. With volume production still some time away, the next roadmap will characterize the
technology and infrastructure requirements to reach that stage.
iNEMI kicked off the roadmap activity in February.
iNEMI said it will broaden efforts to recruit Europe and Asia participants to create a more global picture of electronics manufacturing. iNEMI held a meeting of European representatives at Productronica in November, and has planned workshops in Europe and Asia this spring and summer.
iNEMI is also coordinating with ITRS (International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors) to standardize terms and approaches for forecasting between the two roadmaps. In particular, the two groups
are coordinating to more closely align “design drivers” (ITRS) and “product emulators” (iNEMI).
“With each cycle, we learn from the previous roadmap, improve the process and, in doing so,
improve our end result,” said Chuck Richardson, staff manager of roadmapping for iNEMI. “We also
adapt the roadmap to reflect emerging technologies and industry trends, as we have done with the
addition of the new chapter this year. These changes help us ensure that the roadmap anticipates, and
remains relevant to, changing industry needs.”
For information, go to inemi.org/cms/roadmapping/2007_inemi_roadmap.html.
CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Parent Partners
With netComponents
Atlanta – UP Media Group Inc. (upmediagroup.com) and netCOMPONENTS (netcomponents.com)
will provide a parts search capability on the Websites of Printed Circuit Design & Manufacture
(pcdandm.com) and CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY (circuitsassembly.com).
The UPMG parts search adds valuable content and new capabilities to visitors of the two popular
trade magazines’ sites, and enables netComponents’ suppliers to be included in the search results.
In addition to having access to the inventory positions of included suppliers, Website visitors will be
able to email requests for quotes and purchase orders to included suppliers for any listed parts.
“netComponents is pleased to power the UPMG parts search,” said Nigel Larsen, manager of global
marketing and product maintenance. “This is a great opportunity for netComponents’ suppliers to gain
additional exposure of their inventory, and a great opportunity for UPMG Website visitors to utilize a powerful part search feature with no registration required and without having to leave the UPMG site.”
Industry
NEWS
Jabil Lands FAA Repair Certification
Billerica, MA – Jabil Circuit (jabil.com) in March announced that its facility here has been granted
Federal Aviation Administration repair station certification. This certification permits Jabil to provide
repair and support services on products used in commercial aircraft. In a statement, senior director of
Jabil's defense and aerospace services business unit Dan Lewis, said the certification was customer driven. “Achieving FAA certification is a significant milestone in our aerospace-industry growth strategy.”
According to Lewis, aerospace companies have not historically contracted manufacturing, but that
trend is changing. “Defense and aerospace companies are finding that using a partner such as Jabil
offers many significant advantages in obsolescence control and optimization of total cost of ownership
issues. This allows them to lower their total costs,” he said.
China RoHS Law Available, Starts March 1, 2007
Beijing -- China has issued its version of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive; the Chinese version was promulgated on Feb. 28 and takes effect March 1, 2007.
An copy of the law in English is available at graspllc.com/China%20RoHS.php. However, as the translated document notes, it is not a legal translation, and there is some in the industry have asserted that
the information it contains conflicts with other instructions from Chinese authorities. The Chinese language edition is available at mii.gov.cn/art/2006/03/02/art_521_7344.html.
The definition of interest to those in electronics design and assembly – Electronic Information Products – is contained in Article 3. Labeling requirements are stated in Articles 11, 13 and 14.
One important distinction from the European Union RoHS directive: The China RoHS requires certification (noted in Article 19).
UK RoHS Study Shows Cos. Won't Be Ready
London – A survey conducted by the SMART Group during its annual Lead-Free Seminar in February
found the majority of respondents will either not be ready or are uncertain about meeting requirements by the compliance date. Also, a large number of companies believe they are exempt from the
RoHS Directive. The top challenges to being noncompliant by July 1 were noted as: lack of availability
of Pb-free components, compliance issues, cost of stock to support spares, reliability, moisture sensitive devices, rework and repair.
About 160 attendees came for the technical sessions and exhibits.
During the conference, Abigail Cottrell, a specialist in eco-design and product policy at the U.K.
Department of Trade & Industry, told of an informal network of EU RoHS enforcement bodies to ensure
a uniform EU approach. She advised that by July 1 electronics producers should be certain that selfdeclarations are in line and documentation is up to date. Don’t rely on pending exemptions, she said
.
Study: Cost Not Top Factor in Siting R&D
Kansas City, MO – A study of more than 200 multinational companies across 15 industries found that
intellectual capital and university collaboration – and not just lower costs – are primary attractions for
companies to locate R&D activities in locations abroad.
Also noted: emerging countries such as China and India will continue to be major beneficiaries of R&D
expansion over the next three years as companies seek new market opportunities, access to top scientists and engineers, and collaborative research relationships with leading universities. Companies studied
were mostly headquartered in the U.S. and Western Europe.The study was was conducted by Marie Thursby, Ph.D., of Georgia Tech, and Jerry Thursby, chair of the department of economics at Emory University,
and sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation.
Among the top factors going into new R&D siting decisions in both developed and emerging countries
are market growth potential, quality of R&D talent, collaboration with universities and IP protection.
Among the study's more surprising findings, according to the researchers, was the prevalence university collaboration plays in the decision-making process for locating R&D facilities.
Correction
In the February 2006 issue, page 34, an incorrect unit was provided for force. The correct units
are newtons or pounds. We regret the error.
10
Vitronics Soltec leads
the world in soldering
technology;
we’ve been doing so for nearly
a century. We’re known universally for our expertise in
wave, reflow, and selective
soldering platforms, process
development,
and
freely
sharing helpful knowledge
with our customers and
friends.
Vitronics Soltec soldering
technology makes electronics
manufacturing more efficient,
more productive, and more
competitive in facilities on
every continent and in every
language. That’s the global
vision and achievement of
Vitronics Soltec.
the Netherlands • USA • Germany
Singapore • Malaysia • Korea • China
www.vitronics-soltec.com
Market
WATCH
Militarily Speaking
Trends in the U.S. electronics equipment market (shipments only).
---------------------------- % Change ---------------------------Jan.*
YTD %
Nov.
Dec.r
Computers and electronics products
0.6
2.6
-1.6
2.2
Computers
3.4
0.2
-4.8
2.0
Storage devices
3.1
20.5
-3.4
-1.4
Other peripheral equipment
-2.7
4.9
-2.8
-13.4
Nondefense communications equipment
-5.5
5.8
4.4
14.2
Defense communications equipment
8.7
8.0
42.6
86.3
A/V equipment
3.3
8.5
-2.7
3.9
Semiconductors
5.1
4.1
-7.8
-7.8
-1.8
1.5
0.3
7.4
6.9
-2.5
2.1
1.3
-4.5
-2.1
2.3
1.4
0.4
0.0
-1.7
1.2
Components1
Nondefense search and navigation equipment
Defense search and navigation equipment
Medical, measurement and control
rRevised.
*Preliminary. 1Includes semiconductors. Seasonally adjusted. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Census Bureau, March 6, 2006
Key Manufacturing Index Looking Good
Tempe, AZ – The PMI index of U.S. manufacturing rose in February as the sector grew for the 33rd
straight month. The February PMI rose 1.9 points to 56.7%, according to the latest Institute for Supply Management (ism.ws) poll. A score over 50% shows expansion.
The February PMI indicates
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb.
that both the overall economy
PMI
59.1
58.1
55.6
54.8
56.7
and the manufacturing sector
New orders
61.7
59.1
55.5
58.0
61.9
are growing, ISM said. Chairman
Production
62.0
60.6
57.8
56.6
57.4
Nobert Ore said, “The manufacInventories
48.1
49.3
47.2
46.5
49.5
turing sector gained momentum
Customer inventories
41.0
43.5
48.0
46.0
48.5
in February as the New Orders,
Backlogs
55.5
53.0
49.5
53.5
54.5
Production, Employment and
Source: Institute for Supply Management, March 2006
Inventories indexes contributed
to a faster rate of growth in the
PMI. On the downside, the Supplier Deliveries Index slowed offsetting a portion of the overall improvement. Prices, driven by volatility in energy markets, continue to be a major source of concern for survey
respondents.”
New orders shot up for the second straight month, rising 3.9 points to 61.9%, while production rose
for the second month in a row. Backlogs grew. Inventories at manufacturers and customers increased.
Employment rose 3.7 points, to 55.0%.
The categories of electronic components and equipment, and industrial and commercial equipment
and computers both reported growth during the month.
The February PMI corresponds to a 5.1% increase in real annualized GDP.
Industry Market Snapshot
Book-to-bills of various components/equipment.
Semiconductor equipment1
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
0.90
0.95
0.93
0.96
0.97
Semiconductors2
5.2%
6.75%
7.2%
6.8%
7.0%
Rigid PCBs3 (North America)
1.07
1.14
1.12
1.09
1.09
Flexible PCBs3 (North America)
1.52
1.10
1.16
0.95
1.30
ATE Gear Sales
Improving
Palo Alto, CA – Makers of automatic
test equipment for PCBs are likely to
obtain a major share of their revenues
from functional testing and the boundary
scan segment in the next five years. Frost
& Sullivan (frost.com) in February projected ATE sales would reach $1.55 billion in
2011, up from $970.1 million in 2004, a
60% increase over that span.
Safety and standards set by the automotive industry are likely to drive the
functional test market as more revenues
are also likely to come from the cheaper
and reusable options that boundary scan
offers, Frost said.
A large portion of manufacturing facilities are being moved to the Pacific (especially China) and Eastern Europe, even as
North American and European companies
continue to produce the major share of
test equipment. This has led to a situation
where the major chunk of test gear need
not be of top quality sold at a high price,
Frost said.
To grow these markets, ATE manufacturers must come up with novel inspection methods and new equipment. In
addition, due to the rising number of
“design and build applications” from contract manufacturers, ATE vendors are considering alliances with them to capture
greater market share.
December Server
Sales Down
Framingham, MA – Fourth quarter sales
of servers fell 0.2% year-over-year to
$14.5 billion, the first such drop since the
first quarter of 2003, IDC (idc.com) said.
Worldwide unit shipment growth slowed
to 10.6%. Volume systems grew 7.3%
year-on-year.
Revenue for midrange enterprise servers
dropped 11.5% versus last year and highend servers fell 1.7%.
Sources: 1SEMI, 2SIA (3-month moving average growth), 3IPC
12
Who Says Lead-Free Is Dull?
Kester’s EnviroMark 907
Bright Solder Joints and a Whole Lot More
Kester’s EM907 No-Clean Lead-Free
Solder Paste is designed to exceed
customers’ expectations for high
yield lead-free manufacturing.
EM907 is a newly engineered
product specifically for the high
thermal demands of assembling
with lead-free alloys such as the
family of SnAgCu (SAC).
• Lead-free joints that are
cosmetically bright as SnPb joints
• Excellent solderability to a wide
variety of board and component
surface metallizations
EM907 Solder Joint
• Maintains excellent print quality
at high print speeds up to 6 in/sec
(150 mm/sec)
• Extended printing downtimes
and long stencil life
• Anti-slumping to eliminate bridging
and micro-solderball potential
• Excellent printing characteristics
to 16 and 20 mils pitch (0.4 and
0.5 mm)
• Prints down to 0201 pad sites
• Light colored residue
• Designed for air reflow as
well as nitrogen
Typical Lead-Free Solder Joint
• J-STD-004 Flux Classification ROL0
Call Kester today for a
brighter future.
Global Headquarters:
Des Plaines, IL USA
Branches:
Canada
Germany
Brazil
Singapore
Taiwan
Malaysia
Japan
For additional information:
visit www.kester.com
call 800-2-KESTER
fax 847-390-9338
Talking
Heads
Fabrinet: Inquisitive and
Acquisitive
on’t be surprised if you walk into a Fabrinet
manufacturing plant and recognize someone
from JDS Uniphase. The Thailand-based EMS
company has purchased no less than six plants from
JDSU, one of its biggest customers. It’s one big reason
why, starting with its January 2000 acquisition of Seagate’s 230,000 sq. ft. plant in Bangkok, Fabrinet has
more than tripled its global manufacturing capacity
and leveraged its skills building disk drives into optical
components and medical electronics.
In February, CFO Mark Schwartz shared some of
the lessons Fabrinet has learned over the past six years.
He says customers today want to "move up the food
chain," citing as examples those at the component level
trying to get into higher level modules and
even some system builds. Through its acquisitions, he says, Fabrinet is "gaining control
over critical sources" of materials and products. Excerpts (for the full interview, go to
circuitsassembly.com/cms/content/view/2979.)
CA: How do you convince former OEM
plants to adapt to your corporate culture?
MS: In every case where we have done
this, JDSU has communicated openly with
its employees about the transition or the
wind-down of operations. At every opportunity we have to communicate with the
Fabrinet CFO Mark Schwartz
employees prior to closing, we try to demonstrate that we are mindful of the circumstances, sympathetic to the impact it has on each employee and
their families and, perhaps most importantly, that what
we say is honest and the best information we have at
that time. We work hard to ensure that, where possible,
all benefits and company policies remain the same,
such as salaries, pay scales, pay periods, health and
insurance benefit. When we tell employees these things
– that salaries won’t change, that if you expect a pay
raise you’ll still get it – and follow through, that’s how
we start to build the right relationship.
We always try to keep continuity in management,
even in China. The intent is not to revamp management but to use the best that exists. In Singapore we
borrowed a senior JDSU manager to lead our team,
because they recognized him and knew him, rather
than bringing in someone totally new, which could
have been even more disruptive.
CA: Characterize the differences between manufacturing in China versus Thailand.
MS: I don’t know if we have enough experience in
China to provide a comparison. Communication in
both geographies is the key. We’re still learning some of
D
14
the political and financial processes in China, like
exporting and importing goods. We had always heard
to beware that the rules change every day, but in our
experience I don’t think that is actually true. The rules
are not very different from what we see in other places.
You have to pay your taxes, keep accurate records, be a
good citizen. One difference is the ease of obtaining
visas in Thailand for travel to foreign countries.
CA: What lessons from all the acquisitions you’ve
done can you share?
MS: Particularly in a factory wind-down, you are
organizing a company with a short lifespan, and establishing and maintaining your corporate books and
records to reflect the nature of the organization. One
critical area is tax. Determining the allocation of earnings for the goods and services created and delivered in
each domicile, so all the revenue collection organizations involved properly understand your tax obligations
and agree with your position. Another critical area is
financial reporting. Our accounts are maintained under
U.S. GAAP and we review each transaction with our
auditors. GAAP rules do not always allow a company to
portray a transaction in a way that is most meaningful
for shareholders and others to absorb. It is something
we struggle with and something we’re learning to deal
with each time. While the net profit and loss from any
particular transaction is accurately represented, the
road to get there has all sorts of twists and turns and
footnotes and comments. I’m left to wonder, on occasion, if GAAP reporting accurately portrays the financial state of a company, particularly at the gross margin
line. I’m sure this is a concern many CFOs share.
Business terms and conditions dictate accounting
and tax treatment. But there are often alternative business terms that are preferable from an accounting and
tax perspective, with little or no impact on the business
objective. At the front end of a transaction, we try to
structure the agreement documents to clearly tell the
story of the transaction for all downstream parties to
understand. “Telling the story,” often in the agreement’s
preamble, assists in answering the inevitable slew of
questions from accounting and tax folks and can get
you, in a timely manner, to the proper accounting
treatment of the transaction.
While the tail should not wag the dog, you must
consider the business objectives in parallel to the tax
and accounting treatment. In international transactions, every jurisdiction has different laws in terms of
notice obligations, severance obligations, etc. Having
both a legal and finance background is helpful to me in
■
anticipating issues and probable outcomes.
Global
Sourcing
Improving Business Intelligence
New tools keep your shop running like a finely tuned engine.
ver been driving along in your car, glanced
down at the dashboard and seen the CHECK
ENGINE light on? The first thought that goes
through your mind is, How long has that been on?
You wonder when it was you last actually looked at
your dashboard gauges. Then you realize that you do
not have many gauges and that your dashboard is
comprised mostly of “idiot lights” like the CHECK
ENGINE alert. And CHECK ENGINE means a trip to
the shop to find out if you have no problem at all or if
you are looking at a $1500 engine repair bill.
While you mull this over, you try to figure out
what the problem could be. You listen for abnormal
sounds; you check your acceleration and a dozen
other things. You recall having a feeling of a slight hesitation when you hit the gas – something you first
noticed a month ago but did not think anything of,
and you now hope your ambivalence has not caused
significant damage to the engine. All the while, the
CHECK ENGINE light beams at you. At this point,
you’ll just have to see what the auto technician says.
Unfortunately, this makes a good analogy for how
some people run their businesses. The CHECK
ENGINE light could be an email from an unhappy
customer, a notice that a supplier has put your
account on hold or it could be a red number on the
NET INCOME line of company financial statement.
Many companies are so consumed in their day-today operating activities that they do not take the time
to analyze their important data. Even if they had the
time, many companies do not have data systems that
can provide useful information: information that is
accurate, timely and in a format that mere mortals
can easily understand.
Most EMS companies run their operations using
several different software packages or systems. They
use MRP/MRPII, accounting and engineering packages along with smaller standalone databases and
Word or Excel files. Sharing data between these systems is rare and getting good, meaningful information is often difficult. This is where Business Intelligence Management software comes in.
Business intelligence is about taking all the gigabytes of data that businesses build up and putting it
into accessible formats that permit better operating
and strategic decisions based on hard data.
Given the speed at which EMS companies operate,
having real-time, to-the-minute information is critical. Monthly, weekly and sometimes even daily
reports are often not timely enough to allow the best
decisions or give customers the support and respon-
E
David Wolff is president of P.D. Circuits
Inc. (pdcircuits.com);
[email protected].
16
siveness they deserve. Several BIM software programs
provide a dashboard screen, which displays your most
important business information in real time. This
makes it easy to quickly spot trends, opportunities or
problems and take appropriate action. For example, in
less than a minute, you could:
• See that the margins on booked orders so far this
week are below your target margin percent. Then,
with one click of a button, see a detailed job list for
the week and spot the jobs that are dragging the
margin down.
• Look at the quality and delivery performance of
your key suppliers to determine where to place a
critical order.
• See a sharp upward trend in your real-time inventory tracking graph. Then drill down into a
detailed report to determine what is causing the
increase.
• See the total dollar value of your open customer
orders and how that will translate into invoices in
the upcoming days or weeks. Then bring up a list
of those customer orders to see if some of them
can be pulled in, thereby accelerating the revenue.
• See that the bookings from an important customer
are declining recently, look at some detail to determine the probable cause, then work with the customer to reverse the trend or focus more strongly
on customers with upside potential.
• Receive a call from a customer, and quickly see upto-date financial, quality and delivery facts about
your business with that customer, information that
can be used to improve the relationship and negotiate from strength.
These are only a few examples of the many uses of
business intelligence.
One of the beauties of BIM software is that it
extracts the information you need from software programs and systems that you currently run. There is no
need to endure the agony of scrapping an old system
and installing a new one. BIM software allows you to
share and combine data from different systems, summarize it and display it in a useful, readable way in
graphs and report form.
BIM software packages currently on the market
range in cost from $4,500 to over $25,000. Bigger is
not necessarily better and some of the lower-cost
packages contain all the features of the larger packages and more. Given the type of return that you can
expect from making better and faster business decisions, this is one software cost that can be easily green
■
lighted.
We’ve
made
leadfree
easy.
For RoHS-compliant
solder products,
AMTECH has
all the answers.
Everyone has questions regarding pending deadlines
for compliance with the European Union’s new RoHS
lead-free directive. Fortunately, AMTECH has all the
answers, including a complete line of environmentally
friendly lead-free solder products. AMTECH offers:
• Solder paste
• Solder spheres
• Solder powder
• Solder preforms
• Core wire
• NVOC liquid flux
AMTECH lead-free solder pastes are made from
world class AMT Unisphere™ powder for enhanced
solderability, which contains <200 ppm of lead,
guaranteed. AMTECH is also your exclusive source
for SynTECH-LF, a unique lead-free,
no-clean solder paste formula made
with proprietary synthetic poly-adduct
components. SynTECH-LF has been
proven to increase process line
yields with less beading, scrap
and rework.
For sensible answers to all your
lead-free questions, call the
experts at AMTECH.
It’s that easy.
AMTECH
www.amtechsolder.com
75 School Ground Rd., Branford, CT 06405 USA
(800) 435-0317 • (203) 481-0362 • Fax (203) 481-5033
FILLING THE VOID
On the
Forefront
From Hospital to Home
The next advance in medical electronics is treatment that electronically links
patient to specialist, a move that can sharply cut costs.
edical electronics is alive and well in the
inject medication on command, the idea to combine
U.S., and will probably remain centered here
sensors and drug delivery to create automatic wearfar into the future. The medical electronics
able or embedded systems to aid those with certain
field is advancing on many fronts, from massive
ailments and allow them to live normal lives.
imaging machines to small portable and personal
A number of wearable electronics products aimed
products. Each type of product represents a fascinatat personal health care are already coming onto the
ing challenge for packaging. Electronic imaging, for
market. One goal of advancing medical electronics is
example, typically relies on large arrays of photosento move treatment away from the hospital and closer
sors that must capture radiation and quickly transfer
to the home. Cost drops dramatically as health care
data to the main system. Considerable advancements
treatment and intervention move from hospital to
have been made in x-ray sensors that have reduced
clinic, to doctor’s office and finally to the home. The
the level of radiation exposure, increased resolution
concept is to link the patient to the medical specialist
and now enable faster processing when combined
electronically where help can be faster, more efficient
with high-speed processors.
and less costly. We already have
CAT (computed axial tomograpersonal monitors that allow
phy) has reached a new level of
physicians to check a patient’s
performance where the body
condition by telephone link or
Internet. Life-saving medical
can be digitally dissected to
marvels, including defibrilladivulge the most subtle probtors, are now available for home
lems. Hundreds or even thouuse.
sands of sensors can be packOne example of an intriguaged as flip chips, which permits
ing wearable product with
them to be placed close together
important health-related potenin large arrays. Since the x-ray
tials is the Skeeper from Tadiran
source and detectors are revolvLifeCare in Israel (Figure 1).
ing around the patient, there is
The present model is designed
an interesting interconnecting
as an emergency communicator
challenge.
for the elderly and those with
One company is working on
health problems to get them
photonic linkage where a periimmediate assistance with sinodic burst of modulated and FIGURE 1: Tadiran LifeCare’s wearable comgle-button actuation. The
coded “light” would send the munications device uses a Siemens wireless
module with built-in speakerphone and can
“watch” uses a Siemens MC55
data to the system during each
activate voice calls to predefined numbers.
wireless module with built-in
revolution. But x-ray advancespeakerphone. It can activate
ments are not limited to big
cellular voice calls to predefined numbers (e.g., a relmachines. Chances are that your dentist is now using
ative or a health professional); calls can also be
a small electronic imager instead of film so that the xreceived from phones to check the wearer’s health
ray instantly shows up on a monitor using much less
status. Such a product might incorporate personal
radiation per exposure. And if you really want to
welfare monitors that could initiate automatic
avoid x-rays in certain procedures, you can swallow a
responses. The unit presently can take advantage of
pill camera that is now sold by several companies; the
location-based services provided by many operators
internal images are transferred by wireless (RF).
but will have GPS capabilities later this year. GPS
We are also entering an era that promises amazing
could make the auto-monitor idea even more valubiomedical developments at the chip level centered
able. A monitor sensing a wearer in crisis could link
on bio-MEMS. Today, many MEMS devices are being
to a call center to report the problem and location.
developed and tested in medical laboratories and
The convergence of medicine, electronics, sensor
clinics. One tiny embedded MEMS sensor can monichips and communications will bring about a new
tor blood pressure at specific body sites and report
revolution where technology improves our welldata through wireless mechanisms – especially valu■
being, safety and sense of security.
able for certain cardiac conditions. Other devices can
M
Dr. Ken Gilleo is
with ET-Trends LLC;
[email protected].
His column appears
four times a year.
18
Screen
Printing
What Do We Control?
Optimizing a process with limited access to process factors.
f all the individual manufacturing steps required to
assemble a “typical” circuit board are evaluated, one
step is truly a process: material printing. No other
step requires the integration and optimization of as
many individual factors to produce optimum results.
Factors that influence the material printing process
include but are not limited to:
• PCB design, finish, flatness and thickness.
• Soldermask (type and registration).
• PCB fabrication (stretch, actual versus specified pad
sizes, etc.).
• PCB markings (ink) and labels (applied before
printing process).
• Material to be printed (solder paste, adhesive, etc.).
• Stencil design and fabrication (laser cut, chemically
etched, etc.).
• X-, y- and z- axis support.
• Environmental conditions (temperature, humidity,
air flow, etc.).
• Printing equipment.
I
Joe Belmonte is
project manager,
advanced process
development, at
Speedline Technologies
(speedlinetech.com);
jbelmonte@speedline
tech.com. His column
appears semimonthly.
• Operating parameters (squeegee speed, squeegee
pressure, etc.).
• Squeegee blades.
• Stencil wiping frequency, chemistry and effectiveness.
• Operator training.
• Technical support.
• Supplier support (material, equipment, tooling, etc.).
This is not a complete list, but it highlights some of
the many factors to consider, understand, evaluate and
optimize to achieve optimum results. Yet many assembly operations control only a portion of these factors.
For example, many EMS companies may have little or
no control of board design, finish or stencil design. Others may have no control over the solder paste used or
one or more of the other factors named.
The question then becomes, How does one optimize
a printing process for any particular product when they
do not control several of the factors that influence its
performance? And how does one do this while the cus-
Conformal
Coating
That’s Fast
and Easy
Just what you wanted –
Easy maintenance and
high performance for
coating with today’s
100% solids formulations.
The award-winning Swirl Coat™
SC-300 Applicator from Asymtek.
20
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT
CONFORMAL COATING
SYSTEMS FROM ASYMTEK:
Americas: 1-760-431-1919
Europe: +31-43-352-4466
Japan: +81-3-5762-2801
China: +86-21-5899-1879
Email: [email protected]
www.asymtek.com
tomer mandates better quality, faster cycle time, shorter
setup time, and so on?
Focus on what can be changed. Here are seven steps
for how to change those “changeable” factors to overcome deficiencies of factors that cannot be altered.
1. Take inventory of the factors for which that particular customer will or will not permit changes for that
particular product.
2. Identify which of the changeable factors will provide the most process improvement based on the types
of defects experienced. As always, viable data are key to
making correct decisions. If you lack the
required data, start collecting them immediately. Data collection does not have to be delayed
for the implementation of a sophisticated SPC
system; it can start with a pencil and paper.
Automating data collection should be a secondary concern. Train the operators to collect
the data, coach them (to reinforce the training)
and monitor that it is being done at all times on
all shifts.
3. Brainstorm possible process improvements that will achieve the identified improvements based on your work in Step 2. Consider
short-, medium- and long-term improvements.
For example, a short-term solution would be
changing a stencil design aperture to accommodate a less-than-optimum sized pad. A relatively minor investment in a new stencil will provide significant benefits in reduced defects. A
medium-term solution would be to redesign the
board with the correct component pads (if this
is a changeable factor). A long-term solution
would be new printing equipment that is more
accurate and perhaps includes post-print
inspection capability.
4. Experiment with the proposed change. It
is vital that these experiments be formally done
(design of experiments) so data collected are
meaningful. Building a few boards to prove out
a solution does not validate or prove the change.
5. Once you have experimented with the
change, implement it in a controlled run of
products. Collect the data and verify the effectiveness of the change.
6. Implement the change. Make sure all
required tooling, training, documentation, etc.,
are available and understood by all involved.
7. Move to the next process optimization
opportunity and repeat the process. Continuous
improvement has no conclusion.
Some steps are ongoing. Always provide your
customer design for manufacturability suggestions and training. Show your customer how a
particular change will reduce cost, improve
quality, etc and support it with data that will
quantify the proposed design change.
“If it is not broken, do not fix it” is not a continuous improvement philosophy. “If it is not broken, how
do we make it better” with or without control of all
the process factors should be the primary goal. That
said, do not give up the effort to change factors that
you currently do not control. If a compelling case,
supported by statistically valid data, can be made for
change, then perhaps the customer will permit it to be
■
implemented.
Circuits Assembly MONTH 2006
Screen
Printing
21
Better
Manufacturing
Would You Buy a Used Machine
from This Guy?
What to do if you can’t find an oven owned by a little old lady who only soldered
on Sundays.
"If you're offered a pizza with mushrooms at a Grateful Dead
concert, it probably isn't what you think it is." – Anonymous
ith every new package or material the
demands on processes increase and change.
So, too, must equipment. However, not
everyone builds leading-edge product. Hence, a popular commodity in our industry is used assembly
equipment. There is a lot of it in use – of various
types, manufacturers and vintages. It is not unusual to
see a 20-year-old wave-solder machine working down
the line from last year’s chipshooter. What can work in
a given facility is, as with all equipment, application
driven.
Buying a used car? A great deal of sage advice is
available. Buying used SMT assembly equipment? Not
so much. Your dad probably does not have a lot of
applicable suggestions on the latter. Somehow, “kicking
a tape feeder” or “slamming the access door on a printer” is going to be inappropriate. Finding that reflow
oven that belonged to a little old lady who only soldered
on Sundays may be difficult as well. Well, Uncle Phil has
a few helpful suggestions on how and where to buy
used equipment.
It is worth checking out the OEM. As with
automakers, equipment manufacturers take their older
models as trades on new equipment. They also have
models from demo rooms, trade shows and labs that
they sell as used machines. There are a number of
incentives to do this: keeping a non-optimally maintained machine from tarnishing their reputation,
keeping a customer and being able to bring in a new
customer.
Way back in the through-hole days, Universal
Instruments was one of the first OEMs in our industry
to actively take older insertion machines as trades and
refurbish them. Mydata has a very aggressive program
regarding trade-ins – so much so that you rarely see
one of its machines on the open market. Heller recently went a step further with what it calls “H-bay,” with
used oven offerings enumerated on its Web site. To one
degree or another, all the major printer, pick-andplace, reflow, wave, cleaner, AOI, x-ray and dispenser
manufacturers have some sort of used equipment program in place, formal or otherwise.
An advantage to buying a machine from the OEM is
access to the proper parts to rebuild the machine (as
W
Phil Zarrow is
president and SMT
process consultant
with ITM Consulting
(itmconsulting.org);
itmconsulting@aol.
com.
22
economically as possible) as well as the latest software.
The OEM is also in a good position to retrofit the
machine with whatever recent innovations might be
compatible. The OEM can provide a warranty and
install the machine with trained technicians. The operative word here is support; OEMs are usually the best to
fulfill this critical aspect.
That is not to say that excellent support is not available from a third-party used equipment dealer. It is:
Some top-notch firms have been in business for many
years, have their acts together and have earned great
reputations. Some have working relationships with the
OEMs for software and parts and can offer warranties
as well as great support. Most of all, some employ former OEM field service, applications and sales personnel who are eminently qualified to work with the
equipment1.
But, like used car dealers, they are not all the same.
Be careful; take the time to check out exactly what they
can offer and how well they can support what you are
considering buying in terms of service and spares. If
you buy used, you cannot expect the OEM to embrace
you as if you had bought it direct (new or used). There
is, in reality, no legal obligation that says the OEM has
to support with parts, service or software a machine
you picked up somewhere. You might have gotten one
helluva deal on that “cream puff,” but you might be left
out in the cold. Assess your risk carefully.
Of course you might be involved with a “private
party” deal – buying a machine directly from the previous user. There are a number of auctions held as well as
direct sales. SMT assembly equipment even shows up
on eBay. Again, be careful. Some used equipment brokers act as intermediates between seller and buyer. In
any case, the seller should be able to give you the model
and serial number of the machine under consideration.
If the seller refuses, the seller likely does not have possession of the machine and is brokering it. That’s OK,
but don’t expect any support from this type of broker
or the party that currently owns the machine. I should
add that it helps if the company that built the machine
is still in business; not all are2. Just a minor point.
There is another very important point to bear in
mind, regardless of where you buy your machine.
Automobiles are built and consumed in mass quantities; SMT assembly machines are not. As a result,
replacement parts, due to the resulting lower volume
purchasing, are expensive. The longer a model has been
support both product lines.
3. You also ascertain whether the manufacturer is still in business. Again,
in the field and the fewer components it has in comjust a minor point.
mon with subsequent offerings, the more expensive the
4. Hail to thee, Bill Burns, wherever you are.
spares are going to be – again, due to diminished volume purchasing. While a few machine components like
tape reel feeders and pickup tips are offered by thirdparty sources, they are for the more popular machines
and models, and can be few and far between. Our
industry does not have a “JC Whitney” or a “Pep Boys.”
Some manufacturers buy older machines just for their
parts.
One recommendation for anyone purveying a used piece of SMT assembly equipment
(and this is something you can’t do with a used
car): get the model and serial number of the
machine you are considering buying and call
the field service department of the OEM. First,
equipment manufacturers keep a record of
every machine they put in the field3. Field service can look up the machine, its configuration
and options, and they have its service history.
The field service tech you talk to might have
worked on that machine. Second, most field
service technicians are not trained in the art of
salesmanship. They tell it like it is and are usually very opinionated and candid (based upon
their experiences). In many regards, they are
the “anti-salesman.” They might disclose that
the particular machine in question is a piece of
%#&@ or the option that appears so attractive
never really worked right4. Or, the machine
has an option on it that is worth as much as the
machine itself (and really works) or that the
oven really was owned by a little old lady who
only soldered on Sundays. They can also give
you an idea regarding the availability and cost
of spares, plus other things to watch out for
that hike cost of ownership.
As someone who spent a good portion of
his career with assembly equipment manufacOur direct die feeders are capable of feeding bare dies
turers and is a bit of a motorhead, I have
and flip chips at high speed to any placement equipment.
observed quite a number of similarities
Your expertise in 0402 and 0201 placement can now be
between used SMT equipment and used cars.
fully leveraged to make bare die and flip chip assembly a
The machine you are considering falls somebreeze.
where between “cream puff ” and “clunker.” It is
Also we at Hover-Davis produce feeders, nothing else.
not your father’s stencil printer. So caveat empBy focusing exclusively on feeding technology for the last
tor and remember, we’re all in this together. ■
Better
Manufacturing
»make your chip shooter
a flip chip shooter«
15 years, we have truly become experts in tape feeding,
direct die feeding, label feed-ing and JEDEC tray feeding.
References
1. My old friend Alden Lewis of NEA has worked with placement,
repair, two printing and two oven companies. Talk about
experience and knowledge.
2. Occasionally, an OEM will be acquired. For example, CVD
acquired the assets (and many support personnel) of
Research Inc. and Conceptronic and continues to offer and
Enhance your placement equipment now!
Visit www.hoverdavis.com
DDF Ultra – chosen by the
world’s leading placement
machine manufacturers
as their high volume direct
die feeding solution.
Hover-Davis, Inc., 100 Paragon Drive, Rochester
NY 14624, USA, Phone +1.585.352.9590
Email: [email protected], www.hoverdavis.com
23
Thermal
Profiling
The Effect of an Optimized Reflow
Oven Recipe on Energy Use
Piotr Kaênica
Better thermal profiling and process
optimization tools reduce energy use.
Ed.: For the full article, please visit circuitsassembly.com/cms/
content/view/3024/
ue to the higher melting point of
SnAgCu alloys, higher reflow soldering
temperatures are required for Pb-free
PCB assembly. Consequently, reflow oven energy consumption grows too. However, modern
thermal profiling and process optimization software has the potential to reduce energy requirements.
To determine energy consumption during a
Pb-free reflow process, a convection oven was
equipped with a multifunctional energy meter.
Measurements were taken over several days, during which leaded and Pb-free versions of the
same product were processed.
Experiments were conducted using a Heller
1912 EXL reflow oven manufactured in July
2005 and a KIC SlimKIC 2000 profiler equipped
with Auto-Focus optimization software.
For the tests, a representative telecom product was chosen from a family of products to be
converted to Pb-free in the near future. A comparison was performed on the same product
manufactured using both technologies. The
experiment consisted of four sets of measurements:
• Leaded product with non-optimized reflow
profile.
D
24
• Leaded product with optimized profile.
• Pb-free product with non-optimized reflow
profile.
• Pb-free product with optimized reflow profile.
None of the optimized oven recipes used a
conveyor speed slower than the slowest cycle
time in the production line. In other words, the
reflow oven was not a bottleneck in the production line for any of the tests in this report.
Case A – Non-optimized leaded profile. For the
non-optimized profile, a recipe was chosen
manually that fit the peak temperature of the
process window. Based on the solder paste, substrate and components, the process window for
peak temperature was 205° to 225°C.
Oven settings for Case A were as follows:
Zone
1
2
3
4
5
6
Setpoint 101 117 131 155 161 161
Zone
7
Setpoint 171
8
180
9
199
10
239
11
239
12
220
Conveyor speed: 95 cm/min. (37"/min.).
The reflow parameters for Case A:
Peak temperature (°C): 223.5
82.0
TAL2 (s):
T (°C):
11.06
Once the profile had been set, the hourly
energy consumption of the oven was measured.
As is typical, the data fluctuated somewhat, but
the average energy consumption for Case A was
■
10.4 kWh.
Announcing a Free Technical Web Seminar on how to
Revolutionize the Creation of PCB Documentation.
At this informative and interactive webinar you will learn how
BluePrint-PCB™ will dramatically change the way you produce
PCB Documentation.
Who Should Attend?
All Engineering Professionals involved in creating and using
PCB Documentation.
Webinar Outline
This webinar will provide an informative look at BluePrint-PCB
and how it can have a positive impact on the way you produce
PCB Documentation. You'll learn how it:
- creates PCB drawings for fabrication, assembly and inspection
- uses MS Office methods to increase productivity and ease-of-use
- increases drawing detail and accuracy in much shorter times
- displays documents as they would appear to document
control and manufacturing
BluePrint-PCB™ is the most revolutionary breakthrough
in the PCB market since the inception of PCB CAD.
Topic: BluePrint-PCB™ A Better Way to Produce
PCB Documentation
Date: May 10, 2006
Time: 2:00pm EST for Live
Presentation
Register at:
www.pbrseminars.com
For Information on BluePrint:
www.downstreamtech.com
Cover
Story
How Nanotechnology Applies to
Electronics
Dr. Alan Rae
Active programs are evaluating the use
of nano-sized tin, silver and copper
particles in Pb-free solders that can be
processed below 200°C.
ollowing completion of the 2004 International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative Roadmap, a conference on innovation
was convened at which international speakers
and participants looked at how the industry
could extricate itself from what some commentators consider a slump toward total commoditization. Some fret that no new huge killer app
such as video games, PCs or cellphones is on the
horizon. Some believe the three-cylinder engine
that has so successfully driven new products –
the trio of revenue, profitability growth and
investment in R&D – is becoming unbalanced.
And worries abound over our ability to support
consumer expectations based on Moore’s Law
because electronics has become a consumer-driven business. The laws of physics, unfortunately,
do not respect that. Further confounding the
issues is the stretching of supply chains and the
uncertainty over just who will bring innovations
to market.
What are the takeways from the iNEMI
roadmap and subsequent meeting?
• Despite a lack of killer apps, customers are
looking for “killer experiences” that exceed
expectations such as better displays, longer
F
26
battery life and more useful cellphones with
different features, form factors and finishes.
• Research by Prismark Partners concluded
that the biggest R&D spenders are OEMs and
IC manufacturers, at 64% and 23%, respectively. The remaining (and surprisingly puny)
13% is split between IC packaging services,
EMS, passive components and materials – all
critical to the size and economic issues that
will determine which new products we buy in
the future.
• It takes time for inventions to become innovations and then to appear in products –
think seven to eight years for an incremental
improvement, such as the adoption of Pbfree SAC alloy, and 15-plus years for a disruptive one that requires serious infrastructure changes, such as the adoption of the
transistor. Although product cycles are
becoming much faster, process and materials
cycles are not.
• Companies need to learn how to become more
open in working with third parties. Many
developments in nanotechnology are coming
from companies in other disciplines, or even
from customers, suppliers and competitors.
The 2000 or more startups scrambling to find
a foothold in the emerging nanotechnology
market will inevitably be positioned as competitors to the established supply chain in
many industries, including electronics, in the
absence of a way to cooperate with established
players. A collaborative environment coupled
with a more open IP would accelerate progress
in a number of areas.
Cover
Story
Almost all the speakers at the iNEMI forum mentioned nanotechnology as a key factor in future electronics development.
The Semiconductor Research Council, many of whose members are active in the ITRS semiconductor roadmap, recently
formed the Nanoelectronics Research Corporation to support
and encourage university work in this area, in coordination
with the National Science Foundation and the U.S. National
Nanotechnology Initiative. The European Nanoelectronics Initiative has similar goals.
Let’s explore how to use nanotechnology to overcome technical hurdles and re-energize the industry. In reality, nanotechnology is not really one technology, it is a grouping of techniques – vapor phase, liquid phase, solid state, self-assembly that permit the manipulation of materials and structures at the
nano scale – less than 100 nm (0.1 µm). It is a toolkit for the
electronics industry, giving us the gear to make nanomaterials
and nanostructures with special properties modified by ultrafine particle size, crystallinity, structure or surfaces. These are
interesting on a scientific level but, no matter how clever the
technology, it will become commercially important only when
it gives a clear cost and performance advantage over existing
products or allows us to create new products.
Often there is a clear size effect with nanomaterials – a “tipping point,” below which the surface energy of particles and
features or quantum effects starts to take effect (Figure 1). In
the case of silver powder, for example, the sintering temperature starts to decline rapidly below 100 nm with a dramatic
reduction to below 200°C when the particle size is below 50 nm
– this for a metal with a melting temperature of 961°C. This is
the basis for the widely accepted definition of nanotechnologies
and nanostructures as having a key dimension below 100 nm.
A new ISO standards committee, TC229, has been tasked to
develop a consistent nomenclature for nanotechnologies.
Nanotechnologies – leaning on techniques borrowed from
chemistry, physics and biology – can offer:
• Uniform particles – metal, oxide, ceramics, composite.
• Reactive particles – as above.
• Unusual optical, thermal and electronic properties – phosphors, analogs of semiconductor devices, heat pipes, perco-
lation-based conductors.
• Nano-structured materials – tubes, balls, hooks, surfaces.
• Directed-assembly – liquid-based, vapor based or even by
diffusion in the solid state.
In most cases, the use of a nanotechnology will be invisible
to the consumer who only notices a non-scratch surface, a
brighter display or longer battery life.
Long-Term Issues
Once CMOS technology dips below about 20 nm resolution,
quantum effects such as electron tunneling start to result in phenomena like unacceptable leakage; the only way to move below
that size is to use these and other quantum effects in new types of
minute structures, be they pure electronic or bio-electronic
(remember, the most effective and energy efficient computer available sits on your shoulders).
Both production issues and performance issues abound. As the
semiconductor industry moves below 20 nm features, the need for
different structures is becoming apparent. Once the industry
moves to ultraviolet and then x-ray lithography, it seems there is
nowhere to go (in a practical and economic sense) to process
ultra-small features using conventional techniques.
Nanotechnology approaches to producing a logic device can be
novel and diverse. Imagine making a semiconducting carbon nanotube, then coating it with differently doped materials and assem-
Place More
Flexible.
E S S E M T E C
P R O D U C T I O N
FIGURE 1: The “tipping point” in particle and feature properties.
E Q U I P M E N T
F O R
E L E C T R O N I C S
www.bemoreflexible.com
1-888 ESSEMTEC
27
Cover
Story
FIGURE 2: An additional hierarchy of interconnect.
bling
it
(preferably
self-assembling it) in an
array. Imagine
creating
quantum dots
that can store FIGURE 3: Hydrogen sensor performance and a high surface area nanowire
a single elec- structure assembled by cluster deposition. The wire diameter is 1 µm. (Nano
tron charge or Cluster Devices Ltd.).
spin. Imagine
trapping atoms inside a nanotube and
son is recovering from a stroke.
using the electron spin to create a quantum
• How to develop non-CMOS based
computing device. There are a large numlogic structures based on spin transiber of potential routes to new computing,
tions and other effects such as those
storage and optical devices. The devices we
used in Nantero’s or HP’s clever memoare making now are clumsy compared with
ry devices based on carbon nanotubes.
established semiconductor technology. But
A huge amount of work is being done
they will surely improve.
to commercialize semiconducting carbon
It is fairly clear that the substrate of
nanotubes for electronics. Issues include:
choice will continue to be silicon. Chal• Producing them cost effectively.
lenges will be to connect nano materials to
• Making them straight.
silicon in order to detect tiny transitions
• Making them a uniform length.
and to overlay a smaller logic circuit over a
• Sorting semiconductive from conduclarger one (not unlike the redistribution
tive nanotubes (or alternatively vaporwe have to do with silicon to connect 90
izing the conductive tubes or postnm circuits with 0.1 mm pitch circuit
treating them to make them
boards). Tiny devices will need to interface
semiconducting).
with the outside world and a circuit board
Similarly, work is being carried out to
is still probably the most effective means
scale up spintronic molecules containing
(Figure 2). Based on this premise three
two atoms (typically metal atoms) in an
issues arise:
organic system such that spin can be
• How to manage the architecture for a
transferred from one to the other and
regular array that is mismatched to a
sensed.
larger array.
Significant progress has been made in
• How to manage a fault-tolerant archiall of these areas over the past year and we
tecture that can tolerate upwards of
are starting to see memory and other
25% defective connections (this will
devices reach the market in developmenalso be needed for silicon as feature
tal quantities.
sizes decline and devices become more
Mid-Term Opportunities
susceptible to thermal or other damIn many areas of technology, once an
age). Note: This is exactly how nervous
area of concern is reached, we can develsystems in many organisms have develop a workaround. Hence clock speed,
oped, with redundant structures and
which many followed as the measure of
repair mechanisms to aid survivability
processing capability, has been replaced in
in case of injury. Perhaps the most
some devices by distributed processing
extreme example is the “rewiring” of
with two processors placed on the same
brain functions that occurs when a percircuitsassembly.com
Cover
Story
chip. This reduces the heat penalty and gives some breathing room – many upper-end processors generate between
100W and 200W – but the heat issue has not gone away.
Several unusual properties of nanoscale materials –
enhanced thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes, diamond-like films, nano-metal dispersions – have the promise
of aiding heat removal.
Nanowires and other structures using atomic cluster
deposition show promise for interconnects, ESD protection
structures and sensors whose small size and ability to integrate onto silicon logic circuits using lithography or other
imaging techniques coupled with low-temperature assembly promise rapid response and low cost (Figure 3).
Nanomaterials and nanostructures also increase the efficiency of many types of energy conversion devices (photovoltaic, thermoelectric, battery and fuel cell). This area will
get increased attention as the energy supply and demand
equation becomes more complex. In fuel cells, nanomaterials can control the microstructure to channel gas, ion and
electron flow as needed and can create thin impermeable
electrolytes with higher efficiencies – improving to an order
of magnitude higher power output per cell than five years
ago.
Immediate Opportunities
FIGURE 4: Nanomaterials developed for applications in electronics (clockwise from top left: 200 nm nickel, 20 nm silver, 500nm silver platelets, 50
nm diameter multiwall carbon nanotubes) (NanoDynamics Inc.).
Enhanced shielding materials, solders, conductive adhesives, underfills, etc. are now possible as nano-sized materials
become available and economic. An iNEMI program is starting
to evaluate use of nano-sized tin, silver and copper to explore the
development of SAC Pb-free solders that will form reliable solder contacts at temperatures below 200°C.
Other opportunities exist in composite conductors. A project
at University of Binghamton and supported by a New York State
SPIR initiative, for example, is looking at metal powders such as
silver and copper as well as carbon nanotubes in composite
materials to explore their properties as conductors and shielding
materials.
One area receiving a great deal of attention is printable electronics. The concept of printing circuit traces is not new; the
technique been used in ceramic hybrid circuits and in flexible
circuits used in membrane switches and keypads for many years.
The printed electronics market is difficult to quantify because
definitions differ, but many experts agree that it is poised to grow
dramatically over the next five years.
What is driving this change? It is a combination of new materials, circuit structures and market opportunities. Many of the
markets are nascent, the structures are not optimized and the
materials still require further development but all areas are
receiving worldwide attention with a potential of at least $10 billion by 2010.1
Printing techniques are of interest for a number of reasons:
• Environmental. Printing processes are additive. Many circuit-forming processes are additive-subtractive, and it can
take up to 8 kg of material to produce a 1-kg circuit board,
which builds in cost and environmental constraints.
Solder
More Flexible.
E S S E M T E C
P R O D U C T I O N
E Q U I P M E N T
F O R
E L E C T R O N I C S
www.bemoreflexible.com
1-888 ESSEMTEC
29
Build it smaller, faster, better.
NEPCON East /Electro. Because your challenge never ends.
Exhibition: May 10-11, 2006
|
Conference: May 9-11, 2006
THE NEW BOSTON CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTER
Co-located with
Electro Sponsored by
Produced and Managed by
|
BOSTON, MA
At NEPCON East/Electro, you’ll find the tools you need to navigate through your
toughest challenges. You’ll see demonstrations of HUNDREDS OF THE LATEST
PRODUCTS AND TECHNOLOGIES from the industry’s leading suppliers. And
you’ll find ideas you can take home and apply immediately.
• FREE Keynote Address by Shingo Prize winner Raytheon.
• FREE educational sessions on the most critical issues today.
• SMTA Boston Conference sessions with new ways to help improve your assembly process.
• FREE co-located Assembly East event.
For FREE show admission register today at
www.nepconeast.com. A $50.00 savings.
• Flexibility. It can be digitally driven
serial deposition or it can be massively
parallel deposition using flexographic
or lithographic printing. Materials can
be deposited on 3-D surfaces such as
casings using inkjet or transfer printing. Digital offers flexibility, parallel
provides low cost.
• Cost. It can be adapted to low-cost
processes; e.g., reel-to-reel on flexible
substrates. For the past several years
the fastest growing substrate has been
in flex, traditionally polyimide for solderability but polyester is used widely
as a low-cost substrate in keyboards
and membrane switches.
• Low-temperature processing. Nonfired composite or low-temperature
(below 250°C) silver systems can be
used to create functional circuit elements.
Materials that can be printed include:
• Conductors: To use low-cost substrates such as polyester or paper
(instead of epoxy, polyimide or ceramic), process temperatures must be
reduced below 200°C.
• Semiconductors: polymers or polymer
composites can be printed as components of structures such as solar cells
(Graetzl cells), LEDs for displays or
transistors.
• Dielectrics: high-K for example for
embedded capacitors or low K for
insulation.
• Phosphors and other functional materials.
Competing processes include:
• Plating processes: well established but
use aggressive chemical baths.
• Etching laminated planar copper on
glass epoxy to develop traces and pads:
another well-established, low-cost technology.
• Semiconductor processes: e.g. spin-on,
lithographic, CVD, ALD, etc.
Printable materials include metal powders and nanotubes – silver for conductors, nickel for MLCC electrodes, copper
for component terminations, and carbon
nanotubes for thermal and electrically
conductive structures (Figure 4).
Assembly Not Going Away
How will this affect electronics assemcircuitsassembly.com
bly business? In the near term, higher performance process materials – better conductivity, lower temperature processing,
etc. – will be available. They will not be
obviously nano in the same way that the
tires on your automobile do not look different because they contain nano silica
and carbon black, they just grip better
and last longer.
Further down the road, expect to see
structures that will need special low-temperature assembly techniques – small
structures can be destroyed by thermal
diffusion in the same way that optoelectronic devices can be. But as with optoelectronics, we can address this by using
daughterboards or modules. Also expect
to see more pressure to move to printed
electronics and flexible circuits (the most
rapidly growing board market segment).
Even further down the road, you will
still be assembling circuit boards! The
components may not use the same logic
systems or materials, but they will still
have to be interconnected to the “real
■
world” to be useful.
References
1. Nanomarkets, “Printable Electronics: Roadmaps, Markets, Opportunities,” September 2005.
Resources
U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (nano.gov)
Prismark Partners LLC (prismark.com)
Nanoelectronics Research Corp. (NERC) (src.org/nri/)
European
Nanoelectronics
Initiative
(ENIAC)
(cordis.lu/ist/eniac/)
Nantero (nantero.com)
Nano Cluster Devices Ltd. (nanoclusterdevices.com)
Alan Rae is vice president of market and business
development at NanoDynamics Inc. (nanodynamics.com), and director of research for iNEMI
(inemi.org); [email protected]. He was formerly vice president of technology at Cookson Electronics (cooksonelectronics.com).
Part
Conversion
Conversion of Ongoing Products to
RoHS Compliance
Gary Schulte
The cumbersome process is filled with
minutia and hiccups.
content/view/3026/
abbit Semiconductor has about 615 products on the market. Building these products uses almost 4,000 component manufacturer part numbers and over 1,400 internal
component part numbers involving over 300
manufacturers.
This article addresses the components and
materials aspects of converting existing products to
comply with RoHS. It presents the magnitude of
the task, details plans, explains changes to those
plans and provides examples of what worked and
what did not.
Although it would ultimately be necessary to
convert all active component part numbers to
RoHS compliance, it was decided to convert part
numbers in a staged process.
Stage 1. The first stage was the creation of RoHS
bills of material (BoM) for two specific high-volume products being used as test vehicles for choosing Pb-free solder paste and RoHS-compliant PCB
material. We also had to develop a workable reflow
oven profile for our five-zone reflow ovens. This
effort covered 67 component part numbers and
268 manufacturer component part numbers. Starting with the existing BoM and associated approved
manufacturer list (AML) the RoHS status of each
part was researched in the following order:
R
32
Information Source
Success Rate
Manufacturer Website <10%
Distributor contact
25%
Sales rep.
50%
Mfr. tech support
50%
The only component information requested for
this effort was:
1. RoHS version status (to purchase).
2. RoHS unique part number.
3. Lead plating material.
At this stage we asked for lead plating materials
because several RoHS seminars we had attended
warned that bismuth plating could result in poor
solder bonds that were likely to fail. It would be several months before we confirmed that as long as the
amount of bismuth was limited to less than 10%,
solder bonds were acceptably strong. Figure 1
shows typical examples of the compiled component RoHS data.
Additionally, a process needed to be developed
to manage Pb-free part numbers. Should we
change internal component part numbers for Pbfree? Initially, a majority of component suppliers
were not changing part numbers. Our decision was
to add a “20-” prefix to all saleable products offered
to customers. By adding this prefix our customers
are assured that they will be shipped the right products per their wishes. We first planned to also add
the “20-” prefix to component part numbers but
ultimately we left them as is. The addition of a designator field to indicate RoHS compliance replaced
the need for totally new RoHS component part
■
numbers.
Gary Schulte is a component engineer at Rabbit Semiconductor (rabbit.com); [email protected].
Special Advertising Section
Assembly Insider
RoHS Lead-Free Worries?
Give us a call!
'BTU/POEFTUSVDUJWF
3P)4$PNQMJBODF4DSFFOJOH
Global Testing Services, Inc. is an A2LA
accredited testing lab that specializes in
the stress testing of electronic components
and electronic assemblies.
We offer the following tests for individual
components and fully assembled products:
/*50/9-U
• Thermal shock
• Corrosion
• Cyclic temperature/humidity
• SIR
• Vibration
• EMC/ESD
t 2VBOUJGZ$E1C)H$S#SJO1MBTUJD
GPS8&&&3P)4$PNQMJBODF
Global Testing Services, Inc.
604 Albany Drive, Kokomo, IN 46902
Phone: (765) 453-3137
Fax: (765) 453-3806
e-mail: [email protected]
t .BOZ.PSF1PUFOUJBM"QQMJDBUJPOTy
www.globaltesting.net
2006 Courses:
• SMT/BGA Design
and Manufacturing:
Principles and Practice
April 24-26, July 24-26,
Oct 23-25
• Lead Free
Implementation:
Problems & Promises
April 27-28, July 27-28,
Oct 26-27
)BOEIFME93'&MFNFOUBM"OBMZ[FS
t 4DSFFOGPS1CJO&MFDUSPOJD
$PNQPOFOUT4PMEFST
t 1SPDFTT&MFDUSPOJD4DSBQGPS8&&&
$PNQMJBODF
XXXUIFSNPDPNOJUPO
/*50/"OBMZ[FST
#JMMFSJDB."64"
OJUPO!UIFSNPDPN
4-Layer PCBs
in 4-Days
for $51 Each.
Don’t Make
“We
Cheap PCBs,
We Make
Excellent PCBs—
Cheap!
”
Please log on to
www.rayprasad.com for class details
15375 SW Beaverton Creek Court
Beaverton, OR 97006 USA
Phone: 503-646-3224 | Fax: 503-646-1654
Email: [email protected]
Sierra Proto Express
1-800-763-7503
www.4LayerPCB.com
BUY ON-LINE NOW!
33
Pb-Free
Case Study
The Creation and Building of a
Pb-Free Product
Srinivasa Aravamudhan, Joe Belmonte, Anand Bhosale, Alden Johnson, Pat Mattero,
Karl Moore and Dr. Gerald Pham-Van-Diep
A case study in designing and building Pb-free 128Mb
USB memory modules.
content/view/3025/
ver the past five years, Speedline Technologies has actively worked with numerous
customers on Pb-free process implementation, both in process equipment requirements (our
primary business) and process development.
Process development projects – internal and with
several major soldering material suppliers and academic institutions – are ongoing. In late 2004 we
decided to design and build a functioning Pb-free
product. Among our reasons: to gain additional
understanding of Pb-free product design and manufacturing issues; to collect meaningful data during
the build to identify defects that can be expected; to
have product to give customers during trade shows
or other events to demonstrate our Pb-free process
expertise. We chose to build a 128Mb USB memory
module.
This case study of our experience includes
board design, stencil design, Pb-free solder paste
selection, support tooling design, printing process
development, reflow oven profile creation, quality
data, defect detection and other observations.
With several Pb-free process projects finished
and several more planned, we concluded we had
done virtually everything in Pb-free process
development short of actually building a working
Pb-free product. What else could we do to better
O
34
understand all the Pb-free process issues? We
conceived the idea to build a working Pb-free
product. After considering a number of product
ideas the USB memory module seemed to best
satisfy our requirements of budget, complexity,
marketing (a tradeshow “giveaway”) and, most
important, education. The 128Mb size module is
usable and fit our budget.
The first step for our memory module was to
create a circuit design. We built a prototype (breadboard) using the schematic. Once the prototype
was built and tested we immediately started designing the circuit board. We had the required mechanical size of the board since we had selected the plastic case for our 128Mb USB memory module. We
acquired the specification for all components and
supplied them along with the required board size to
the designer (Table 1, online).
Next, we built two models using the PCBs we
designed and the components from our bill of
materials. Fortunately, the two models worked the
first time with no component or circuit changes
required. We then started purchasing all the components to build 1,100 units. Before ordering
boards, we had to design the working panel or
palette that would contain multiple individual
memory module circuits. The individual circuits
were small (0.56 x 1.28") so we elected to build pan■
els containing several individual circuits.
The authors, Srinivasa Aravamudhan, Joe Belmonte, Anand
Bhosale, Alden Johnson, Karl Moore and Dr. Gerald PhamVan-Diep, wrote this article while at Speedline Technologies
(speedlinetech.com); [email protected].
Live and on-demand technical Webinars
for electronics industry professionals
Two premier PCB industry publishers, UP Media Group and PCB007, have combined their expertise to create PBR Seminars. Our live debut and archived ondemand Webinars feature expert industry speakers and useful technical content,
and they are easily accessed via the Web using your office or home computer.
Upcoming Live Webinar
May 10 at 2 pm EST
“Taking PCB Documentation Out of the Stone Age With
BluePrint-PCB” featuring Rick Almeida of DownStream
Technologies
Learn how to revolutionize the production of PCB documentation. You
will see how BluePrint-PCB will dramatically change the way you produce PCB documentation. This new, state-of-the-art solution creates
PCB documentation quickly and easily and replaces the more errorprone, manual approach currently employed. Documentation created
with BluePrint is more detailed, accurate and can be updated and
altered instantly.
On-Demand Archived Webinars
WEBINARS TO VIEW AT YOUR CONVENIENCE!
FREE WEBINARS
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Business
Outlook: A
Global
Electronics
Industry,”
updated for 2006 and featuring PCB industry expert Walt Custer
“ROHS/WEEE – The Facts: What You Need to Know Now”
featuring Walter Jager, Ageus Solutions, and sponsored by EMA Design
Automation
“The EMA RoHS/WEEE Toolkit for Compliance” featuring Alan
Diamond, EMA Design Automation, sponsored by EMA Design
Automation
“Constraint Reuse in PCB Hardware Design Using a Hierarchical
Approach” featuring S. Dharmarajan of Cadence Design Systems, and
sponsored by Cadence Design Systems
“The Impact of RoHS on the Design Process” featuring Ken
Stanvick, Design Chain Associates, and sponsored by Mentor Graphics
“Step by Step to Meeting RoHS Design Requirements”
featuring an RoHS expert, and sponsored by Mentor Graphics
To register, learn more or view the latest list of upcoming live, on-demand and technical training Webinars, visit www.pbrseminars.com now.
Soldering
Tips
New Standards on Tin Whisker
Mitigation
A soon-to-be-released GEIA standard covers strategies for high-rel electronics.
or the past several months, industry has scrambled to bring its components into compliance
with the RoHS directive. The emergency drill
has been mostly about whether companies can
become compliant by the legislated deadline of July
1, 2006. The defense industry, while technically
exempt from RoHS requirements, is feeling the pinch
as commercial component makers scramble to meet
the deadline. Reason: Defense contractors often must
rely on components built by suppliers to the (nonexempt) commercial world. Even hardware for dual
(commercial and military) use, such as commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, is specifically not
exempt from RoHS legislation.
The GEIA Industry Standard, planned for release
this year, is one of four standards and guidelines
designed to assist the defense and avionics companies
that are trying to manage Pb-free electronics for high
performance and military markets. In the pipeline for
more than 12 months, the document is undergoing
final approvals by members of the committee chartered with its development, the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association
Lead-free in Aerospace Program committee. The
standard will be issued jointly by the American
National Standards Institute and GEIA and is expected to be adopted by the military and commercial
aerospace industry.
Last month we discussed the GEIA-LEAP Program Managers Handbook. This month, we look at
the standard that covers tin whisker mitigation,
GEIA-STD-0005-2. As this document notes, restriction of lead use has pushed many suppliers from
SnPb finishes to Pb-free alternatives such as pure
electroplated tin. However, pure tin finishes being
applied to electrical component contacts and circuit
boards are susceptible to the spontaneous growth of
single crystal, electrically conductive “tin whiskers,”
which can cause electrical failures by shorting
between the closely spaced components and other
Sn-plated parts such as RF shields or common hardware (Figure 1).
GEIA-STD-005-2, Tin Whisker Mitigation, specifies steps to take to ensure that the correct whisker
risk level is applied to a given program, and once
applied, the actions to mitigate risks pertaining to the
assigned level. The whisker risk levels as defined in
the document are:
F
The American Competitiveness Institute
(aciusa.org) is a scientific research corporation dedicated to the
advancement of electronics manufacturing
processes and materials for the Department
of Defense and industry. This column
appears monthly.
36
FIGURE 1. Tin whiskers growing from Sn-plated connector
pins and causing electrical shorts between pins after 10
years in service. (Photo courtesy of NASA)
• Level I. No restrictions on tin finish use.
• Level II. Tin finish is permitted under some circumstances.
Level IIA. Use of tin finish without explicit
controls is acceptable under most circumstances
but the likelihood of whiskers and methods used
to estimate their impact and mitigation strategies
is documented. Tin finish may be prohibited in
some specific circumstances called out in contractual documents.
Level IIB. Tin finishes may be used but only
with customer approved and specified control
measures. These tin finish approvals may be blanket approvals for multiple components and applications within the system. Tin finish may be prohibited in some specific circumstances called out
in contractual documents.
Level IIC. Tin finish is prohibited unless an
exception is made. Specific instruction on use of
tin finish and required control measures to be
provided and reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
• Level III. Use of tin finish is prohibited and measures must be taken to verify compliance.
The document delineates whisker risk mitigation
techniques that correspond to each level that can be
assigned to a program.
Details on the state of research and the current
difficulties of providing specific, quantitative assessments are provided in the appendices. In the appendices, guidance on selecting control levels; performing risk assessments; mechanisms of formation,
properties and potential deleterious effects of tin
whiskers; and background on various tin whisker
■
mitigation methods are detailed.
www
smt-exhibition.com
The place to be!
Exhibition & Conference
Nuremberg
30 May – 1 June 2006
Free
icket
entry t
n here
n.c
o
i
t
i
b
i
t-exh
and fu
sm
www.
rthe
matio
r infor
Mesago Messe Frankfurt GmbH, Rotebuehlstr. 83-85, 70178 Stuttgart
[email protected], phone +49 711 61946-74
om
Wave
Soldering
Preventing Micro Solderballs
It all starts with the right soldermask and flux.
iny solder balls that stick to the solder
side of the assembly after wave soldering are a type of soldering defect that
has become more of a problem due to several new developments:
• Fine-pitch components and smaller distances between traces make the assembly
more sensitive to shorts caused by solder
balls.
• More SMDs on the solder side increases
the frequency of selective soldering with
pallets using a wave soldering machine.
FIGURE 1: Micro balls between through-hole leads.
• Higher solder temperatures due to Pbfree solder use.
• More nitrogen blanket systems are retroFIGURE 2: Dimensions of solderfitted to wave solder machines to reduce
balls can be determined with
dross formation of Pb-free solders (a cost
advanced microscopes.
benefit) and improve the soldering
process window.
In the past, the majority of solder balls
were removed by cleaning the boards after
solder surface prevents the formation of an oxide layer
soldering. No-clean fluxes reduced or eliminated the
on the solder bath and thus increases the potential for
cleaning process, but solderballs remained. This is of
micro balls. Nitrogen also affects the surface tension of
concern in certain applications. For a number of conthe solder.
trol systems such as airbags and other automotive
A second cause of micro solderballs is outgassing of
applications, the presence of solderballs (and the subboard material or soldermask. If there are cracks in the
sequent potential for shorts) can compromise safety.
metalization of the holes, vapors can escape which can
Causes. Solderballs are formed when the assembly
result in voiding or solder balls on the component side
exits the liquidous solder. The solder pulls free from the
of the assembly.
board and bounces back into the solder bath. When
A third cause of micro solder balls is related to the
this occurs, a snapping action takes place downward
flux. Flux can be trapped underneath components or
into the solder pot, forcing a sphere, or micro ball, of
between an assembly and a carrier (when selective solsolder to be propelled toward the board (Figure 1).
dering with pallets). If the flux is not sufficiently preWhen designing the solder wave former and solder pot,
heated and completely dried before the assembly conit is important to reduce the fall height (gap or distacts molten solder, solder will splash and create
tance) of the solder. A lesser fall height reduces dross
solderballs. Respect the preheat recommendations of
formation and solder spattering.
the flux suppliers per the flux datasheet.
Nitrogen plays a role here. An inert blanket over the
Soldermask effects. Whether or
not a solder ball will stick to the
assembly depends on the board
material. A solderball will bounce
against the assembly and fall back
into the solder unless the adhesion force between the board and
the solderball is higher than the
gravitational force.
In this scenario, the soldermask is an important factor. A
rough soldermask will have a
FIGURE 3: Important parameters affecting solderballing.
smaller contact area with the sol-
T
Gerjan Diepstraten
is a senior process
engineer with
Vitronics Soltec BV
(vitronics-soltec.com);
gdiepstraten@nl.
vitronics-soltec.com.
His column appears
monthly.
38
der ball, making it less prone to solder balling. Higher
solder temperatures (as in a Pb-free process) will soften the soldermask, making it more prone to balling.
Standards and criteria. Several standards define criteria for solderballing. The classifications vary from “no
solder balls allowed” (MIL-STD-20001) to less than five
solder balls per sq. in. (IPC-A-610C2).
IPC-A-610C considers solderballs located within
0.13 mm of lands or traces and larger than 0.13 mm in
diameter as nonconforming process indicators (Figure
2). Such conditions require the manufacturer to get the
process under control and take corrective
action. IPC-A-610D, now rewritten to cover
Pb-free soldering, is not clear on the subject of
micro balls. The part that describes the solder
ball criteria (five micro balls per sq. in.) has
been removed. Automotive and military specifications do not permit any solderballs, so the
assemblies must be cleaned, or solderballs must
be removed manually.
Prevention. A study by a European group
showed that soldermask has the most pronounced effect on the formation of solderballs
(Figure 3). Thus, it is important to select the
proper type.
Specially designed fluxes are available. Sufficient flux must be applied so there is some flux
still available at the wave exit. The flux deposits
an ultra-thin film on the board that prevents
micro balls from adhering.
Compatibility between the flux and soldermask is a must, as is a tightly controlled flux
deposition system such as a spray flux application.
A design of experiment (DoE) returned
these recommendations for minimizing solderballs:
• Lower the solder temperature, if possible.
• More flux results in less solder balls, but also
increases the amount of residue.
• A higher preheat setting is better, but keep
within flux specifications; otherwise the flux
activation period is too brief.
• A faster conveyor speed reduces the number
of solder balls.
■
References
1. MIL-STD-2000, "Standard Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies," June 1995.
2. IPC-A-610C, "Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies," January 2000.
Bibliography
and Results,” August 1994.
2. TKB-4U.com, Reducing Solder Microballs in Inert Wave Soldering, tkb4u.com/articles/soldering/reducingballswavesol/reducingballswavesol.php.
3. G. Schouten, Solder Balls in Wave Soldering, Vitronics Soltec information sheet 013, July 20, 2004.
Wave
Soldering
'BTU&BTZ3P)4$PNQMJBODF4DSFFOJOH
/*50/"OBMZ[FST
#JMMFSJDB."64"
OJUPO!UIFSNPDPN
t 3FBMUJNFOPOEFTUSVDUJWFDIFNJDBM
BOBMZTJT
t 2VBOUJmFTUPUBM1C$E)H$SBOE#SJO
TFDPOET
t 5FTUTPMEFSTDPNQPOFOUTQBDLBHJOH
BOENPSF
t -JUUMFUPOPTBNQMFQSFQSFRVJSFE
t )BOEIFMEPSCFODIUPQPQFSBUJPOWJB
XJSFMFTT1$JOUFSGBDF
4BMFT4FSWJDF8PSMEXJEF
XXXUIFSNPDPNOJUPO
"OBMZ[Ft%FUFDUt.FBTVSFt$POUSPM
1. H. Bell and R. Zajitschek, “The Solder Ball Problem, Research
39
Test and
Inspection
BGA Opens Detection: A DfT
Approach
How an oval pad design aided defect detection using x-ray inspection.
or ball grid array packaging, the high number of
hidden solder joints combined with the inability to verify defects with visual or electrical
inspection leads to the need for other techniques.
Specifically, BGA opens continue to be one of the
most critical types of defects to detect on today’s complex assemblies. Opens are a common problem for
visual inspection systems. While x-ray can “see” the
differences in diameter between joints, it is often difficult to identify when those differences are significant –
when the differences are legitimate opens versus when
they are simply part of normal variations in the manufacturing process.
A large European electronics manufacturer, Selcom
Group, first began using 3-D automated x-ray inspection 10 years ago to improve process control and
defect detection on complex assemblies. The popularity of BGAs was a challenge for Selcom. The firm
decided to approach the issue by combining a design
for test (DfT) approach for pad design with automated x-ray inspection with patented technology in a
unique study.
Selcom’s DfT idea was to change the shape of pads
so that, during reflow, wet solder would have one
shape when it makes contact with a pad, and take a significantly different shape if it does not make contact.
In the case of oval pads, wet solder will acquire an oval
shape when it makes contact but will retain a circular
shape if it does not (Figure 1). This makes it easy for
repair operators to differentiate between good (oval)
and open (circular) solder joints. Then they can quickly verify defect calls from the x-ray system.
There are, however, several items to take into consideration in the design of test pads. The first is
robustness and durability of solder joints. The
strength of joints depends in part on the size of the
pads used. If pads are too small, sheer strength is compromised and joint integrity can be reduced.1 Second,
the ability to fit vias, traces and test points on the
boards is affected by board real estate. If pads are too
large, board design is affected. Finally, if the degree of
ovalization is too slight, then oval pads will be harder
to distinguish from round open joints, so test system
accuracy will be compromised and false defect indictments may increase.
A variety of component types were tested with and
without oval pads. The results suggest that oval pads
further expand the accuracy of automated x-ray
F
Tamara Pippert s AXI
product manager at
Agilent Technologies
Inc. (agilent.com);
[email protected].
40
FIGURE 1: Wet solder takes the shape of the oval pad
when it makes contact. If it does not make contact, it stays
round. Opens by be spotted by operators or on certain
equipment by simply looking for circles in a sea of ovals.
inspection, especially when used in combination with
novel 3-D software. Circular BGA pad defect detection
capability ranged from 79 to 90% effectiveness for various BGA ball and pitch sizes. When oval pads were
designed into those same BGAs, defect detection effectiveness improved to 93 to 100%.
This DfT study compared solutions in a controlled
environment and evaluated their potential application
in a production environment. In terms of test effectiveness, x-ray defect detection capability and repair
effectiveness indicate a promising new approach to
BGA opens detection. Readers may want to consider
conducting similar studies to see how DfT and inspection can impact and substantially improve BGA opens
■
defect detection capability.
References
1. S. J. Kim, C. H. Lee and S. G. Lee, “A Study of High Density and Reliability BGA Package with Solder Ball Lands of Oval Type,” Electronic
Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) Proceedings, May 1998.
A Common Solution for Materials
Declaration
Countdown
to Pb-Free
The new IPC-1750 series standardizes the collection, tracking and disclosing
of material content.
Ed.: The IPC-1750 standards and users guide are available as a free
download at ipc.org/175x. For the complete article, see circuitsassembly.
com/cms/content/view/2987.
he European Union’s RoHS Directive is driving
electronics manufacturers to manage and
exchange product content information across
the supply chain. While material declarations are not
considered sufficient on their own to ensure RoHS
compliance, they provide a key building block for an
overall compliance model. The most efficient
approach to exchanging material composition data is
to standardize processes and formats, which is what
the new IPC-1750 series of standards does.
Development of the IPC-1750 series began with
two iNEMI projects that brought together users and
solution providers to shape standards-based
processes for communicating materials content
data. The specifications they developed were handed off to the IPC Declaration Process Management
subcommittee for development and standardization. More than 50 of the largest OEMs, EMS
providers and suppliers helped define the business
T
Working Group 1
defines the high level
requirements for MD
LEAD-FREE WATCH
RosettaNet
Methodology
Formats
Requirements
Standards
IPC
Restriction of
Hazardous Materials
Drives
need for
WEEE
Requires collection, treatment,
recycling and recovery of waste
electrical and electronic equipment
Developed draft
specifications for MCD
and handed off to IPC
iNEMI
IEC TC 111
RoHS
3 months
1, 2006
Standards organization provides leadership in
promoting collaborative commerce
International
standards body
Working Group 3 Test
Methods will provide
analytical validation
standards
Complementary to
requirements and develop specifications for these
standards.
Enter IPC-1752. IPC-1752, “Materials Declaration
Management,” provides a common data model and
standardized forms to simplify the way industry collects, tracks and discloses material content information. It supports small- and mid-sized companies,
where the interaction is
more likely to be manual, as well as multinationals, where IT budgets
can
support
automation and direct
Countdown to July
B2B transactions.
IPC-1752 was released
in February, with a number
of major OEMs, EMS providers and component manufacturers declaring their support and intentions for adoption.
Draft versions of the standard have been wrung
through multiple pilots, with some companies actually
using it in production for more than eight months.
Currently the RoHS Directive does not require
producers or suppliers to provide material composi-
Draft
Specifications
Standard
IPC-1752
MCD
Material
composition
declaration
Provides an electronic data
model and standardized forms
that support both electronic
exchange and human input
Based on
EIA
JIG
Richard Kubin is vice
president of E2open
Inc. (e2open.com) and
co-chair of the IPC 218 Supplier Declaration Subcommittee
(responsible for the
1750 standards), and
he chaired the iNEMI
Materials Composition
Data Exchange Project;
[email protected].
JGPSSI
JEDEC
Defines specifics of what needs
to be reported
FIGURE 1: Regulatory and standards framework.
41
Countdown
to Pb-Free
Table 1. Six Classes of Reporting
Class
Description
Form Type
Class 1
RoHS reporting at a homogeneous level in yes/no format
IPC-1752-1 IPC-1752-2
Class 2
Same as Class 1, with the addition of manufacturing process reporting
IPC-1752-1 IPC-1752-2
IPC-1752-2
Class 3
RoHS substance reporting at a homogeneous level and other
JIG A & B substance reporting at the part level plus other substances at the part level
tion
declarations
(MCDs).
However,
it is
Class 5
IPC-1752-2
generally
recognized
that
Substance reporting at the homogeneous level.
MCDs
are
needed
to
JIG A & B substance list provided, other substances can be added
manage
compliance
risk,
Class 6
Same as Class 5, with the addition of manufacturing process reporting IPC-1752-2
support supplier liability
claims and perform
product level compliance analysis. Further,
there are references made to “technical
documentation” and material declarations
in the RoHS Guidance documents published by U.K. Department of Trade and
Industry. These documents indicate that
producers are expected to collect and
by
maintain documentation that will support
Jennie Hwang
that they have conducted “due diligence” in
PhD
ensuring that their suppliers are providing
compliant parts.
Figure 1 provides a framework of related directives and standards. IPC-1752
directly references work done by EIA,
JGPSSI and JEDEC in the Joint Industry
Guide (JIG) standard, which defines the
Making a Smooth Transition to Lead-Free System
reportable substances and threshold levels.
_Lead-Free Manufacturing Know-How
IPC-1752 also integrates work done on
_Manufacturing Approaches & Options
_Real World Successful Lead-Free Production Examples
electronic forms and exchange standards
_System Reliability & Compatibility
by RosettaNet. The IPC standard’s XML
_Lead-free Technology & Fundamentals
schema is aligned with RosettaNet’s 2A13
TO ORDER:
and 2A15 PIPs.
Online: www.LeadFreeService.com Fax: 216-896-0405
IPC-1752, along with the International
Electrotechnical Commission’s Publicly
Available Specification document 61906
(which provides high-level requirements
for material declarations) and JIG 101,
Publisher:
Publisher:
Electrochemical
McGraw-Hill
form the basis for a material declaration
Publications
U.S.A.
standard that has been proposed to the IEC
Great Britain
507 pages
committee responsible for standards sup900 pages
porting environmental stewardship of
electronics products. While other formats
ISBN:
for material declarations are being used or
0 901 150 401
developed (examples include Japan’s
JGPSSI spreadsheet and the automotive
ISBN: 007-144374-6
industry’s Compliance Connect spreadsheet), none has the international support
and momentum that IPC-1752 is now
Two books work in tandem.
receiving.
“Implementing Lead-free Electronics” focuses on actual production, and “EnvironClass 4
Same as Class 3, with the addition of manufacturing process reporting IPC-1752-2
Lead-free Books
ment-Friendly Electronics-Lead Free Technology” covers material properties and
technology.
Dr. Hwang’s upcoming Lead-free lectures/seminars:
Visit: www.LeadFreeService.com
42
Flavors of IPC-1752
IPC-1752 meets key business requirements while providing the flexibility needed
to support different elements of the supply
Countdown
to Pb-Free
chain. It provides several user configuration options, is
platform independent (Windows, Linux, Solaris, Mac)
and does not require suppliers to purchase specific
software to complete declarations.
The standard includes a single data model and supporting XML schema, plus there are two
forms, IPC-1752-1 and IPC-1752-2. The
forms, based on Adobe .pdf forms, use a
UML data model developed with the assistance of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology. They can be printed or
exchanged via electronic means from email and Web interfaces. Table 1 shows how
the two forms support the various reporting levels.
The standard supports three levels of
declaration:
1. Item-level RoHS declaration in yes/no
format, with identification of any applicable exemptions (supported by both forms).
2. RoHS and JIG level A and B and other
substances requested, declared at the item
level (except for RoHS restrictions) with
identification of any applicable exemptions,
as well as providing substance ppm or
weight if above thresholds. (Requestors
would choose IPC-1752-1 form if they
want this level.)
3. Declaration of RoHS, JIG A and B,
and other substances at the homogeneous
material level, up to full declaration and
also including identification of any applicable exemptions. (Requestors would choose
IPC-1752-2 form if they want this level.)
While there are technically six classes of
reporting, there are really only the original
three required levels of declaration, with the
ability to include manufacturing process
information, such as lead finish, maximum
reflow temperature and moisture sensitivity
level.
IPC-1752 integrates and leverages several industry efforts, establishing a common
solution that is shaped not only by regulatory guidelines but also by industry needs
and requirements. It can help eliminate the
costly and burdensome use of multiple
material declaration formats. At the same
time, it provides flexibility, allowing users to
select from several options in terms of the
level and scope of the data requested. While
no standard is perfect, rapid adoption of IPC-1752 represents the best available option for the industry to efficiently meet the business and information needs of the
■
impending RoHS Directive.
43
Process
Doctor
Stray Voltage on Low Standoff
Components
The Doctor diagnoses an acute weak organic acid problem.
his is a short excerpt of a patient visit with the
effects on sensitive circuits. Remember, your product is
Process Doctor. This is a fictional depiction of an
changing. Designers are using better component techindustry problem and customer communication.
nology and these issues impact how clean certain cirAny similarities to any actual conversations are purely
cuits need to be. When you qualified the original
coincidental.
process to J-STD-001 four years ago, these package
Client: One specific design is showing stray voltage
styles were not widely used. We will look at the lab
problems on a very sensitive circuit and visually we canresults and discuss what may be causing this issue.
not see anything. We have run FTIR (Fourier transform
Two days later in the Process Doctor’s office.
infrared spectroscopy) and SEM/EDX (scanning electron
PD: How have you been performing? Are the leakage
microscope and energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer),
issues still the same or worse?
and neither has shown conclusive results. The problem is
Client: It is about the same. Management is worried
getting worse. We have tried cleaning the sensitive areas
it will impact our ISO audit and quality program if we
with IPA and a brush; the problems go away for a day or
do not get it under control. What did the lab tests show?
two but return with a greater leakage levels.
PD: The good news is that the incoming bare boards
PD: Are you still using the no-clean flux you qualified?
are still clean and your suppliers are meeting the cleanClient: Yes, but we are using a
liness specifications you put in
selective pallet process with very
place. The assemblies overall
densely populated assemblies.
showed low amounts of ionic and
Remember, we qualified the
organic residues, with the excepmixed-technology
assembly
tion of the area around the selecprocess for both solder paste and
tive solder area. As seen in this
wave solder liquid flux.
photo (Figure 1), the white
PD: Are you seeing leakage
residue is next to the selective solissues on the top or the wave-solder
der area. The white residue is a
side? Do you see these leakage failreaction with moisture after expoures during production or are they FIGURE 1: White residue caused by a
sure to the extraction solution.
returns from the field?
The WOA (weak organic acid) levreaction with moisture after exposure to
Client: The sensitive circuit is extraction solution.
els are above 200 µmg/in2 and are
only that high in the surrounding
on the wave-solder side and yes,
area of the selective solder location. The area that is
we see production functional test problems and a largcontacted with the wave is low in WOA (levels of 39 to
er number of field returns. We are seeing a number of
47 µmg/in2) and appears to have no problem with stray
NTF (no trouble found) returns that caused us to
voltage based on your schematic details. But the area 1"
investigate the sensitive circuit. We are also using two
to 2" from the opening is high in WOA flux residues.
vendors to supply the component. Problems seem to be
This indicates that the flux is wicking up into this critrelated to the switch to a selective pallet with a design
ical area of the pallet and then is shielded from the
change for a connector near, but not subjected, to the
thermal activation energy of the preheats and wave solwave-solder process.
der itself. This is a very correctable problem. Optimize
PD: Let’s run a couple of tests on some of the leakthe flux application, ensure the boards are seated coming returns and on current production samples directpletely and if flux is still present then apply a small
ly off the assembly line. These are routine tests and will
amount of secondary heat to the area of the problem.
not be destructive. Just see the lab and they will get
With this additional heat the flux will be completely
some total and localized extraction samples. We will see
complexed and then become the benign residue it is
you in two days for a follow-up to discuss your results.
everywhere else on the assembly.
Client: Do you think it is serious? I have an ISO
Two weeks after implementing the recommended
audit in a month and I want to do well.
corrective actions, the ESS-biased humidity test samPD: Leakage issues like this are becoming more
ples passed and the process received qualification using
common but need to be corrected, and the process
■
SIR and ESS testing on functional hardware.
needs to optimized to eliminate these detrimental
T
Terry Munson is
with Foresite Inc.
(residues.com);
tm_foresite@
residues.com. His
column appears
monthly.
44
Equipment
Advances
Managing the Project
Transition Automation’s self-cleaning squeegee.
he Permalex Paste Manager
self-cleaning squeegee is
said to eliminate solder
paste sticking to squeegees. The
squeegee swipes away solder paste
after each print stroke, eliminating
interruptions to the printing cycle
to manage the solder paste inside
the printer.
This system clips paste from
the squeegee in a repeatable and
controlled manner. In doing so, it
improves the quality and location
of the solder paste within the print
area of the printer. The process
also preserves the rheology of the
paste and eliminates air bubbles
The Permalex Paste Manager “clips” paste from the squeegee in a repeatable and
that form due to dried whiskers
controlled manner, improving the quality and location of paste within the print area.
and drips of solder paste which
otherwise frequently form. Since the solder paste
remains mostly on the stencil surface, cycle
changeovers and cleanup are simplified by not having
to remove copious amounts of paste trapped to the
squeegees.
In trials, results show that the wiper system produced a significant reduction in solder paste adhesion
to the squeegee. While it is desirable to keep as much
paste as possible down on the stencil and off the
squeegee blade, it is important to review why this is
important. It is not so much the amount of solder
paste that adheres to the squeegee that is a problem; it
is instead how it adheres.
Solder adheres by stretching out and forming a
thin blanket hanging off the blade. The large surface duction run, or to switch over from one production
area formed by this adhesion is much more detrimen- run to another. The new device introduces a minimum
tal to the quality of the printing operation than is just amount of surface area into the paste, and it moves,
creating fluid cutting paths, with nothing to “grab.”
the weight of solder paste adhesion.
The novel squeegee contains fewer parts than Essentially, a thin wire is integrated into a squeegee
closed head print systems and does not occlude the blade holder, and its motion and speed are set to proprinting action. Users can view the quality of the duce the best cleaning action. The motion is set such
printing directly by observing the rolling action of the that the wire slides and pinches the solder paste from
solder paste. They can therefore ascertain process the squeegee blade.
Permalux is said to integrate directly into dual
quality in real-time without having to guess what
might be occurring internally, as happens with closed squeegee platforms with little or no training or reconprint systems. It reportedly costs up to 40% less than figuration of existing equipment. The unique design
uses pivoting paste retainers with a cross-link. By linkcompetitive systems.
Most stencil printing operations have an assort- ing the forward and back paste retainers, the system
ment of putty knife style tools and scrapers to help becomes self-powered by the relative motion of the
manipulate and reposition solder paste in and around two squeegees.
Available from Transition Automation Inc.,
the printer. It takes dexterous human hands and arms
■
to effectively clean a printer either at the end of a pro- transitionautomation.com.
T
45
Ad Index
ADVERTISER INFORMATION: To learn about the
advertisers in this issue, go to circuitsassembly.com
and select “Advertiser Information” in the Magazine section of the home page menu. This will provide you with
direct links to the home or product pages of each advertiser in this index.
Company
Page No.
AMTECH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
www.solderproducts.com
Asahi Chemical & Solders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7, 21, 42
www.asahisolder.com
Asymtek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
www.asymtek.com
Count-On Tools, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.cotinc.com
Digi-Key Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2
www.digikey.com
DownStream Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
www.pbrseminars.com
EFD, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
www.efdsolder.com
Electronic Interconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
www.eiconnect.com
EMA Design Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
www.ema-eda.com
ERSA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
www.ersa.com
Essemtec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27, 29
www.essemtec.com
Finetech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
www.finetechusa.com
Global Testing Services, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.globaltesting.net
Hover Davis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
www.hoverdavis.com
I&J Fisnar, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
www.ijfisnar.com
Indium Corporation of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
www.indium.com
ITM Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
www.itmconsulting.org
JUKI Automation Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
www.jas-smt.com
Kester Solder Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
www.kester.com
NEPCON East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
www.nepconeast.com
NITON Analyzers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 39
www.niton.com
OK International. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
www.okinternational.com
PBR Seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
www.pbrseminars.com
Qualitek International, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
www.qualitek.com
Ray Prasad Consultancy Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.rayprasad.com
Samsung Techwin Co., Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3
www.dynatechsmt.com
SEHO Seitz & Hohnerleing GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
www.sehousa.com
Sierra Proto Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.4layerPCB.com
SIMCO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
www.simco-static.com
SMT/Hybrid/Packaging 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
www.smt-exhibition.com
Transition Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
www.permalex.com
Vitronics Soltec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
www.vitronics-soltec.com
Product
PREVIEW
Portable XRF Analyzer
Niton XLt 797 series x-ray fluorescent analyzer has a new algorithm to help ensure RoHS compliance by testing for cadmium,
mercury, lead, chromium and bromine in real-time. Provides rapid
screening of components, PCBs and completed assemblies, helping to reduce compliance risk. Tests for RoHS elements as part of
a new internal verification process. Nondestructive, and permits
immediate testing of finished or sensitive parts while still in the
manufacturing pipeline.
Thermo Electron Corp., thermo.com
Booth 6054
Compact Rework System
Fineplacer CRS 10 offers a fixed configuration for small- to
medium-scale series assembly or rework of soldered components
on medium to large SM boards. Features a plug-and-work design,
vision alignment system with stationary beam splitter, controlled
z-height during reflow, Pb-free compatible rework and an automated component place and lift-off function. Special module controls reflow for top heating and full-area bottom heating.
Finetech, finetechusa.com
Booth 2001
Flexible Screen Printer
Horizon 03i is equipped with the Instinciv user interface, optimized frame for mechanical and thermal stability, and ISCAN control area network to support advanced features. Has 12-sec. cycle
time. Paired with HawkEye post-print verification system, can
realize 100% board inspection at line-beat rate. Verification is
user-friendly, with no programming required. Reportedly offers
high throughput and flexibility for rapid changeovers.
DEK, dek.com
Booth 2045
Fine-Pitch Aqueous Cleaner
Aquanox A4520T cleans under low standoffs and in tight
spaces caused by smaller, more heavily populated devices. Effective on Pb-free, no-clean and eutectic materials. Works at low
temperatures and low concentrations. Effective without sump
side additives and is said to provide brilliant joints. Reportedly
RoHS-compliant and multi-metal safe for use on yellow metals,
aluminum, ferrous and composites in addition to precious metals.
Contains no CFCs or HAPs, is nonflammable and noncorrosive.
Kyzen Corp., kyzen.com
Advertising Sales
North UP Media Group, Inc.
America: 2018 Powers Ferry Road, Suite 600
Atlanta, GA 30339
National Sales Manager:
Susan Jones, (404) 822-8900
Sales Associate:
Kamden Robb, (678) 589-8843
Asia: Jan Vardaman, TechSearch International
Inc., 512-372-8887
Korea: Young Media, 82 2 756 4819
Booth 2000
No-Flow Underfill
NF260 is a Pb-free, reworkable, air-reflowable, no-flow underfill.
Is said to deliver increased reliability one order of magnitude over
other underfills and two orders of magnitude over using no underfill. Integrates with existing SMT processes and can be processed
in typical Pb-free reflow profiles. Reportedly has excellent wetting,
low voiding and strength to withstand rigorous drop tests.
Indium Corp., indium.com
Booth 3017
46
PREVIEW
Rework Station
Summit 1800A Pb-free rework system
has a 65-mm alignment field of view
with digital and optical zoom and split
image. Has programmable, motor-controlled top heater positioning and independent pick-up motion. Includes motorcontrolled board support table for
automated, hands-free site scavenging.
Options include component print station, cooling boost, sliding board support,
17" LCD monitor and 22 x 30" board size upgrade.
VJ Electronix Inc., vjelectronix.com
Booth 5019
Static Dissipative Work Surface Material
Dualmat RoHS-compliant material is
an industrial grade elastomer for use
on tables and grounded workbench
surfaces. Its 0.08" thickness adds durability and prevents curling. Meets standards for surface resistivity in all
humidities. Has low VOCs, low outgassing, withstands high temperatures
as well as solder, flux and harsh chemicals. Comes in green, royal blue, light blue and
gray rolls and precut mats. Material is two-ply rubber with a conductive underside.
ACL Staticide, aclstaticide.com
FINEPLACER® System
Product
ADVANCED REWORK
Wide range of applications
RF Shield Cans
Complex shapes and restricted
accessibility
Mobile Devices
Highly populated, CSP, BGA,
Flip Chip & Flex applications
Stacked Die
Remove each component one
at a time or the complete stack
at once
Reballing
Single or multiple balls on one
package or a complete array
Small Passives
Down to 01005 - neighboring
components undisturbed
Fineplacer® Pico
ree
d-F ed
Lea prov
Ap
480-893-1630
www.finetechusa.com
Booth 4025
got RoHS?
FINETECH
...simply accurate
Only ITM can offer you what you need to attain compliance –
education, process readiness and certification – all from the
premiere industry process experts.
■ EDUCATION: We help you learn what you need to know
about lead-free and RoHS processes, materials, equipment
and logistics.
■ PROCESS READINESS AUDIT and GAP ANALYSIS: ITM
assesses and benchmarks your current process and assesses
what it will take to attain RoHS manufacturing capability.
■ COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE: ITM can help you develop
your Lead-Free Roadmap and assist you in any aspect of
attaining capability.
■ LEAD-FREE AND RoHS COMPLIANCE CERTIFICATION:
RoHS compliance is a self-certification. ITM can assess and
determine if you are “RoHS capable” enough to declare compliance. We examine your processes, facility, logistics and
evaluate your “first lead-free build.”
Don’t trust your process
(and your bottom line!)
with anyone else.
ITM is the authority for
Pb-free process training.
C O N S U LT I N G
Intelligent People, Innovative Solutions
Contact ITM Consulting Today!
(603) 868-1754 www.ITMconsulting.org
Technical
Abstracts
In Case You Missed It
Design
“PCB Design and Assembly Process Development of 01005
Components with Lead Free Solder”
Authors: Yueli Liu, Shaunte Rodgers and Dr. R. Wayne
Johnson; [email protected].
Abstract: Chip components in 01005 dimensions are
commercially available. However, the implementation of
such tiny components into new products presents design
and assembly process challenges. In this study, a test
vehicle was designed to investigate the effect of PCB pad
design on assembly yield. Process capability of 01005 test
board manufacturing was evaluated. A DoE was used to
optimize the solder paste printing based on 3-D solder
paste inspection. Pb-free solder was used for all assembly
trials. Several tests were performed to explore the influences of process parameters on placement accuracy and
reflow defects. Through analysis of experimental results
and post-reflow inspection for assembly defects, recommendations for PCB design and assembly processes are
made. (IPC Apex, February 2006)
CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY
provides abstracts of
papers from recent
industry conferences
and company white
papers. With the
amount of information
increasing, our goal is
to provide an added
opportunity for readers
to keep abreast of
technology and business trends.
48
Process Optimization
“0201 Process and Yield Improvement During Launch to
Production”
Author: Jason Fullerton; [email protected].
Abstract: This paper focuses on the optimizations
performed on a particular assembly installed in a small
form factor barcode scan engine. The PCB as processed
during SMT assembly is a 96-up panel with overall
dimensions of 279.4 x 279.4 x 0.79 mm on standard
FR-4 laminate. Each individual image is 24.50 x 14.25
mm and incorporates double-sided assembly on a
four-layer circuit design. In addition, a test PCB assembly exists that has a 10 x 10 array of 0201 components
on both sides, and mBGA components on the second
pass assembly side. This PCB is a single image design,
with overall dimensions of 279.4 x 279.4 x 1.58 mm, on
standard FR-4 material with four internal copper layers. Aspects such as land layout, surface finish, solder
stencil apertures, stencil materials and fabrication
processes are considered, as are board support methods
and strategies, handling and placement. (IPC Apex,
February 2006)
“Surviving the ‘Green’ Heat Wave”
Authors: Mike Olla and Steven Daigle; molla@
criterialabs.com.
Abstract: Many component manufacturers and endusers are finding it necessary to verify the reliability and
survivability of the wide variety of components at
higher temperatures required by Pb-free solder. Using
commercial IR reflow ovens to statistically profile Pbfree parts to Jedec, IPC, JAPAN and other high-temperature reflow specifications has been difficult. The diffiCircuits Assembly APRIL 2006
culty is achieving accurate and repeatable temperature
ramp rates of 6°C /sec. or higher with little to no overshoot at the peak of the reflow cycle, which is critical in
evaluating device integrity. This paper addresses how a
novel oven verifies “green” packages and provides
meaningful data. The oven is a repeatable, real-time
data logging, seven-zone oven that is programmable to
produce ramp rates from 1° to 20°C/sec. with no overshoot and control temperatures up to 400°C ±2°C in an
N2 environment to minimize lead oxidation. The profile oven has the capability of real-time electrical testing during the profile time using up to 20 I/O signals.
A temperature sample is collected every two seconds
and displayed. Covered are problems of using conventional profiling techniques and why more accurate
temperature profiling is necessary to guarantee reliable,
long-term device performance. (IPC-Jedec Pb-Free
Conference, December 2005)
Reliability
“Predicting Plated Through Hole Life at Assembly and in
the Field from Thermal Stress Data”
Authors: Michael Freda and Dr. Donald Barker;
[email protected].
Abstract: Over the past 10 years, two new test methods – Interconnect Stress Test and Highly Accelerated
Thermal Shock – have been developed to perform thermal cycling testing and, in particular, to measure plated through-hole reliability. Both methods have proved
useful in their ability to quantify plated through-hole
reliability and have gained a wide level of acceptance
and creditability within the industry. Along with more
traditional air-to-air and liquid-to-liquid thermal cycle
methods, the two tests expand the test methods available to the interconnect industry. While the number of
testing options for PTH thermal cycling has increased,
little work has been performed within the industry on
developing methods to analyze and use the data coming from these new test methods. This paper covers use
of IST testing to obtain PTH cycle-to-failure data followed by methods to analyze and plot the data over a
range of temperatures. In particular, the paper focuses
on the use of material properties like the modulus as a
function of temperature and CTE as a function of temperature to calculate the stress on a PTH hole versus
temperature. Also explored: the use of the Inverse
Power Law to analyze the PTH stress versus cycle to
failure relationship. Once IPL has been used to establish the cycle-to-failure relationship to stress for a given
laminate and PCB design, it is then possible to estimate
the number of cycles to failure in the field as a function
of the number of cycles of assembly stress, the peak
assembly temperature and the maximum temperature
in the field. (IPC Apex, February 2006)
SAMSUNG SM Series!
The Dawn of a New Era
Place more components with the SM Series from Samsung.
Extend the variety of components you can place with the SM Series from Samsung.
Boost performance with more feeders on the SM Series from Samsung.
Expand your production range with the SM Series from Samsung.
Get started on your new era. Contact us today.
Need more?
Speed • Flexibility • Components • Feeders
Get more!
See the new complete SAMSUNG Production Line
Outside North America
SAMSUNG TECHWIN CORP., LTD.
SMT Global Sales & Marketing Dept.
Semiconductor System Division
333-1, Sangdaewon-dong, Jungwon-gu,
Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea 462-120
P: +82.31.730.8725 F:+82.31.730.8797
www.Samsung-SMT.com
Dynatech Technology, Inc.
Exclusive North American distributor of SMT assembly solutions by
Dynatech Technology, Inc. • 103 Rock Road • Horsham PA 19044
P:215.675.3566 • F:215.675.4259 • [email protected] www.DynatechSMT.com

Circuits Assembly - April 2006

Transcription

Similar documents

Line Card - Enterprise Electronic Sales

VideoPac G7400 AV Mod Installation Guide

Heathkit SB-1000.p65

tubescreamer - PuzzleSounds

NIXIE CLOCK - Electrokit

Chapter Seven - Auburn University

Soldering Photoetch

RoHS DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY SKS metaplast Scheffer

Laverda 750S wiring modification 2

video pattern generator