Solder seems pretty simple, and, honestly, it doesn’t always need to be overly technical. But, many SMT, semiconductor, thermal management, and solar applications do require a good amount of technical knowledge. Below are some general areas of concentration that help with these lines of work:
- Materials Science, for understanding different alloys and surface finishes
- Chemistry, to understand flux reactions, corrosion, and plating processes
- Statics, for understanding stresses in soldered assemblies
- Thermal Dynamics and Heat Transfer, to understand alloy selection and properties of the solder joint as well as creation of the bond.