Has Lead-Free RoHS Compliant Assembly Reliability and Cost "Arrived?"
Folks, I was at APEX 2013 San Diego this past week. San Diego is a great venue for the show, but I always forget how cold it can be (55-65°F...
Lead Free Solder
Weibull Analysis III: Multiple Failure Modes
Folks, Our discussion of Weibull Analysis continues…..Let’s say you have worked hard and assembled some SMT lead-free PCBs for thermal c...
Weibull Analysis II: The Curse of the Early First Failure
Folks, In continuing our discussion on Weibull Analysis, let’s assume we assembled some SMT and through-hole PCBs with lead-free solder paste....
Interpreting Weibull Plots: I
Folks, A while ago I discussed the Weibull Distribution and its importance in electronics reliability analysis. This distribution has been use...
Time Required for Refrigerated Flux and Solder Paste to Reach Room Temperature
One question that I often hear from customers is; “Once out of the refrigerator, how long do I have to wait to allow my solder paste and/or flux...
Where is Tin Silver Solder, Now That You Need It?
Over the years, solder alloy choices have been pretty stable. In the last century, SN63 and SN62 could be found at any company making any k...
Can Your Mortality Be Modelled with The Weibull Distribution?
Folks, In the last posting, we saw how Weibull analysis helped us to determine that SACm® lead-free solder (SAC105 with about 0.1% manganese) has ...
Electronics Failure Analysis for Pb- and Pb-Free Solder Joints
Folks, The Weibull distribution is arguably the most important distribution in failure analysis of leaded and lead-free solder joints. ...
A Penny per Gram
Folks, It has been a while, let’s look in on Patty…... Patty had to admit that she was very fortunate. She had yet to t...
Cleaning No-Clean Solder Paste Residues in SMT Assembly
Folks, There is a lot of interest in cleaning PCBs that have been assembled with no-clean solder pastes. Recently I discussed the topic with my ...
Solder Coating Thickness for Tabbing Ribbon
While it is important to have at least 10µm of solder on each side of a tabbing ribbon to form a proper solder joint during cell interconnection...
Lead-Free Electronics Assembly Using the SMT Process - at PCM
Folks, Struggling to find a good, royalty-free, video of electronics assembly, my Dartmouth ENGM 185 class on manufacturing processes decided t...