BGA Red Dye Penetrant Testing
Ok, so it happened again. Another urgent request was brought to me for action. This time it was a customer who had performed a Red Dye Penetration......
No Clean Flux
Why Solder To Steel When You Can Solder To Copper?
Okay, this has no use for semiconductor packaging that I know of, but it is a neat trick that I discovered in the lab a couple days ago. ......
Corrosion - Part 3, Sources and Prevention
Corrosion is caused by an electrochemical reaction between two dissimilar metals, one acting as an anode – one as a cathode. Halide ions, such a...
InTEGRATED Solder Preforms
Have you ever had to hand-place solder washer preforms on the pins of a connector and found it to be very labor intensive? Indium Corporation has a pr...
Safety Net
It’s always good to be cautious when dealing with high-reliability devices. No-clean ball attach and package-on-package fluxes are usually desig...
Preform Flux Types
When considering the choice of flux for preforms, in addition to factoring in the amount of flux required on a preform, the type of flux is also impor...
Halogen-Free vs. Halide-Free
There is a significant push in the electronics industry to produce “halogen-free” products in order to be more environmentally friendly. ...
Solder Troubleshooting
Why doesn’t my solder flow? The most common issue preventing good solder wetting on a substrate is oxidation. All metals are prone to some level...
Flip Chip Epoxy Flux
Just in case you haven’t heard of epoxy flux yet, let me fill you in. Epoxy flux is what I call a “super no-clean” flux. A no-c...
A Method to Attach Indium Interfaces over Large Surface Areas
In a past entry, I discussed the characteristic formation of surface oxides on indium and the various methods by which to remove these to achieve a so...
Halogen-Free Solder Paste - Part 2
We received a call today from a customer that had tested the halide content of their board and reflowed solder paste, without components, using Ion Ch...
Sludge
We commonly think of flux itself as the reason it should only be used for 8 hours at a time. As the workable life of new fluxes increase,......