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Joey writes: Dear Dr. Ron, I have a stencil aperture with an unusual shape. See Figure 1. How do I calculate the area ratio? The stencil thickness is 5 mils. The dimensions of the aperture are also

What is indium tri-chloride, and why is it important? Indium tri-chloride (chemical formula InCl3), also referred to as Indium (III) Chloride (since the indium atom is in the +3 oxidation state) is

Indium tri-chloride (chemical formula InCl3), also referred to as Indium (III) Chloride (since the indium atom is in the +3 oxidation state) is the most prevalent indium compound after indium

At Indium Corporation, we get a lot of questions about solder paste – its composition, its application, and best practice advice.Many of those questions often involve inquiries aboutthe metal

Folks, To the SMT process engineer, the second most important thixotropic material in their lives is solder paste. If solder paste was not thixotropic, it would be difficult to print and would likely

Previously in this blog series,we discussed some of the best practices for attaching thermocouples to a printed circuit board (PCB) for reflow profiling. Today, I will end this series with a few more

In order to get an accurate reflow profile of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB), it is important to keep best practices for attaching thermocouples in mind. The first thing to remember is that a

As discussed in a previous blog post, it is important to followbest practices for attaching thermocouples to a printed circuit board (PCB) toaccurately measure the reflow profile of an assembly.

We are back today to finish our conversation with Miloš Lazić. If you missed the first three parts, feel free to jump back to the beginning here. Jim: What interests you about this material

Yesterday, in Part 2 ofour interview, Miloš mentioned how using a hybrid solid/liquid TIM provides benefits over thermal grease. Today we discuss the challenges to working with liquid metal,

In yesterday’s post, Miloš and I discussed what he’s been working on in the

I recently caught up with Miloš Lazić,one of our Technical Support Engineers who has taken a special interest in liquid metals. In the lab, Miloš has been experimenting with and

It may seem obvious that we need dimensions on an engineering drawing to specify a solder preform, but we often receive drawings with missing dimensions or tolerances. I’m guilty of that too

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is a technique used to characterize cross sections of solder joints to identify a root cause to a soldering failure. Although there are many different detection

When I was first introduced to QFN voiding, it appeared to be a straightforward issue: outgassing from flux creates pockets of entrapped air causing reliability problems. But I’ve since come to

For the plethora of applications that require a high-melting die-attach solder, 80Au20Sn is a great choice to ensure good performance and reliability. Typical applications for 80Au20Sn in die-attach

Folks, Let’s assume your company has decided that transfer efficiency (TE) is the key metric in determining solder paste quality. Transfer efficiency is the ratio of the volume of the solder

Low-temperature solders can have a wide variety of reflow profiles. One of the great things about Durafuse® LT is that it opens up an entirely new set of options for combining low oven

Flux charring isan undesirable cosmetic defect and one of the more common issues in hand and robotic soldering operations. There are multiple factors that can contribute to the charring of flux in

Michel writes: Dr. Ron, when if comes to SMT printing of solder paste, why do some people use the five-ball rule for rectangular apertures and the eight-ball rule for circular apertures? Michel: The

When you are choosing a low temperature solder alloy, there are some key properties that you should to consider. The first, and most important, is the melting temperature.This is commonly referred to