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Anyone who has used wave soldering to assemble PCBs knows about that chunky layer of metal that collects on the smooth surface of the molten solder.This is solder dross; it is composed of oxidized

Folks, Rob heads to Guadalajara to solve the QFNvoiding problem…… As Rob sat on the airplane, he was excited to go to GDL (Guadalajara, Mexico) to help solve the voiding

Folks, Let's look in on Rob: Rob looked at the new photo of Patty and their twin sons Peter and Michael.What a handful those two 18 month-olds were.Just like their mother!Rob was still pinching

Solder powder particle size and shape impacts the functionality of solder paste in many ways: printing/dispensing/dipping; solderballing; graping; voiding; tack and so

Folks, In a recent posting we discussed that the higher melting temperatures of lead-free solder require reflow soldering temperatures to be higher, thus more electricity is used in lead-free

If you are left with an indium sulfamate plating bath or solution that you no longer use or need, you may have wondered what to do with it. It may be surprising to know that the indium plating bath

One of the first activities any child enjoys, once they can manipulate things, is usingpaints and crayons to color pictures.Stay with me: there's a reason for this introduction. In the lastsix

Last week I spent some time in the Advanced Materials and Process Development Lab with Eric Bastow, verifying the printing characteristics of our newest low temp metallization paste LT-918.Due to its

TypicalTabbing Ribbon Solders Only a few solder alloys have become common, industry-wide, among solarmodule assemblers, and those can be pared down into three categories: BiSn alloys (58Bi42Sn,

Included in a solder paste‘s Product Data Sheet, among other things, are general guidelines which aid the customer in designing an SMT reflow profile. The data sheet gives general

Recent test results show that solder fluxes handle high reflow temperatures (>450°C), providing better-than-expected visual results of flux residue! Solder fluxes have not traditionally been

Solder starvation is a serious electronics assembly issue – with a very simple solution. Solder starvation occurs when adequate volumes of solder are not available to effect a perfectly-shaped

Unbeknowst to me, the refrigerator where I store my solder paste and fluxes that I use for SIR (Surface Insulation Resistance) testing was being moved. One of my colleagues showed up at my desk with

Based on a recent post I published regarding the use of bismuth (Bi)in solder alloys, John writes: "If Bismuth comes from the production of Pb, and if the use of Pb is being reduced, won’t

Folks, A few people asked some questions after my last post on bismuth solders.Here they are: 1. The low melting point of these solders is encouraging.What are realistic field use conditions? Bismuth

Folks, When the industry was preparing to transition to lead-free solders almost ten years ago (can it have been that long), tin-bismuth solders were serious candidates.Their low melting point, of

Nitinol (a nickel titanium alloy) has become a very important material, especially in the medical world. It is often necessary to "attach" Nitinol to another piece of Nitinol or some other

Folks, In a recent post, I shared my perspective on the pluses, minuses and neutral aspects of lead-free solder assembly.In the minus category, I listed tin whiskers.A few people commented that tin

ITO is one of the materials that makes the magic of flat panel displays (monitors, TVs, etc.) possible. When sputtered on in a thin layer, it acts as a transparent conductive film. However, the

I was asked this week to contribute to the upcoming IPC handbook (IPC-CH-65 HDBK) on the section on contamination and its effects on printed wiring assemblies (PWA’s). There is a clear crossover of

Conformal coating compatibility with no-clean flux residues has been a major topic for years – becoming even more popular recently with companies looking to cut manufacturing costs and