Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
When dealing with bonding, we often mention CTE (Coefficient of Thermal Expansion). This is a very important topic when designing a soldered interface...
Soldering Materials
Measuring Void Content and Further Global Warming Musings
Folks, A reader writes: Dear Dr. Ron, I need to measure the void content of an alloy. Is there an easy way to do it? After a little thoug...
Leadframe Solderability Issues in Power Semiconductors
It is no secret that automotive semiconductor customers are becoming increasingly demanding. The “under the hood / bonnet” electronics env...
What Is Indium?
Being the Indium Corporation, we know what indium is, where it comes from, and how to use it. But sometimes we forget that not everyone is as im...
NanoFoil® Cracking
I recently noticed something that appeared in a 3rd party lab report that a customer shared with me. This lab report was an analysis of a NanoBond®...
Thermal conductivity of NanoFoil®
A NanoBond® acts like a traditional solder bond in many ways. After reaction, the bulk properties of NanoFoil® are similar to that of many sol...
Wet Gold: A Technique to Measure Density Without Knowing the Volume
Folks, In the category of interesting requests, Ron, a gold worker, from Guyana, sent me the following note: Dr. Ron, My colleagues use a “...
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...
DIY: Applying Solder to Molybdenum, Titanium, and Tungsten (Ultrasonic Soldering)
There are many sputtering target materials that are tricky to solder to. For those alloys we ‘bring out the big guns’ – in this case...
DIY: Applying Solder to Copper, Nickel, and Platinum (Flux)
In order to NanoBond® parts that are made out of copper, nickel, or platinum, we must first apply solder to the bonding surface. This......
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...