Blog

I was asked by a customer (who I consider a friend), if I had any information about formic

A well-respected colleague asked this week if the metal loading of type '4' solder powder in a paste was lower than that for type '3' because the particles were smaller. The

Dr. Andy Mackie recently put together a model to determine the probability that a componentcan besuccessfully dipped in solder paste or

A recent blog posting on Metroblogs titled, "Tin Whiskers sound harmless, don't they?" left me shaking my head regarding the association which is often made between Pb-Free Solder and

A colleague in California was on the phone last week: "We need a flux with greater activity!" He said. Choking down comments like "Maybe we can take it jogging next time you're in

…and we’re back with more nitrogen and inert soldering myths.Part I of this post can be found here. Myth 6: “I turned on the nitrogen flow, so my oven is now inerted”Fact: It

In my twenty years in the electronics manufacturing industry, I have heard a lot of claims made about the use of nitrogen in inerted soldering processes: many of them completely

As a discussion point (read "please feel free to disagree – that's what the comments section is for"), 96.5%Sn/3.5%Ag is NOT the most well suited pb-free alloy for tabbing. I know

Folks, the adventures of The Professor continue……… So far the meeting with The Professor had proven very valuable John thought.He was anxious to hear the other suggestions that The

Bus ribbon is a very specialized interconnect for photovoltaic modules. Much like tabbing ribbon, bus ribbon is made of a copper ribbon or flat wire which is coated in solder. The solder protects the

You may notice that many of the solar grade fluxes and solder pastes are designated 'no-clean'. This classification is used to describe a flux or flux vehicle that does not need to be removed

Fact: To achieve a strong, reliable solder joint, it is important to remove all oxides from the substrate as well as the solder. Generally this is done using a compatible flux. Reality: Sometimes

Folks, Two weeks passed quickly and The Professor returned to ACME. Patty met him at the door. “Professor, it’s great to see you,” Patty said with enthusiasm. “We collected

Folks, Business was good at ACME. Even in these challenging times, the company's three assemblylines could not keep up with demand.John, themanger of the assembly lines, decided to request the

In previous posts, we have mentioned soldering to gold, but never discussed the unique processing aspects related to this. Soldering to copper is straight-forward.It is done all the time and the

Folks, In teaching process optimization and failure analysis, one of the most helpful concepts is understanding he difference between common cause and special cause defects. A special cause defect,

http://circuitsassembly.com/cms/component/content/article/199/7190-photovoltaics-in-ems-sector This article isn’t ‘hot off the press’, but it is worthy of review. In the October

http://circuitsassembly.com/cms/component/content/article/199/7190-photovoltaics-in-ems-sector This article isn't 'hot off the press', but it is worthy of review. In the October 2008

In addition to Au/Sn sputtering pucks, Indium Corporation can also manufacture full size Au/Sn sputtering targets. 80Au/20Sn is a versatile solder that is used in a wide variety of specialty

Figure 1: Solderspatter (soldersplash) on Gold/Nickel Figure 2: Phase Inversion during Reflow Most people are aware that solder paste is a mixture of solder powder and a flux

After transferring flux, align the stencil Setup print parameters to minimize doubles and missing solder spheres Remove stencil, substrate/die should be ready for inspection and reflow Spheres can be