Electronics Manufacturing Technical Articles

An Alternative Solvent with Low Global Warming Potential

Feb 05, 2015 | R. Basu and R. Hulse

In the past 20 yrs the solvent industry has gone through a great deal of change. In the early 1990s, CFC-113 and 1,1,1-trichloroethane were the workhorses of the industry. The Montreal Protocol to phase-out substances that deplete the Earth's protective Ozone Layer was implemented in the mid 1990s. After phase-out of the CFC solvents, the solvent industry fragmented to a variety of cleaning solutions.

The electronics industry was a large user of CFC solvents and many of these applications changed to aqueous based cleaners (...) But those alternatives are now facing various problems: e.g. aqueous based cleaners use a lot of energy, require long drying times, use equipment that requires frequent maintenance, and require a large footprint; no-clean fluxes leave flux residues; and trichloroethylene and n-propyl bromide have toxicity issues. In response to these serious issues newer solvents and blends are being introduced in the marketplace...

Publisher: Honeywell International

BVA: Molded Cu Wire Contact Solution for Very High Density Package-on- Package (PoP) Applications

Jan 28, 2015 | Vern Solberg, Ilyas Mohammed

Stacking heterogeneous semiconductor die (memory and logic) within the same package outline can be considered for less complex applications but combining the memory and processor functions in a single package has compromised test efficiency and overall package assembly yield. Separation and packaging the semiconductor functions into sections, on the other hand, has proved to be more efficient and, even though two interposers are required, more economical. The separated logic and memory sections are configured with the same uniform outline for vertical stacking (package-on-package). The most common configuration places the logic section as the base with second tier memory section soldered to a mating contact pattern.

This paper addresses the primary technological challenges for reducing contact pitch and package-on-package interface technology....

Publisher: Invensas Corporation

Radar Control Terminal (RCT) units

Jan 26, 2015 | Ensil

In 2005 Raytheon Technical Services Company, now Raytheon Information, Intelligence and Services (Raytheon IIS), approached Ensil regarding the repair of their manufactured Radar Control Terminal (RCT) units. The RCT TRS P/N 13563090-2, a key component in the AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel System, consisted of outdated parts which caused minor to major unit failures. Ensil repaired the RCT's at every turn, correcting any component with the parts still in circulation (mother boards, displays, power supplies) to provide the client with the best available technology. These repairs were completed to military standards and kept the RCT effective, allowing for the Sentinel radar to remain operational. However, the supply of outdated parts was eventually no longer available. Ensil offered the best possible solution, utilizing the skills of their knowledgeable engineering staff, they would reverse engineer a new computer to replace the obsolete RCT while maintaining the same form, fit and function....

Publisher: Ensil

High Temperature Ceramic Capacitors for Deep Well Applications

Jan 22, 2015 | R. Phillips, J. Bultitude, A. Gurav, K. Park, S. Murillo, P. Flores, M. Laps.

Temperature requirements for ceramic capacitors have increased significantly with recent advances in deep-well drilling technology. Increasing demand for oil and natural gas has driven the technology to deeper and deeper deposits resulting in extreme temperature environments up to 200°C and above. A novel capacitor solution utilizing temperature-stable base-metal electrode capacitors in a molded and leaded package addresses the growing market high temperature demands of (1) capacitance stability, (2) long service life, and (3) mechanical durability. A range of high temperature C0G capacitors capable of meeting this 200°C and above high temperature environment has been developed.

This paper will review the electrical, reliability, and mechanical performance of this new capacitor solution...

Publisher: KEMET Electronics Corporation

Automotive Safety Systems Driving Growth in Automotive Sensor Cable Assemblies

Jan 12, 2015 | Pete Doyon, VP, Product Management, Schleuniger Inc.

V2V is a collision avoidance technology that transmits data between vehicles to help warn drivers of potential crashes. This technology would improve safety by allowing vehicles to communicate with each other and exchange basic safety data, such as position and speed and warn the driver of potentially dangerous situations....

Publisher: Schleuniger, Inc.

The Effect of Pb Mixing Levels on Solder Joint Reliability and Failure Mode of Backward Compatible, High Density Ball Grid Array Assemblies

Jan 08, 2015 | Richard Coyle, Richard Popowich, Debra Fleming, Peter Read - Alcatel Lucent, Raiyo Aspandiar, Vasu Vasudevan, Steve Tisdale - Intel Corporation, Iulia Muntele - Sanmina Corporation.

Regardless of the accelerating trend for design and conversion to Pb-free manufacturing, many high reliability electronic equipment producers continue to manufacture and support tin-lead (SnPb) electronic products. Certain high reliability electronic products from the telecommunication, military, and medical sectors manufacture using SnPb solder assembly and remain in compliance with the RoHS Directive (restriction on certain hazardous substances) by invoking the European Union Pb-in-solder exemption.

Sustaining SnPb manufacturing has become more challenging because the global component supply chain is converting rapidly to Pb-free offerings and has a decreasing motivation to continue producing SnPb product for the low-volume, high reliability end users. Availability of critical, larger SnPb BGA components is a growing concern...

Publisher: Sanmina-SCI

The Last Will And Testament of the BGA Void

Jan 05, 2015 | Dave Hillman, Dave Adams, Tim Pearson, Brad Williams, Brittany Petrick, Ross Wilcoxon - Rockwell Collins, Dr. David Bernard, John Travis, Dr. Evstatin Krastev, Vineeth Bastin - Nordson Dage.

The impact of voiding on the solder joint integrity of ball grid arrays (BGAs)/chip scale packages (CSPs) can be a topic of lengthy and energetic discussion. Detailed industry investigations have shown that voids have little effect on solder joint integrity unless they fall into specific location/geometry configurations. These investigations have focused on thermal cycle testing at 0°C-100°C, which is typically used to evaluate commercial electronic products.

This paper documents an investigation to determine the impact of voids in BGA and CSP components using thermal cycle testing (-55°C to +125°C) in accordance with the IPC-9701 specification for tin/lead solder alloys. This temperature range is more typical of military and other high performance product use environments. A proposed BGA void requirement revision for the IPC-JSTD-001 specification will be extracted from the results analysis....

Publisher: Rockwell Collins

Profiled Squeegee Blade: Rewrites the Rules for Angle of Attack

Dec 24, 2014 | Ricky Bennett, Rich Lieske - Lu-Con Technologies, Corey Beech - RiverBend Electronics

For centuries, the squeegee blade has been used throughout many applications for depositing viscous materials through screens and stencils to transfer images on to substrates, from cloth material to electronic circuit boards. One area of blade printing mechanics that have been reviewed many times is the angle of attack of the blade. Typically it has been tested from 45 degrees to 60 degrees to optimize the printing quality and efficiency. However, this typically ends up as a compromise, from fill characteristics (45 degrees) to print definition (60 degrees). This paper will present the revolutionary performance of the profiled squeegee blade, which has recently been developed to create a virtual multi angle of attack for unsurpassed process control for all types of stencil printing processes....

Publisher: Lu-Con Technologies

Head in Pillow X-ray Inspection at Flextronics

Dec 18, 2014 | Alejandro Castellanos, Adalberto Gutierrez, Gilberto Martin, Matthew Vandiver, Ranga Dematampitiya, Hung Le, Elliott Le, Phuong Chau, Hao Cui, An Qi Zhao, Wei Bing Qian, Fuqing Li, Jacky Yao, Jiyang Zhang, Leonard Brisan, Cristian Gurka, Shane Young

Manufacturing technology faces challenges with new packages/process when confronting the need for high yields. Identifying product defects associated with the manufacturing process is a critical part of electronics manufacturing. In this project, we focus on how to use AXI to identify BGA Head-in-Pillow (HIP), which is challenging for AXI testing. Our goal is to help us understand the capabilities of current AXI machines....

Publisher: Flex (Flextronics International)

Failure Modes in Wire bonded and Flip Chip Packages

Dec 11, 2014 | Mumtaz Y. Bora

The growth of portable and wireless products is driving the miniaturization of packages resulting in the development of many types of thin form factor packages and cost effective assembly processes. Wire bonded packages using conventional copper lead frame have been used in industry for quite some time. However, the demand for consumer electronics is driving the need for flip chip interconnects as these packages shorten the signals, reduce inductance and improve functionality as compared to the wire bonded packages. The flip chip packages have solder bumps as interconnects instead of wire bonds and typically use an interposer or organic substrate instead of a metal lead frame (...)

The paper provides a general overview of typical defects and failure modes seen in package assembly and reviews the efforts needed to understand new failure modes during package assembly. The root cause evaluations and lessons learned as the factory transitioned to thin form factor packages are shared...

Publisher: Peregrine Semiconductor