Jan 17, 2017 
KYZEN is pleased to announce that one of Dr. Mike Bixenman’s papers that was presented during SMTA International 2016 has been selected by the SMTA for a Best Paper Award. Dr. Bixenman won the Rich Freiberger Best of Conference Award for his presentation entitled “BTC/QFN Test Board Design Considerations and Method for Qualifying Soldering Materials and Cleaning Processes.” Bixenman co-authored the paper with Mark McMeen and Jason Tynes from STI Electronics.
The award is based on the conference attendees’ rating of each speaker at the technical session. As a veteran speaker at SMTA International, Dr. Bixenman makes contributions to the industry by sharing his research and findings.
It becomes necessary from time to time to change materials of construction, manufacturing processes, and process conditions. A soldering material or cleaning agent may become unavailable due to environmental regulation, market forces, or reformulation. Certain conditions require some form of verification and validation that the process meets the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) quality and reliability specifications.
J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies states that validation and verification be confirmed with test vehicles that are representative of the product being produced. Many of the industry standard test vehicles are dated and not representative of current electrical and electronic assemblies.
The purpose of this research is to use a non-standard test board with sensors placed at the bottom termination to study cleanliness and contamination effects under QFN components. The non-standard test board has features to also study thermal paddle design options and to develop a risk profile. This research will report Surface Insulation Resistance effects at the source of the residue
Dr. Mike Bixenman, CTO of KYZEN, has more than 20 years of experience in the design of electronic assembly cleaning materials and process integration. He was the chair of the 2008 IPC/SMTA Cleaning Symposium and is the current chair of the IPC Cleaning Handbook Task Group. Dr. Bixenman holds four earned degrees including a Doctorate in Business Administration.
The authors will formally be presented their awards at the Opening Ceremony during SMTA International on Sept. 19, 2017 in Rosemont, Illinois. The papers are available in the conference proceedings available in the SMTA Bookstore at http://www.smta.org/store/book_store.cfm.
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