The SMTA Houston Expo & Technical Forum takes place on March 21 at the Stafford Centre, 10505 Cash Road, Staford, Texas

Mike Konrad will present “The Proliferation of Electronics into Harsh Environments and the Effects on Reliability”

Presentaton Abstract:

Since the evoluton of no-clean soldering processes, many assemblers have enjoyed the cost and time savings a no-clean process affords. The proliferation of electronics into harsh environments has, however, highlighted the well-established link between process residues and electro-chemical migration (ECM) caused failures. Higher operational voltages, increased component densities, assembly miniaturization, and increased reliability expectations increase the relationship between clean assemblies and long-term reliability.

This presentation will detail the relationship between clean assemblies and reliability and the reasons an historically successful no-clean process is measurably less successful on modern assemblies, especially when installed in harsh environments. Factors that affect circuit assembly residue tolerance will be presented as well as residue mitigation processes.

Real-world examples of residue-related failures from the automotive and communications space will be presented along with the solutions adopted by the manufacturers. Multiple residue-induced failure mechanisms will be reviewed including ECM, conformal coating adhesion, frequency distortion, corrosion, cosmetic, and others. Additionally, the relationship with reflow profiles and residues will be presented.

Newly updated IPC cleanliness quantification standards will also be presented in order to answer the age-old question, “how clean is clean?”.