IPC Standards Committee Reports — Base Materials, Assembly & Joining, Cleaning & Coating, Flex Circuits, High Speed/High Frequency, Part 3

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

These standards committee reports from IPC’s 2016 Fall Committee Meetings have been compiled to help keep you up to date on IPC standards committee activities. This is the third in a series of reports.

Base Materials

The 3-11 Laminate/Prepreg Materials Subcommittee successfully Balloted the Amendment 2 to the IPC-4101D-WAM1, Specification for Base Materials for Rigid and Multilayer Printed Boards. The group also decided that an Amendment 3 addressing another set of permissable substitutions consisting of (/98, /99, /101, /126) for specification sheet /129 in Table 3-10 should be Balloted. Finally, it was decided that rather than releasing all three Amendments added into revision D as: “IPC-4101D-wAM 1, 2 & 3”, these will be inserted into IPC-4101E revision to make the identification less complicated.

The 3-11f UL/CSA Task Group addressed the next UL STP meeting in San Diego at the APEX EXPO 2017. Pushing that which was initially discussed in Las Vegas 2016 APEX EXPO, it was decided that the meeting will occur on Thursday, February 16^th as opposed to Friday, February 17^th, 2017. It will be set for 9:00 am – 1:00 pm to allow some participants to fly home earlier, if they desire.

The 3-11g Corrosion of Metal Finishes Task Group discussed efforts that the task group is doing relative to mixed flowing gas studies and Flowers of Sulfur testing.

The 3-12a Metallic Foil Task Group announced that the non-contact surface roughness round robin testing (TM 2.2.22) successfully passed gauge R&R testing and NIST certification/traceability has been run and has proven to be statistically robust enough such that the 4 roughness coupons can be used as certified standards by foil suppliers and users to set-up their non-contact laser or optical measurement equipment. So far, response to an IPC questionnaire has resulted in a need for 25 sets (±2 sets) of certified coupons.

The 3-12d Woven Glass Reinforcement Task Group reviewed new spread glass data generated by JPS. Also, two new weave styles were submitted and discussed for inclusion into the IPC-4412B in its Appendices II via Amendment.

Assembly and Joining

The 5-23a Printed Circuit Board Solderability Specifications Task Group has completed what the group believes is a ballotable version of an Amendment 2 to J-Std-003C, Solderability Tests for Printed Boards to update the document.

The 5-23b Component and Wire Solderability Specification Task Group has generated the last comments for the E revision of J-STD-002, Solderability Tests for Component Leads, Terminations, Lugs, Terminals and Wires that should be acceptable for all three organizations supporting the document (EIA, JEDEC and IPC.)

The 5-24a Flux Specifications Task Group listened to a presentation by Graham Naisbitt of the IEC draft results of SIR testing and its impact on SIR testing using either or both the TMs 2.6.3.3 or 2.6.3.7 within the 5-24a Task Group. In later discussions it was suggested that both the test methods be considered for use, with decision to be left to the users to decide which SIR test method is to be applied by the user for their own needs. The final report of the IEC organization will be presented by Dr. Chris Hunt at IPC’s APEX EXPO 2017 Technical Conference.

The 5-24b Solder Paste Task Group reviewed all test methods utilized by the 5-24b Task Group and that all test methods were divided up between the task group’s membership for possible modifications. Later in October, these potentially modified test methods will be submitted along with any new GR&R results to the 7-11 Subcommittee for their approval for appropriate revisions to the IPC-TM-650 test methods.

The 5-24c Solder Alloy Task Group discussed the Amendment 1 to J-STD-006C and at what level of intentionally added alloying metals, rare earth metal or otherwise, need to be identified in the alloy composition. The members present decided that as long as the intentionally added alloying metal, is nominally at least 0.10% and known to, at least, ± 0.020% of the total alloy mass, it should be identified as a portion of the alloy.

Cleaning and Coating

The 5-32e Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Task Group celebrated the release of the revision B of the IPC-9691, User Guide for the IPC-TM-650, Method 2.6.25, Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF) Resistance and Other Internal Electrochemical Migration Testing.

The 5-33g Low Pressure Molding Task Group digressed a bit at their meeting by modifying the new standard, IPC-7621, Guideline for Design Material Selection and General Application of Encapsulation of Electronic Circuit Assembly by Low Pressure Molding with Thermoplastics should also utilize thermoset polymers for the encapsulation. Later, it is now recognized that currently, thermoplastics are predominant in the marketplace, so while thermosets are very likely to grow in their usage, the document needs to be released soon, utilizing the thermoplastics to best assist the marketplace.

Flexible Circuits

The D-13 Flexible Circuits Base Materials Subcommittee addressed the start of a Ballot on the IPC-4202B revision in early October. So far, the votes are coming in somewhat slowly. The subcommittee also began review of the IPC-4203 as its B revision, also.

The D-15 Flexible Circuits Test Methods Subcommittee continued review of the dimensional stability test method (TM 2.2.4D) and it is very near completion and soon to be sent to the 7-11 Subcommittee for their comments.

High Speed/High Frequency

The D-23 High Speed/High Frequency Base Materials Subcommittee addressed a two new materials for addition to the IPC-4103A; one from Japan and one from Israel. Both were determined to be in the series 200 laminates and are therefore added by the material suppliers and not requiring addition by Amendment and Ballot.