PD18 : Preventing Production Defects and Product Failures

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Under today’s manufacturing and market environment, the effort to maximize production yield, reduce cost, and assure product reliability is becoming increasingly important to a company’s competitiveness. Considering the new and anticipated developments in packaging and assembly and with the goal of achieving high yield and reliability in mind, the “how-to” prevent prevailing production defects and product reliability issues through an understanding of potential causes is a necessity. 

On Monday, February 13, from 9:00 to 12:00 pm, Dr. Jennie Hwang’s professional development course (PD18) at IPC APEX EXPO to be held at the San Diego Conference Center will address the top seven production defects and issues – PCB pad cratering (vs. pad lifting); BGA head-on-pillow defect; open or insufficient solder joints; copper dissolution issue; lead-free through-hole barrel filling, intermetallic compounds, and tin whisker. The role of intermetallics at-interface and in-bulk (contributing from the PCB surface finish/component coating) in relation to product reliability; the difference between SnPb and Pb-free solder joint in terms of intermetallic compounds, which in turn is attributed to production-floor phenomena and the actual field failure will be discussed. From practical perspectives, tin whisker with emphasis on risk mitigation through understanding the factors that affect tin whisker growth and its preventive and remedial solutions will be outlined. The practical tin whisker criteria for reliability implications in the lead-free environment and the relative effectiveness and the order of priority in mitigating measures will be ranked. Specific defects associated with BTCs and PoPs and the reliability of BTC and PoP assembly will also be outlined. 

The course provides a holistic overview of product reliability including the important roles of materials, processes and testing/service conditions, as well as the crucial principles behind the product reliability. The course is suitable to all who are involved with or interested in SnPb and Pb-free manufacturing including designers, engineers, researchers, managers and business decision makers; also is designed for those who desire the broad-based information. 

The main topics to be covered in this course are listed below. You are encouraged to bring your questions and issues for solutions and discussions. 

Main Topics:

• Premise of production defects and product failure prevention;
• The list of common production defects and issues in lead-free assembly;
• Product reliability – principles;
• Product reliability – solder joint, PCB and component considerations;
• PCB pad cratering (vs. pad lifting) — causes and solutions;
• Open or insufficient solder Joints – different sources, best practices;
• BGA head-on-pillow defect — causes, factors, remedies;
• Copper dissolution – process factors, impact on through-hole joint reliability, mitigation;
• Lead-free through-hole barrel filling — material, process and solder joint integrity
• Defects of BTC and PoP solder joints – prevention and remedies;
• Intermetallic compounds – fundamentals, characteristics;
• Intermetallic compounds – effects on failure mode, solder joint reliability;
• Tin whisker – applications of concern, practical criteria, testing challenges;
• Tin whisker – growth phenomena, contributing factors, risk mitigation, practical remedies;
• Summary