Interview with Dave Hillman: IPC’s 2018 Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame Award Winner

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Hillman: I’m on probably more than I should be. One primary focus is being the committee chair for the IPC J-standard 002 component solderability, and I have been that for a long time. I was also the committee chair for the IPC J-standard 003 board solderability, but I just wasn’t doing justice to that committee in being proactive. Luckily, we found a couple other great individuals to take over for that committee. I’m also a member of the J-standard 001, J-standard 006, with a lot of solder activities, things covering assembly. The IPC-7093 bottom terminated component committee, the IPC-7095A BGA committee, things that’ll revolve around solder, such as workmanship or underfill. I’m on the underfill committee, though not as active as I’d like. Yeah, I think the more committees you’re on, the more you learn, the more you have a chance to participate, and add, and help those committees out.

I would rather be a member on the committee than run the committee, because I think that’s where the committees need the greatest help, and that’s where you get some things done. That’s where the committees are looking for those people to help them, and go find answers, and bring more drafts and pictures.

I’ve been helping develop documents as best I can. Maybe the one thing I probably can claim some credit for is with the IPC J-standard 002. That truly is a joint standard committee effort. We have the IPC organization, and we have the JEDEC organization, which is the active component group in the industry. We have the ECIA organization which is the passive component group, components such as surface mount resistors and capacitors. Those three groups came together to create a one specification that the whole industry uses. We have a very good relationship with the IEC solderability specifications and Graham Naisbitt who is heavily involved in the IEC solderability committees.

So really, the goal would be that one day we have a set of documents everyone follows. And I feel that the J-standard 002 committee and the adjoining organizations, we’ve really made that our goal. To try to work through the technical differences and find a way that we have one set of documents, where I’m not trying to meet two or three documents. If we can continue to work towards that goal, I think we’ve done a good job of attempting to meet the industry’s needs.

The other accomplishment would be the use of data for specification requirements. In the committees, or even just company meetings, there’s a lot of emotion about this or that and what it comes down to is this: Data should win. Just because I believe something should be the best industry practice, if I don’t have data to back that up, we shouldn’t be making a requirement. And Jim Reed, who was our Assembly and Joining chair for many years, suggested we push harder for data-based requirements. I think that at least within the J-standard 002 realm, I’ve done a good job on that. As a committee, that’s what we do. We try to base everything on fact-based decisions.

To read the full interview, which appeared in I-Connect007’s Show & Tell Magazine, click here.

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