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Solder Paste Jetting: An Integral Approach
November 21, 2018 | Jeff Leal, Gustaf Mårtensson, and Nerijus Augustis, Mycronic ABEstimated reading time: 11 minutes
Figure 15: Pad coverage for the 1206 component.
In Figure 16, volumetric deposit results are shown for the SO14, SO16, and SO20 component pads. All of these component pads show low volumetric deviation in delivered solder paste volume. The standard deviation of the delivered solder paste volume deviation for SO component pads was 5.2 nL, which is lower than 4% of the amount of pad coverage.
Figure 16: Pad coverage for components SO14, SO16, and SO20.
Reflow
The results of the solder joints after reflow in the vapor phase oven are good and were approved according to the specification of the customer. An X-ray inspection of the D-pack components showed issues with voids (Figure 17). The issue of voiding for this specific component was pre-existing and not judged to be dependent on the manner of paste deposition. Voiding was not an issue for the other utilized component types.
Figure 17: X-ray images after reflow on the D-pack and smaller components.
Process Factors
The waste level for the chosen ejectors and PCB layout measured to be approximately 15%. The values on weighted tubes and filter boxes before jetting and after jetting is represented in Table 1.
|
Ejector |
Tube weight before jetting (g) |
Tube weight after jetting (g) |
Filter box weight before jetting (g) |
Filter box weight after jetting (g) |
Waste level (%) |
|
1716P190 |
123.52 |
62.1 |
6.72 |
16.06 |
15.2 |
|
1716P201 |
115.92 |
19.64 |
6.72 |
22.12 |
16 |
Table 1: Waste values for both layouts and ejectors.
Conclusion
The jetting of solder paste due to the nature of the material requires a novel approach to transfer momentum without coining the material and enable actual high-volume production. To increase the throughput, the software and machine must run at the maximum possible rate given the arrangement of the dots on the board. Customer results demonstrate the capability of jetting different material volumes with a single hardware configuration accurately and repeatably. Further development has yielded advancements in smaller dot sizes for this ejector technology. Based on these results, it is clear that solder paste jetting can now be considered a viable option when compared to legacy solder paste deposition methods, while at the same time increasing the flexibility of a single production system.
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge Anders Bo Pedersen at GP Elektronik A/S who was instrumental in helping with the SMT tests that are the basis for this paper.
Further Reading
- Franhoufer Chalmers. “Simulation of Jet Printing of Solder Paste.” Research Centre Industrial Mathematics. Accessed July 2017.
Editor's Note: This article was presented at the IPC APEX EXPO 2018 Technical Conference.
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