Dr. Jennie Hwang to Present at IPC APEX EXPO 2023

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Dr. Jennie Hwang to address “Solder Joint Reliability” and “Preventing Manufacturing Defects and Product Failure” at IPC APEX on Sunday, January 22 from 12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. and Monday, January 23, 2023, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., respectively.

Under today’s manufacturing and market environment, the effort to maximize production yield, reduce cost, and assure product reliability is becoming increasingly critical 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 failures and to ensure the solder joint reliability through understanding and prevention of potential causes is a necessity.

Dr Hwang leverages decades of extensive real-world experiences and deep and comprehensive knowledge to address “Solder Joint Reliability” (PD16) on Sunday, January 22 from 12:00PM-3:00PM; and “Preventing Manufacturing Defects and Product Failure” (PD35) on Monday, January 23 from 1:30PM to 4:30PM at IPC APEX to be held at the San Diego Conference Center.

Sunday, January 22, 2023 - 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
PDC16: “Solder Joint Reliability – Principle and Practice”

The reliability of solder joint interconnections in chip level, packaging level and board-level is crucial to the end-use product reliability - when a single one solder joint fails, the product fails. As the number of solder interconnections continues to increase and the volume of each solder interconnection continues to become smaller, the assured solder joint integrity is paramount. 

Emphasizing on practical, working knowledge, yet balanced and substantiated with science, the course provides a holistic view of the important aspects of solder joint reliability including the critical “players” (e.g., manufacturing process, PCB/component coating/surface finish, solder alloys). Fundamentals in fatigue and creep damage mechanisms (via ductile, brittle, ductile-brittle fracture), and the likely solder joint failure modes (e.g., interfacial, near-interfacial, bulk, inter-phase, intra-phase, voids-induced, surface cracks) will be highlighted.

To withstand harsh environments, the strengthening metallurgy to optimize stress vs. strain relationship and to further increase fatigue and creep resistance will be outlined. The power of metallurgy and its ability to anticipate the relative performance will be illustrated by contrasting the comparative performance vs. metallurgical phases and microstructure.

The parameters to be considered to derive a universal prediction model and whether existing life-prediction models can assure reliability will be highlighted.

A relative reliability ranking among commercially available solder systems including newer lead-free alloys (coined “Low Temperature Solder”), doped and other solder alloys, as well as the scientific, engineering and manufacturing reasons behind the ranking will be outlined.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own selected systems for deliberation.

Main Topics:

• Premise – what is reliability? What are critical players?
• Significance of solder alloy’s stress vs. strain relationship vs. solder joint integrity;
• Solder joint fundamentals;
• Solder joint failures;
• Solder joint failure mechanisms – ductile, brittle, ductile-brittle transition fracture;
• Solder joint strengthening metallurgy;
• Solder joint voids vs. reliability - effects, criteria;
• Solder joint surface-crack –causes, effects;
• Distinctions and commonalties between Pb-free and SnPb solder joints;
• Thermal cycling conditions - effects on test results and test results interpretation;
• Testing solder joint reliability – discriminating/discerning parameters;
• Life-prediction model vs. reliability;
• Solder joint performance in harsh environments;
• “Low Temperature Solder” and SnCu+ x, y, z and SnAgCu + x, y, z systems with dopants;
• Best practices and competitive manufacturing.

Monday, January 23, 2023 - 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
PD35: “Preventing Manufacturing Defects and Product Failure”

Focusing on preventing prevailing production defects and product reliability issues that affect yield, cost and performance through an understanding of potential causes and plausible solutions, PDC35 provides a holistic overview of product reliability - the roles of materials, processes, testing/service conditions, and crucial principles behind the product reliability.

Accentuated by lead-free electronics, one selected area related to product failure (tin whisker) and five selected defects (PCB pad cratering vs. pad lifting, BGA head-on-pillow, open or insufficient solder joints, copper dissolution issue and lead-free through-hole barrel filling) will be discussed. Specific defects associated with the reliability of BTC, PoP and BGA assembly will be highlighted. The root causes and preventive measures for each of the five prevalent production defects will be outlined. From practical perspectives, tin whisker with emphasis on risk mitigation through understanding the factors that affect tin whisker growth, and its testing challenges will be outlined. The practical tin whisker criteria for reliability implications in the lead-free environment and the relative effectiveness of mitigating measures will be ranked.

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. Attendees’ questions and comments are warmly welcomed.

Main Topics:

• Premise of production defects and product failure prevention;
• Common production defects and issues;
• PCB pad cratering (vs. pad lifting);
• Open or insufficient solder Joints;
• BGA head-on-pillow defect;
• Copper dissolution;
• Lead-free through-hole barrel filling;
• Defects of BTC and PoP solder joints - prevention and remedies;
• Tin whisker - concerns, practical criteria, testing challenges; growth phenomena;
• Tin whisker - contributing factors, risk mitigation, practical remedies;
• Summary