SMT Magazine August Issue Tackles War on Process Failure

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The August issue of SMT Magazine features several though-provoking articles tackling the war on process failure in manufacturing electronics assemblies.

Based on our survey, there are four major issues when it comes to quality and process failure: poor process control, poor training of employees around quality, inability to quickly identify where and how waste is being created, and poor technical support from suppliers.

David Dibble of New Agreements Inc. wrote an elaborate narrative on the results of our survey, as well as suggested some strategies that may help businesses in our industries address these issues. You can find a snapshot of David’s article inside this issue, but the full article is published in this month’s The PCB Magazine.

Verdant Electronics’ Joe Fjelstad has written a piece on declaring war on process failure. In particular, he highlighted one of the most prominent causes of defects and failure in electronics, and mentioned how businesses may defeat such a prominent foe.

Another article worth noting is the collaboration between OEMs and EMS firms to combat head-on-pillow defects. Written by technical folks from Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Celestica Inc., Flextronics International, Sanmina Corp., and Plexus Corp., this article addresses the root cause of head-on-pillow (HoP) defect—specifically the link between HoP defects and component warpage—and proposes the need for revised acceptance criteria when it comes to maximum warpage in BGAs.

Alpha's Jason Fullerton also talks about HoP in his article, as well as area array soldering and defect formation mechanisms.

Amy Yin Chen of Naprotek presents seven of the most common and potential options for addressing quality and manufacturability challenges of mission-critical products—in particular, military and aerospace PCBAs, which, in reality, utilize mixed technology, either due to legacy designs or concerns about the interconnection strength of SMT connectors or other critical parts that may be subject to significant shock or vibration.

An article from KYZEN and STI Electronics, meanwhile, looks at another angle when it comes to quality of assemblies: device cleanliness. It says insufficiently cleaned electronics can cause problems due to intermittent connections, corrosion, electrical shorts and arching, and therefore can negatively impact device functionality and end-user requirements.

Finally, Bob Willis discusses the different board and solder defects, and mentions some strategies to help solve these issues.

Click Here To Read The August Issue of SMT Magazine