The Association Connecting Electronics Industries, IPC, will present a webcast Series on Lead-Free Updates on September 15 - 17, 2009. Each webcast will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 Central time. All three webcasts will be presented by Werner Engelmaier, a consultant on reliability. Each webcast is $100 for IPC members and $125 for nonmembers. For more information, contact Tina Nerad at 847-597-2826.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009: Fundamentals in Solder Joint Reliability
The switch to lead-free solders has created a number of issues in the assembly process as well as with the long-term reliability of assemblies themselves. The threat to the reliability of electronic products comes from three sources: (1) solder joint reliability, (2) printed circuit board (PCB) survivability, and (3) component survivability. The potential damage to assemblies caused by the high temperatures required for most lead-free soldering processes can have an enormous effect on assembly integrity and reliability. During this webcast, various failure modes that have been observed will be highlighted, their underlying damage mechanisms will be defined as well as solution options.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009: Root Cause Analysis of Solder Joint Failure
Stress is the primary root cause of solder joint failure. Higher temperatures required for the lead-free soldering process create a different stress-strain relationship than that for traditional leaded solders. Higher temperatures also stress components and printed circuit boards. The proper selection of components, boards, solder and process variables is critically important in the prevention of solder joint failures. The PCB and component resin systems need to be able to survive the soldering processes without thermal degradation and delamination. Assemblies that seemingly have survived the soldering processes may contain latent defects leading to early field failures. Many of these latent defects are traced back to processing conditions during assembly operations. Only if one is aware of possible failures can one take steps to prevent latent defects.
Thursday, September 17, 2009: Solder Joint Reliability for Pb-Free Solders
Understanding the physics of solder joint failure mechanisms and the probability of occurrence with tin-lead solders took more than 30 years to develop. The available information on the creep-fatigue behavior of lead-free solders is, as yet, barely adequate for the determination of acceleration factors and the development of creep-fatigue models for some SAC solders and inadequate for other lead-free solders.
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