Knowledge Hub

Your Gateway to Technical Knowledge Exchange for the Global Electronics Community

Explore our database of industry knowledge that fuels innovation, learning, and professional growth. Knowledge Hub is a collection of conference technical papers, webinars, presentations, on-demand video and more. You can search by author, title, keyword and type of content. You can also search for keywords and topics in the Tag field. Access to Knowledge Hub is reserved for members.

Opening Eyes on Fiber Weave and CAF

The signal channels that link high speed processors to memory and various other peripherals,are limited by the inherent characteristics of the printed circuit board. These are what ultimately c .. read more

A Non-Vacuum Process for Deposition of Thin Copper on Flexible Base Materials

The use of flexible circuit boards in the design and manufacture of electronic products has experienced a consistent and rapid growth over the last 15 years because their light weight and physi .. read more

Polyphenylene Ether Macromonomers. Iii. Enhancement of Dielectric Materials

Two major trends in printed wiring boards electronics are applications that require higher operating frequency,often in the radio frequency range (GHz),and the use of lead free solder assembly. .. read more

Novel Dielectric Materials: Breaking the Gigahertz Barrier

For many critical electronic applications,there is a need for dielectric systems that exhibit better electrical insulation performance than epoxies and other conventional materials. In the prod .. read more

Validated Test Method to Characterize and Quantify Pad Cratering Under Bga Pads on Printed Circuit Boards

The conversion to lead free Ball Grid Array (BGA) packages has raised several new assembly and reliability issues. One reliability concern becoming more prevalent is the increased propensity fo .. read more

Qualification of Thin Form Factor PWBs for Handset Assembly

The handheld wireless product market place demands products that are small,thin,low-cost and lightweight and improved user interfaces. In addition,the convergence of handheld wireless phones wi .. read more

To be or not to be in Color: A 10 year study of the benefits and pitfalls of including color information in AOI systems

Imagine that you were choosing a camera for your AOI system. Should you opt for a black and white camera or a color camera? This seems like a no-brainer. Most of us would go for a color camera. .. read more

Bridging Supply Chain Gap for Exempt High-Reliability OEM’s

RoHS exempt high reliability OEMs breathed a sign of relief for not having to go through the grind of revising their processes and material to be RoHS compliant. However,this was short lived be .. read more

Preparing Supply Chains for the Disruption of Green Transitions

The European Union list of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs) published in the Registration,Evaluation,Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation,requires producers of A .. read more

SMT Process Characterization and Financial Impact

Portable Electronics devices are having more functionality but the size is getting smaller. What it means to SMT is to place more,smaller and ultra fine pitch devices on PC board. This makes SM .. read more

Low-Silver BGA Assembly Phase I – Reflow Considerations and Joint Homogeneity Third Report: Comparison of Four Low-Silver Sphere Alloys and Assembly Process Sensitivities

Some Ball Grid Array suppliers are migrating their sphere alloys from SAC305 (3% Ag) or 405 (4% Ag) to alloys with lower silver contents. There are a numerous perceived benefits to this move in .. read more

Lead Free Process Development with Thick Multilayer PCBA Density in Server Applications

Although the EU RoHS legislation restricts the use of lead in electronics equipment,many high-end multi layer server printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) continue to be built with lead unde .. read more

Comparison of Thermal Fatigue Performance of SAC105 (Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu),Sn- 3.5Ag,and SAC305 (Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) BGA Components with SAC305 Solder Paste

Many BGA and CSP component suppliers have begun shipment of components with a variety of “second generation” Pb-free solder ball alloys. Much of the motivation for the alloy changes has been to .. read more

FLAT-WRAP™ A Novel Approach to Copper Wrap Plate

Copper Wrap Plate as specified in IPC 6012B table 3-2,is a requirement developed to enhance reliability for PCB’s designed with via structures that require planarization and surface capping. PC .. read more

The Influence of Material Reactivity in Dk/Df Electrical Performance

Over the years,signal integrity performance and bandwidth gets more critical for today’s higher signal transmission speeds and bandwidth demand in every field of applications such as computing, .. read more

Opening Eyes on Fiber Weave and CAF

The signal channels that link high speed processors to memory and various other peripherals,are limited by the inherent characteristics of the printed circuit board. These are what ultimately c .. read more

Bare Board Material Performance after Pb-Free Reflow

The High Density Packaging Users Group (HDPUG) consortia completed an extensive study of 29 different bare board material and stackup combinations and their associated performance after 6X Pb-f .. read more

Reliability and Microstructure of Lead-Free Solder Joints in Industrial Electronics after Accelerated Thermal Aging

The reliability of lead-free (LF) solder joints in surface-mounted device components (SMD) has been investigated after thermo-cycle testing. Kirkendall voids have been observed at the interface .. read more

Long Term Reliability Analysis of Lead Free and Halogen Free Electronic Assemblies

The New England Lead Free Consortium,composed of many companies in the electronic supply chain in the regional area and chaired by the author; has embarked on an extensive long term reliability .. read more

Copper Pad Dissolution and Microstructure Analysis of Reworked Plastic Grid Array Assemblies

An experimental study was conducted to examine the impact of rework processes on quality and reliability. In this study,676 IO plastic ball grid array packages were assembled with Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu .. read more

Rework Process Window and Microstructural Analysis for Lead-Free Mirrored Bga Design Points

Hot gas rework of BGAs with a mirrored BGA design configuration using SnAgCu based lead-free alloys is more challenging as compared to conventional SnPb techniques. Rework of BGAs using a conve .. read more

A Study on Copper Dissolution in Liquid Lead Free Solders under Static and Dynamic Conditions

During lead-free wave soldering or rework operation for through hole components,high rate copper dissolution may occur to printed wiring boards. It is widely believed that Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) lead-f .. read more

Low Cost Optical Thickness Measurement of Conformal Coatings

Conformal coatings are used in high reliability electronics to protect the circuits from environmental contaminants. They are applied by a variety of methods,and in varying thicknesses. Confirm .. read more

Changing the Paradigm For Optical and X-Ray Inspection of Backplanes and Large PCB Assemblies

Fully automatic X-ray Inspection (AXI) is an established technique for inspecting component mounting and solder joint integrity on PCBA’s. It is occasionally used for the detection of faults on .. read more

Influence of Electroless Copper on IC Reliability

The process of plating through holes (PTH) is inherent to modern PCB manufacturing. In an arena of increasing circuit density and layer counts,the reliability of the PTH process is under consta .. read more