As the drive towards assembly miniaturization continues and surface mount technology matures, components are becoming ever smaller and thinner.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 EMS companies face increasing pressure from competition in low-cost manufacturing countries to produce assembled boards at lower cost, with increased complexity and to tighter deadlines.

One area of interest that requires additional experimentation and understanding is the ability of the Pb-free alloys to self-center offset components compared to the Sn/Pb alloy.

With fine pitch assemblies, the accuracy and repeatability of the pick & place equipment become more critical to achieving an acceptable process yield.

As demand for lighter and more compact products in the field of mobile phones, PDAs and other devices continues, use of 01005 components--at 50% the weight and  one quarter the area of 0201 components--will grow in coming years.