This white paper addresses six questions relating to the phenomenon of tin whiskers.

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.

Typically, dispensing platform specifications do not include the error associated with positional mechanisms, which greatly contributes to final accuracy and repeatability.

This paper describes a practical approach to characterizing the thermal performance of similarly configured rework systems, with the aim of yielding like thermal performance.

There are several steps in determining IF and HOW to implement a de-fluxing strategy. Lead-free soldering and reflow environments mandate a more critical de-fluxing due-diligence process.

The transition to lead-free solder technology presents a long list of challenges for the manufacturing shop floor engineers, and that list includes an array of cleaning challenges.

Just as Cinderella’s 12:00 deadline turned her coach into a pumpkin in the famed children’s fairy tale, at midnight on June 30th all electronics manufacturing will magically transform to lead-free. Well, not quite.

You’ve heard it before: “revolutionary”, “one of a kind”, “ground-breaking”. All of these terms are frequently used to describe new technologies introduced to the marketplace.  

When the electronics industry first began to discuss the mandatory move to lead-free manufacturing, it was widely believed that the transition would also enable more reliable solder joints.

Many people ask me what evidence they need to demonstrate that a product is compliant, plus what proof is necessary to show due diligence to customers and government bodies to meet the requirements of RoHS. 

Few technologies have recently received as much attention as RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification).

In this study, all the exemptions proposed by the electronic industry are reported, all the official exemptions granted by the EU Commissioner are stated, and all the exemptions voted ‘YES’ by the EU TAC but not officially published in the OJ of EU are presented.

Although the United States has been slow to respond, conversion is inevitable, including in high reliability applications. 

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

The iNEMI Fiber Connector End-Face Inspection Project conducted research to quantify the correlation between fiber optic connector cleanliness and optical performance, with the goal of developing industry-standard criteria.

I still can’t escape from lead-free! Having spent 5 intense years at Cookson Electronics on the key materials transitions I now find myself coming at it from another direction – how can we use nanomaterials to improve some of the processing issues?