Circuits Assembly - July 2008 - (Page 30)

Emerging Technologies ‘Warm’ Manufacturing Heats Up By Dr. Alan Rae, Dr. Andrew Skipor and Marc Chason Nanotechnology poses an attractive solution for lower-temp soldering. H igher reflow process temperatures are causing concern among electronics manufacturers. Product reliability can be diminished by the residual stresses in PWB assemblies that these higher temperatures cause. Higher temperatures also require tougher qualification requirements for components and sometimes a significant change in manufacturing processes.1 Low-temperature or room temperature assembly processes have the potential to improve field reliability, streamline manufacturing and reduce cost. As nano-structured and more sensitive components are introduced, some with biological components that have to interface with electronic Figure 1. The tipping point in properties found in many materials at the nanoscale. 30 Circuits Assembly JULY 2008 detection systems, lower-temperature assembly processes will become a necessity. “Warm manufacturing” is a term coined by the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) to describe processes that can be used to assemble electronic devices at temperatures lower than traditional solder reflow. The need for warm manufacturing stems from: · Increased Pb-free solder reflow temperatures causing increased failure rates of existing components and devices. · Increased thermal sensitivity of newer devices that can contain nanoscale semiconductor structures, MEMS devices, proteins and other low-temperature organic materials. Several novel nanotechnology applications have shown great promise as solutions for warm manufacturing. Encompassing many diverse disciplines that permit manipulation matter at the atomic level, nanotechnology enables radically new approaches to material property enhancement and synthesis. Nanomaterial solutions have the potential to augment and enhance traditional manufacturing processes, make products better, enable new product concepts, and disrupt industry. Although none of the technical solutions currently available is sufficiently developed to provide a universal, easily integrated process for lower temperature assembly, initial work has shown encouraging results. This article discusses some of these applications. Nano-solder: melting point depression. An example of how nanotechnology can be used to modify assembly process temperatures is the excellent work over the past several years on meltcircuitsassembly.com http://circuitsassembly.com

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Circuits Assembly - July 2008 Contents Caveat Lector Industry News Market Watch Talking Heads Focus on Business Global Sourcing On the Forefront Screen Printing Tech Tips Will Electronics Follow the Sun? ‘Warm’ Manufacturing Heats Up Reputation Trumps Recession, China ‘Web Circuits’ A Novel Non-VOC Conformal Coating Krypton: Benchmarking Customer Satisfaction 2008-09 CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Buyers Guide Wave Soldering Pb-Free Lessons Learned Process Doctor Materials World SMTA Int'l Product Preview Ad Index Assembly Insider Technical Abstracts

Circuits Assembly - July 2008

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