Does technology to measure the level of oxidation on surface mount pads exist?
If not, can you suggest a way to quantify or categorize oxidation levels on surface mount pads?
A. D.
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The answer is the use of a Wetting Balance Tester to determine the wet ability of the surface mount leads. The technical term is a meniscograph which measure the time to wet and max force in a graphical basis.
There are companies which provide this service or you can purchase the machine.
Mark T. McMeen is STI Electronics Inc.ʼs Vice President of Engineering Services. He oversees the daily operations of the Engineering Services division of STI. He has over 18 years experience in the manufacturing and engineering of PCBs.
There are several companies that specialize in Solderability Testing. I think that would be a better place to start.
Edward Zamborsky, Regional Sales Manager OK International Inc. Mr. Zamborsky serves as one of OK's technology advisors to the Product Development group. Ed has authored articles and papers on topics such as; Low Volume SMT Assembly, Solder Fume Extraction, SMT Rework, BGA Rework, Lead Free Hand Soldering, Lead Free Visual Inspection and Lead Free Array Rework.
Yes. We use an instrument from ECI Technology to measure oxidation on certain types of surface finishes. The technology is called Sequential Electrochemical Reduction Analysis or SERA. SERA can be used to measure oxidation levels on copper and solders, immersion tin, etc.
It will report a thickness value in Angstroms, and it will also report the presence of intermetallic oxides in tin/copper mixtures. We use this piece of equipment to correlate oxidation levels to artificial ageing of different surface finishes. ECI Technologies website.
Mike Scimeca created FCT Assembly after the purchase of Fine Line Stencil, Inc., and consists of two major operations: stencil manufacturing and the manufacturing of electronic assembly products such as solder paste, flux and solder bar.
