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April 3, 2026 - Updated July 16, 2013 - Originally Posted Pre-bake in a Vacuum
Can the time for pre-baking of components and bare PCBs to eliminate moisture be reduced by using a vacuum oven? What percent of bake time reduction could we expect?
E.B.
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One other caveat: pulling too strong of a vacuum while baking out moisture can actually cause the component body to collapse or crack due to the resultant pressure, and this can sometimes go undetected. Richard D. Stadem Advanced Engineer/Scientist, General Dynamics
Richard D. Stadem is an advanced engineer/scientist for General Dynamics and is also a consulting engineer for other companies. He has 38 years of engineering experience having worked for Honeywell, ADC, Pemstar (now Benchmark), Analog Technologies, and General Dynamics.
Vacuum assisted baking can hasten moisture extraction from boards and components. However it could also cause the problem you are trying to prevent, fast expansion of moisture within the component causing damage to the component. And possibly more important, altering the baking process and not following the standard (Jstd-033) means you are responsible for assuring the "dryness" of the components; you cannot claim you followed the standards.
Senior Project Engineer, Electronic Controls Design Inc
Paul has been with Electronic Controls Design Inc. (ECD) in Milwaukie, Oregon for over 45 years as a Senior Project Engineer. He has seen and worked with the electronic manufacturing industry from many points of view, including: technician, engineer, manufacture, and customer. His focus has been the design and application of measurement tools used to improve manufacturing thermal processes as well as moisture sensitive component storage solutions.
Adding a vacuum bake may reduce the time required to get to your evacuation goal slightly, but whenever baking in a vacuum you can actually increase baking time because of a loss of convection currents in the chamber. The second caveat; should any condensation occur during cooldown, if the vacuum remains on after the heat source is shut off, the condensation can freeze at a higher temperature. You can actually freeze water at room temperature just by pulling a strong vacuum. This freezing action may damage delicate electronics. Richard D. Stadem Advanced Engineer/Scientist, General Dynamics
Richard D. Stadem is an advanced engineer/scientist for General Dynamics and is also a consulting engineer for other companies. He has 38 years of engineering experience having worked for Honeywell, ADC, Pemstar (now Benchmark), Analog Technologies, and General Dynamics.
Using a vacuum oven to prebake bare flex and rigid flex circuits prior to soldering operations can be beneficial due to the fact that you can drive moisture from the circuits at a lower temperature. You will also get a more thorough moisture extraction in a vacuum.In my opinion, the time savings are negligible since heat transfer to the circuits is not as efficient in a vacuum as it is in a standard convection oven where heated air is circulated around the circuits.
Senior Applications Engineer, Flexible Circuit Technologies
Mark Finstad has over 30 years in the flex circuit industry in both design and manufacturing. He is a regular speaker at IPC APEX (Professional development courses) and PCB West (flex circuit design courses). He is also vice chair of IPC-2223 and active member of IPC-6013. Finstad has extensive experience with both domestic and off-shore manufacturing.
Vacuum ovens will certainly reduce baking temperature to below 105 C. As prescribed in IPC-1601, a weight loss v/s time experiment needs to be conducted in order to establish the bake time duration. As with 1 atm bake, the ramp rate should be controlled, this prevent PCB and component damage by reducing the chance of violent out-gassing of moisture vapor.
Laboratory Director, CALCE, University of Maryland
Bhanu Sood is the Laboratory Director at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) and actively assists companies and organizations in all aspects of electronics reliability. Sood's key focus area is in design reviews, custom tests, and failure analysis services. He has authored several articles on board and component level reliability and unique failure mechanisms in electronics.
Yes, in theory this will work. The vacuum will lower the boiling point of water vapor, and also decrease the partial pressure of water vapor present in the oven. Both will work to speed up drying of the components. As to how much, you would have to calculate that, or determine it empirically.The drying process can be monitored by measuring weight loss. An analytical balance of at 0.1mg or finer resolution is required, and good weighing practices must be observed.Also be aware that by pulling a vacuum and heating the parts will have other effects:
Process Engineer, Astronautics
Fritz's career in electronics manufacturing has included diverse engineering roles including PWB fabrication, thick film print & fire, SMT and wave/selective solder process engineering, and electronics materials development and marketing. Fritz's educational background is in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on materials science. Design of Experiments (DoE) techniques have been an area of independent study. Fritz has published over a dozen papers at various industry conferences.
From experience I can tell you that the time reduction is going to happen for sure.The vacuum will help getting the moisture out faster. Regarding the time reduction, that will depend on the surface, thickness of the component as well as the material to be processed.
Engineering and Operations Management, Independent Consultant
Georgian Simion is an independent consultant with 20+ years in electronics manufacturing engineering and operations Contact me at georgiansimion@yahoo.com.
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