Printing of Solder Paste - A Quality Assurance Methodology
This paper describes a method to ensure quality secured data from both solder paste printers and inspection machines in electronic assembly manufacturing.
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Authored By:
Lars Bruno and Tord Johnson
Ericsson AB and MTEK Consulting AB
Katrineholm, Sweden and Osterskar, Sweden
Summary
Solder paste printing is known to be one of the most difficult processes to quality assure in electronic manufacturing. The challenge increases as the technology development moves toward a mix between large modules and small chip components on large and densely populated printed circuit boards. Having a process for quality assurance of the solder paste print is fast becoming a necessity.
This article describes a method to ensure quality secured data from both solder paste printers and inspection machines in electronic assembly manufacturing. This information should be used as feedback in order to improve the solder paste printing process.
Conclusions
This paper has presented a methodology for quality assurance of the solder paste printing process and its adjacent inspection process. The methodology makes it possible to have immediate feedback from the inspection process in order to control the printing process. The methodology utilizes reference boards and stencils to create a standardized way of comparing results.
This standardization makes it possible to:
Perform capability investigation.
Optimize process parameters.
Evaluate new materials and consumables.
Perform efficient troubleshooting.
Pursue status-based maintenance.
It also ensures repeatability and accuracy of the measurement equipment and makes it possible to survey the optimized process stability over time and environmental changes.
Initially Published in the IPC Proceedings
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