New BTC/QFN Test Board Design Considerations Will Be Presented during SMTAI

KYZEN is pleased to announce that Dr. Mike Bixenman will present the recent paper “BTC/QFN Test Board Design Considerations and Method for Qualifying Soldering Materials and Cleaning Processes” at SMTA International. The paper is co-authored by Mark McMeen and Jason Tynes from STI Electronics, and will be presented during the Manufacturing Excellence Track during Session MFX7 - Cleaning: New Techniques, on Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 9 a.m.

It becomes necessary from time to time to change materials of construction, manufacturing processes, and process conditions. A soldering material or cleaning agent may become unavailable due to environmental regulation, market forces, or reformulation. Certain conditions require some form of verification and validation that the process meets the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) quality and reliability specifications.

J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies states that validation and verification be confirmed with test vehicles that are representative of the product being produced. Many of the industry standard test vehicles are dated and not representative of current electrical and electronic assemblies.

The purpose of this research is to use a non-standard test board with sensors placed at the

bottom termination to study cleanliness and contamination effects under QFN components. The non-standard test board has features to also study thermal paddle design options and to develop a risk profile. This research will report Surface Insulation Resistance effects at the source of the residue

Dr. Mike Bixenman, CTO of KYZEN, has more than 20 years of experience in the design of electronic assembly cleaning materials and process integration. He was the chair of the 2008 IPC/SMTA Cleaning Symposium and is the current chair of the IPC Cleaning Handbook Task Group. Dr. Bixenman holds four earned degrees including a Doctorate in Business Administration.