General Description
This course contains terminology and information relative to solder paste, storage & handling, its characteristics, and the parts of a reflow profile suing paste. The information is very important for production personnel who are involved in paste handling, printing, or reflowing. The contents are not for a specific type or brand of paste, but provide a basic understanding about solder paste. The average learner should take between 1 and 2 hours to complete the course.
Target Audience
The course is suitable for a general audience but will have special applicability to manufacturing engineers, product engineers, and production/assembly personnel.
Course Prerequisites
There is no prerequisite for this course.
Author and Subject Matter Expert
The author and subject matter expert is Mr. James C. Blankenhorn, the co-founder and current president of TechEdgeOnline.com. His experience includes 33 years in electronics, 10 years in semiconductor design and management for TI, Motorola and Honeywell. He has 20 years in managing start-ups including Test International, AWI and SMT Plus. He held the position of VP for Jabil Circuit during a period of rapid growth from $100M to $400M. Mr Blankenhorn holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Arizona State University and is a founding member of the SMTA organization. He has authored over 20 books on SMT and related technologies. He is a featured speaker at many conferences and seminars.
System Requirements
- High speed Internet Connection (DSL, cable, ISDN 128)
- Browser: Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2 (or greater), or Netscape 4.7 (or greater).
- Explorer 5 is recommended
- Flash 4 or greater plug-in
- 16 bit colour, 800 x 600 resolution (minimum requirement)
- Audio card (optional)
- 200 megahertz minimum, 300 megahertz recommended
- 32 RAM minimum, 64 RAM recommended
- 50 mb of available disk cache space
Detailed Course Outline
Module 1
Topics covered:
- State why solder paste is used.
- How can solder paste be reflowed. State the key parts that make up solder paste.
- What solder particles are.
- What the size of solder particles is.
- Define what mesh means.
- State a common solder particle size.
- State why not to use particle sizes too small.
- State the metal content for solder paste.
- State solder particles are made of solder powders.
- Explain why different alloys are used.
- State what stencil life means.
- State what tack time means.
- State what flux is.
- State the types of fluxes used in solder paste.
- State what an activator in a flux is for.
- State the flux activity codes.
- State what RMA & SA mean.
- Explain why water soluble flux is used.
- State why no-clean flux is used.
- State what a solvent does in solder paste.
- Define slump.
- State the types of containers for solder paste.
- State when cold storage is used.
- State how to properly remove paste from cold storage.
- State moisture in paste is a bad thing.
- State why not to leave jars of paste open.
- Explain what to do with old solder paste.
- State what preheating is.
- State what dwell time means.
- State what the peak temperature is during reflow.
- Show what a supplier’s reflow profile looks like.
- State what lead free solder is. Summary