Launch of new industry standard for PCB reliability

Citation

(1999), "Launch of new industry standard for PCB reliability", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 11 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ssmt.1999.21911cad.026

Launch of new industry standard for PCB reliability

Launch of new industry standard for PCB reliability

Keywords Concoat, Printed circuit boards, Reliability

Major failures in electronic circuitry, caused by incompatibility between manufacturing processes, are creating safety and reliability problems and increasing production costs, according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

Ahead of international moves to set new standards for compatibility, Concoat Ltd has developed a new concept in PCB reliability, the Synergie™ electronic production process package (Figure 2).

Until now, only limited work had been done to test the inter-relationship between the many chemical processes needed to complete a PCB. However, following the increasing demand from customers, and general concern in the marketplace, Concoat has undertaken extensive research and developed a new solution to this problem.

Figure 2 Ahead of international moves to set new standards for compatibility, Concoat Ltd has developed a new concept in PCB reliability. The Synergei™ electronic production process package claims to be the first in the industry to solve the compatability problems that are causing major failures in electronic circuitry

The result of this is Synergie™, an ever-growing range of materials, including coatings, solder resists, masks, flux and wire, that work together. Each process material is tested individually and sequentially using Concoat's award-winning Auto-SIR™, which measures the actual effects of both ionic and non-ionic contamination on the surface insulation resistance of assemblies under conditions of accelerated ageing. Testing is carried out every ten minutes rather than once a day to ensure optimum reliability.

Synergie™ has evolved in response to huge market demand for process compatibility. Electronic circuits increasingly employ fine-line, fine pitch, SMT and modem chip-scale packaging, use higher impedances or operating frequencies and are more commonly located in hostile operating environments.

This, coupled with the high incidence of "no-clean" processing methods, has caused major concerns about the synergy between these materials and how they may influence electronic circuitry.

The launch of Synergie™ coincides with NPL's announcement of a three year DTI funded research project, in response to industry needs, which will provide new measurement methods to address reliability and incompatibility issues in electronic production process materials.

For further details contact Graham Naisbitt, Managing Director, Concoat Limited, Frimley Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2PL, UK. Tel +44 (0)1276 691100; Fax: +44 (0)1276 691227; E-mail: sales@concoat.co.uk