The electronics assembly industry has witnessed the return of a familiar yet unappreciated process step — defluxing. Once commonplace, then relegated to military applications, today defluxing has once again moved toward the mainstream. The miniaturization of electronics assemblies and their components, implementation of lead-free alloys, combined with improved quality standards and higher reliability expectations have culminated to form a growing demand for ionicly clean electronic circuits. Modern defluxing methods, chemical selections, cleanliness testing, throughput considerations, and effluent handling will be discussed.
Kevin’s presentation will also address the fact that no-clean has less relevance today due to miniaturization, increased densities, increased heat, increased reliability expectations, increased liability and an increased reliance on quality standards. Furthermore, he will discuss the principle that cleaning increases reliability, increases yields, reduces field failures, reduces liability and costs less than ever before.