Manufacturing the latest electronic designs requires printing ever smaller deposits of solder paste. Once a critical stencil aperture aspect ratio is reached, other means of improving transfer efficiency (TE) must be investigated. A design of experiments was performed to show the effect of stencil nano-coatings on paste volumes and underscreen cleaning intervals. The key to making this type of study possible is having access to a very accurate and repeatable 3D SPI system. Improvements to the TE and longer underscreen cleaning intervals were realized with the nano-coated stencil. Process monitoring tools including 3D SPI make it possible for new technologies, like nano-coatings and solder paste improvements, to be easily and accurately analyzed and validated.
Having worked for 25 years in the automotive industry, L’Heureux joined Viscom in January as its Business Development Manager for the Americas. His experience spans SMT process development, manufacturing engineering and global project management for inspection technologies. His current responsibilities include sales and global key account management for computer, consumer & communications, OEM and EMS.