Cleanliness Requirements: A Moving Target
Foresite and IBM, Presented at Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium
The electronic assembly industry has changed drastically in the past twenty-five years, and the standard method used to clean high-reliability surface mount assemblies has evolved along with it.
Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) cleanliness was historically monitored using visual inspection and ROSE (Resistivity of Solvent Extraction) testing. This system met the needs of the time, but in recent years the entire chemistry of electronic assembly has changed. These changes necessitate more demanding cleanliness requirements for PCBAs. This white paper explores these requirements and suggests methods to monitor and assess the cleanliness of electronic assemblies today.
This white paper was originally published in the proceedings of the SMTA Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium, Kauai, Hawaii, February 11- 14, 2019.