EIPC has particular pleasure in bringing news of a further Technical Snapshot Webinar to be held on 17^th February. In these confined days of lock down, and exhortations to stay at home and only go out for exercise, this only exercises the natural inclination to hop on a ‘plane to some sunshine. Although not the same as Factor 20, one of our Webinars gives a high degree of protection from harmful ignorance, and you do not have to go out in the cold.

To be chaired by Christian Behrendt from Ilfa, the Webinar will have three speakers.

(1)Assessing PCBA cleanliness: the benefits of Ion Chromatography – Freddy Gilbert, Zestron.A sufficient PCBA cleanliness level is undeniably essential, not only to ensure that subsequent processes go forward smoothly (e.g. conformal coating), but also to prevent failures induced by corrosive and hygroscopic contaminants. Ion Chromatography (IC) is a useful extracting method for the assessment of PBA ionic cleanliness. It gives a good hint regarding the sensitivity of the assembly to moisture-related failure mechanisms. The IPC has established different extraction parameters in Ion Chromatography, whose importance will be discussed throughout this webinar.

Freddy studied Material Sciences and Engineering at the Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Montpellier and the Technical University of Berlin. In his position as Technology Analyst in the ZESTRON Reliability & Surfaces team, he organizes and conducts Technology Coachings focused on failure analysis, surface analysis as well as risk assessment in the field of electronic control units and conformal coating.

(2) PCBA cleanliness as a means to improve intrinsic humidity robustness – Dr. Rajan Ambat of the University of Denmark PCBA cleanliness is a key factor determining the humidity interaction when exposed to harsh climatic conditions, and therefore reliability. This talk will elaborate on the effect of wave and reflow solder chemistry on residue formation after flux activation, residue interaction with humidity, and resulting reliability problems for electronics. Talk will comprehensively cover the cleanliness issues resulting from wave and reflow soldering process, and how the knowledge can be used for increasing the intrinsic humidity robustness of PCBA based on our research activities.

Dr, Ambat is currently Professor of Corrosion and Surface Engineering at Division of Materials and Surface Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. He is also the Manager for the Centre for Electronic Corrosion/CreCon Industrial Consortium on climatic reliability of electronics at DTU, and Research Manager for the Corrosion node of Danish Hydrocarbon Research and Technology Centre.

(3) Proposed Updates to the Cleanliness Section of the IPC-6012 Automotive Addendum – Emma Hudson, HTC. The presentation will look at the proposals being made for the cleanliness section of IPC-6012 Automotive Addendum. The team is looking at expanding the current section to enhance the requirements and recommendations based on input from SMEs from the industry about the problems being found and how we can implement testing to ensure the cleanliness level of the PCB received by the assembler. The changes are only at the proposal stage and we would welcome input from the industry.

Emma Hudson (L) is no stranger to EIPC members, she is our Vice-Chair. After graduating with a BEng in Materials Technology, Emma spent seven years working for a tier-1 automotive electronics manufacturer. She devoted the next 12 years to helping the PCB industry through the maze of safety certification and gained the reputation for being the “UL lady”. Emma is a Board Member of the ICT, Chair of the British committee for Electronics Assembly Technology, IEC TC91 Convenor for the Requirements for Electronics Assemblies group, a member of the UL Standards Technical Panel, and Vice-Chair of two IPC committees.

There will be a Q&A session after the last speaker.

For EIPC members the webinar is free of charge; for non-members the fee will be € 50,-.