The SMTA International Conference & Expo (SMTAI) is the flagship conference of SMTA. This conference offers a platform for suppliers, buyers, and users in the electronics manufacturing and assembly industry. The conference reaches out to practical strategies and innovations tailored to address specific challenges and goals in electronics assembly.
Dr. Michael Osterman from CALCE will deliver two presentations during the conference. In Session LST1: Thermal Fatigue and Mechanical Shock Reliability of LTS Solder Joints, the first presentation, co-authored by Aaron Mendelsohn, titled “Thermal Cycle Fatigue Life of Low-Temperature Solders,” will discuss the reliability of solder interconnects, emphasizing the importance of maintaining low resistance throughout their lifespan.
“Solder interconnects are required to provide low resistance connections between packaged devices and printed boards. To assure the reliability of electronics, solder interconnects must maintain low resistance over their expected life. Thermal cycling fatigue is one of the main reliability concerns for solder. For the introduction of low-temperature solders with reflow peak temperatures below 180C, their thermal cycle fatigue life must be characterized. This paper presents a multiple component type test board and time to failure data for solder interconnects formed with low-temperature solders for BGAs, QFNs, and SMR packages.”
Dr. Osterman will also present in Session RHE8: Material Specification for High Performance on the “Solder Performance and Reliability Assurance Project – Solder Performance and User Handbook for Defense Systems” on behalf of the USPAE SPRA Project Team. This presentation will address the challenges posed by the shift from tin-lead to lead-free solder in defense electronics.
“Defense electronics have been traditionally made with tin-lead solder, but the shift to lead-free production in the electronics industry is making it difficult to maintain tin-lead solder production. This shift was primarily driven by the European Union’s directives on hazardous substances and end-of-life vehicles. As a result, the majority of electronics and electronic components are now produced with lead-free solder. However, to continue tin-lead solder production, components must be assessed for compatibility and potentially reprocessed. These processes can delay defense electronics production and a reluctance to adopt new lead-free technology due to uncertainty about its performance and the lack of widely accepted performance specifications for lead-free solder.”
To address these challenges, the United States Partnership for Assured Electronics, Solder Performance and Reliability Assurance (SPRA) project, sponsored by the Cornerstone Other Transfer Activity CIR CS-20-1302 for Lead-Free Defense Electronics Public-Private Partnership, aims to develop a performance specification and handbook for approving the use of solder in printed board assembly production for defense applications. The performance specification sets forth the requirements for solder used to form interconnects and provides a verification process for the requirements. To support the performance specification and support adoption of new solders, a solder agnostic handbook has been drafted. This paper will be discussed in detail regarding the performance specification and handbook.”
For more information on these research areas and the USPAE SPRA Project or queries, please contact Dr. Michael Osterman.
Dr. Michael Osterman (Ph.D., University of Maryland, 1991) is a Senior Research Scientist and the director of the CALCE Electronic Products and System Consortium at the University of Maryland. He heads the development of simulation assisted reliability assessment software for CALCE and simulation approaches for estimating the time to failure of electronic hardware under test and field conditions. Dr. Osterman served as a subject matter expert on phase I and II of the Lead-free Manhattan Project sponsored by the Office of Naval Research in conjunction with the Joint Defense Manufacturing Technical Panel (JDMTP). He has consulted with automotive, medical, defense, and industrial electronic companies on the transition to lead-free materials. He organized and chaired the International Symposium on Tin Whiskers from 2007 to 2013. He has written eight book chapters and over 120 articles. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ASME, IMAPS, and SMTA.
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