Lead Free Solder Joint Reliability
Why Switch to Lead Free Solder?
More and more solder joints in circuit boards and electronic products
are changing to lead free solder, placing an emphasis on lead free solder
joint reliability. Mandates in Europe such as WEEE & ROHS and similar
mandates in Japan are driving this change. In the U.S., it is only a
matter of time before electronic products will change over to lead free
solder, so switching over to lead free solder before your competitors
can give you a strong marketing edge.
Lead Free Solder Joint Testing: Lead Free Solder Joint Reliability Testing Issues
Some of the issues facing lead free solder joint reliability testing are:
- Lead free solder is behaves much differently than the existing lead containing solder
when being exposed to environmental stresses such as temperatures and vibration.
- Lead free solder requires much higher soldering temperatures. This creates more
stress on board level components during the manufacturing process.
- There is no long term field reliability data for lead free solder.
- Simple lead free vs. lead containing solder joint test comparisons cannot be made.
- Presently, the material coefficients used in many life prediction models have not
been fully developed for lead free solder.
- Electrical shorts can occur from tin whiskers that grow over time from the lead
free solder joints with the use of tin-plated or pure tin component finishes.
Lead Free Solder Reliability Testing and Lead Free Solder Joint Testing at DES
Delserro Engineering Solutions (DES) are experts in the area of lead free solder joint
reliability testing. We have considerable expertise testing lead free solder joints at
the circuit board level to the finished assembled product.
A typical lead free solder joint reliability test program will include HALT or Rapid HALT,
vibration testing, temperature cycling, and humidity testing. The most common test
specifications are from IPC and JEDEC. We will develop a comprehensive reliability
test plan customized for your individual product and its intended usage. After the lead
free solder joint testing, the solder joints can be examined for tin whiskers. Once your
product has successfully completed its comprehensive reliability program, DES can ensure
its reliability during production by performing HASS.
Saving Money with Lead Free Solder Joint Testing
We can uncover your design and manufacturing weaknesses using our state of the art
lead free solder reliability testing equipment and our customized test program.
By precipitating failures in our lab instead of at your customer's site, we can
save you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in potential warranty costs.
Your product will have higher quality, lower warranty costs, and increased consumer
confidence by successfully performing lead free solder joint testing at DES. The end
result is making your company more profitable. |
