IEEE Reliability Society

Santa Clara Valley Chapters

One-Day Educational Symposium:

"Mandated Pb-Free Solder Assemblies: Exploring the Transition’s Impact on Product Reliability"
October 5, 2004

As governments in Europe and Asia begin the phase-in of their "Removal of Hazardous Substances" regulations, electronics designers and manufacturers are in the final stages of changing from classic tin-lead solders for their electronic products to various compositions of Pb-free solders. The industry has 100 years of experience and reliability optimization for tin-lead solders; the new solders present us with considerable uncertainty. Will our computers, wireless devices, and other products show considerably lower reliability over the next few years? What are the risks for which we must be planning? New solders and soldering temperatures, new component materials and unknown life models all increase the risk to product designer’s meeting customer expectations. The focus in this special one-day event is on the technical engineering impact of the transition. What do we know, what do we not know, and where are the remaining significant risks? We will not cover the awareness of the RoHS, political background, etc -- that has been adequately covered in many talks, conference sessions, and papers over the past two years. We are focused instead on the uncertainties and our responses to them. The NEMI Roadmap suggests certain solder compositions for consideration, and several are likely to be used; this complicates testing and certification efforts. [See our information about the NEMI-CPMT Society partnership.]

We thank our corporate sponsors! Lunch and refreshments are funded by: Qualmark Accelerated Stress/Life Testing for reduced warranty costs and improved time to market of new products. Ops A La Carte Professional Consulting Services to assist clients in developing and executing any elements of Reliability throughout the Organization and Product Life Cycle. Details: Location: Hewlett-Packard Co, 10435 N. Tantau, Cupertino (map) Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2004 Registration: 8:00 AM, Symposium: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM Fee: $150 for IEEE Members, $175 for non-Members Inquire, for our full-time student and unemployed rates Two Ways to Register: With a Check or a Purchase Order, please use our Registration Form For credit card payment, please use our secure PayPal account: Registration for IEEE Members ($150): Registration for Non-Members ($175):

Program

8:30 - 10:10 AM: "Lead-Free Solder Joint Reliability" This presentation gives an overview of solder joint reliability trends for popular lead-free alloys such as Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC). The performance of lead-free and mixed assemblies is put in perspective with that of SnPb assemblies and potential risk areas are identified. Knowledge gaps in the assessment of lead-free compared to SnPb reliability are discussed as well. Material properties and fatigue curves are presented in an attempt to understand differences in the performance of SnPb and lead-free assemblies. The talk highlights huge mechanistic differences in the creep behavior of SnPb and SAC solders under a variety of stress and temperature conditions. These include vastly different creep mechanisms and the dominating effect of primary and tertiary creep. A new creep modeling approach, called the Alpha-Omega (α-ω) method, is being developed to that effect. These findings have huge implications for the design of thermal cycling test profiles and the interpretation of test results. Jean-Paul Clech consults in the area of assembly quality and reliability for clients across the electronics industry. He is the principal developer of the Solder Reliability Solutions (SRS) model for reliability assessment of SnPb assemblies and has consulted on the design of small to large circuit boards in low to high reliability applications. His current research interests are in harsh environments, lead-free properties and reliability, flexing and vibration of circuit boards. He previously was a member of technical staff and then consultant at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He received the Diplôme d' Ingénieur (Materials Science major) from Ecole Centrale de Paris, France, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. He has authored over 40 papers and has been a workshop instructor and invited speaker at corporations and venues in Asia, Europe and North America. In 2003, Jean-Paul received the Member of Distinction Award from the Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA).	10:20 - Noon: "Managing Compatibilities for Lead-Free Transition and Environmental Compliance" As we move closer to 2006, leading OEMs and EMS companies worldwide are getting ready for environmental compliance under WEEE and RoHS. As lead-free soldering moves from the laboratory to the manufacturing floor and the worldwide electronics industry gradually implements lead-free solder in product design and printed circuit board (PCB) assembly, it becomes clear that compatibility issues are critical to a smooth transition from the current Sn-Pb solder to lead-free solder. This presentation will compare Sn-Pb and lead-free solders and review the key compatibility issues, including materials compatibility (including solder and PCB), component compatibility, process compatibility, equipment compatibility, design compatibility, and quality and reliability compatibility. Other issues such as strategies and methodologies for RoHS compliance management, product conversion to RoHS compliance, product end-of-life management through re-purposing and recycling, will also be discussed. Dr. Dongkai Shangguan received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China, Ph.D. degree in Materials from the University of Oxford, U.K., and MBA degree from the San Jose State University. He conducted post-doctoral teaching and research at the University of Cambridge and then at The University of Alabama, and lectured at Wayne State University as Adjunct Faculty. Dongkai worked for 10 years at Ford/Visteon as Senior Technical Specialist and Supervisor of Advanced Electronics Manufacturing and Supplier Quality, before he joined Flextronics in 2001 where he is currently Director for Advanced Process Technology. Dongkai has published 1 book and over 130 papers, has given numerous technical presentations, and is currently under contract to develop a new book on lead-free solder reliability. He has 19 U.S. and international patents issued and a number of U.S. and international patents pending. Dongkai is a senior member of IEEE, and actively participates in professional organizations and consortia, and has chaired technical sessions at numerous conferences. Dongkai has received a number of recognitions for his contributions to the industry, including the "Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award" from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and the "Soldertec Lead-Free Soldering Award". He is listed in "American Men & Women of Science" and "Who's Who in America".
Noon - 1 PM: Lunch (provided) and discussion time
1:00 - 2:45 PM: "Failures at the Customer and the Influence of Pb-Free" The electronics industry is currently expending significant resources on identifying and mitigating the risks involved in transitioning product to Pb-free. The major focus of these efforts has been on addressing the obvious change in material. This includes solderability, solder joint reliability, and tin whiskering. However, an alternative approach in identifying potential issues has recently been developed by CALCE Laboratory Services. While the risk of new failure mechanisms is real, the effect of Pb-free solder on the most common root-causes for product failure will most likely have a larger influence on companies’ success or failure with this material conversion. Reviewing over 100 field and qualification failures from a wide range of companies, the primary failure sites in the electronic industry were identified. A detailed analysis was performed to understand how changes in materials and the manufacturing process would influence these critical failure mechanisms. Testing was performed to validate hypotheses. Results demonstrated the possibility of releasing a percentage of products into the field with potentially latent defects. This deleterious outcome can occur even when designers and manufacturers follow industry standards and specifications. Dr. Craig Hillman is the Director of Laboratory Services at CALCE. Dr. Hillman received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Materials at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Dr. Hillman completed a research fellowship at Cambridge University before accepting his current position at CALCE EPSC. Dr. Hillman's areas of interests are concerned with identifying and characterizing failure mechanisms and funneling that information back into the design phase to allow for the creation of robust electronic products and systems. Recent investigations have focused on conductive filament formation (CFF) and its variant vertical filament formation (VFF), cracking in multilayer ceramic capacitors, red phosphorus-induced failures in encapsulated microcircuits, and electrochemical migration of alternative finishes. Dr. Hillman's broad interest in the entire electronic product lifecycle has lead to the development of CALCE Laboratory Services as a world-leader in providing turnkey solutions to electronic reliability issues. Capabilities include supplier selection and management, design for reliability, mechanical and thermal analysis and accompanying solutions, accelerated test strategies, and failure analysis and root cause identification.	3:00 - 4:30 PM: Panel and Discussion Bring your own issues and concerns, to be addressed in this free-ranging discussion, as our presenters plus several local experts form a panel to exchange views, resources, and directions.