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Profiling Dual Lane Variable Speed Reflow Ovens

February 26, 2014 by Profiling Guru Leave a Comment

Profiling a Dual Lane Reflow Oven

Dual Lane Reflow Oven Application Note — Download

Dual lane or multiple lane ovens are not new, what is new is a trend to vary the speed of each individual lane. On face this is a brilliant idea, you can run more than one production board down the same oven at the same time. Problem though with most manufacturers already challenged as it is with developing a robust profile on a single lane oven you are just adding an incredible about of complexity, right?

Fred Dimock of BTU authors an excellent paper in the March Issue of Circuits Assembly, titled “Practical Thermal Profile Expectations in a Dual-Lane, Dual-Speed Reflow Oven – Developing a recipe that with satisfy both boards.”

The key to developing an oven recipe is by using intelligent prediction tools such as the KIC Navigator and a methodology outlined by the same company KIC in an application paper titled, “Optimizing the Recipes in a Dual Lane/Dual Speed Reflow Oven Using the KIC2000 Software with KIC Navigator.”

Dimock in his study concludes:

With a little understanding and work, a process engineer can develop the data to help find a recipe that will allow them to establish the set points and belt speeds for dual-lane dual-speed reflow ovens. It can be done in multiple runs with actual belt speed changes or as few as two runs by using predictive software. It will also help determine the extreme cases where the boards are too different to be run on a dual-lane dual-speed oven. In all cases, the engineer needs to confirm the results by profiling the actual boards at the belt speeds they determined would be best. The great lesson is that after the first profiles are optimized on the reflow oven, much of the remainder of the work can be done at the engineer’s desk without tying up the production equipment.

To read the full article click here.

Stop Destroying PCBs in profiling your reflow process

January 22, 2010 by Profiling Guru Leave a Comment

2009 Presentation at SMTA Long Island on how to use software tools that avoid destroying your PCBs during the profiling process.

To view the complete video series (click here).

To subscribe to my Podcast for iTunes (click here).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:00 — 26.9MB)

Across the Belt Uniformity and Reflow Profiling

October 13, 2009 by Profiling Guru Leave a Comment

I am often asked the question about how to handle components that are close to the outer edge of a PCB. Today a question came in on Circuitnet to highlight this problem:

Title: Issues with BGA Components Near PCB Edges

What issues are we likely to see when we place BGA components very close to PCB edges?

What impact might it have on reliability?

Will equipment (screening, placement, reflow, etc.) require modification?

T. B.

I leave it to the screen printer, pick and place and reflow oven guys to answer the equipment part of the equation, but I can answer how one can determine with a profile if your BGA is getting what it needs as well as how other aspects of your PCB are impacted.

Across the Belt Uniformity:

There can be anywhere from a 2 – 5+C variation in temperature across the belt. For example, BTU uses this homemade fixture to test for uniformity. The idea is fairly simple. With a set of type K calibrated thermocouples, you can easily monitor 6 TCs across the belt. You want obviously to see the least amount of variation (if you were wondering the front TC is for measuring air temperature which is also used for automatic mapping of the profile to the oven zones with KIC2000 software).

Profiling for Reflow:

BGAs typically require more heat to reach their peak temperatures than smaller massed components like electrolytic capacitors. For example, your BGA might have a peak temperature of 245C.

While your electrolytic capacitors cannot tolerate as high as a peak temperature, therefore you want to set their maximum peak temperature lower, for example to 235C (this is just a relative example).

With KIC2000 software, you can define each component in isolation. If the BGA is off on the edge, I might need to bump up even further my peak temperature spec since in many reflow ovens, the outer edge near the rail is the coolest. This is why you see some ovens with heat tape running along the rails! Keep in mind of course as you crank up your oven to reach higher temps to reflow your outer edge BGAs, everything else on your board is also going to be impacted. More the reason you better be hooking up thermocouples to temperature sensitive components to ensure they do not get fried while you are focusing your attention on your BGAs. Profiling software that can “balance” the board is a must. If there ever was a case where software can help solve complex problems in profiling, here you go!

I had a webinar back in July talking about BGA profiling. There is also a video that illustrates what I explained above. You can find this in an earlier posting: https://profilingguru.com/reflow/profiling-bga-webinar/

Why are you replacing BGAs?

October 2, 2009 by Profiling Guru Leave a Comment

There is a great post today in Circuitnet titled “BGA Replacement Limits,” that can be found under Circuitmart. Panelists answer the following question:

How many times can a BGA component be replaced at the same location on the same PCB and retain reliability?

Mark McMeen of STI Electronics suggests that the answer may be as little as two times!

…most companies err on the cautious side and only replace twice at the same location after the initial build which is normally 2 thermal cycles for top and bottomside reflow thermal cycles.

I think a broader question needs to be asked, why are you replacing BGAs in the first place? In my experience, often the answer is due to poor reflow profiling. Often there is nothing wrong with the oven, PCB or BGA. Why is it so hard to properly profile a BGA? I believe the reason is most folks don’t have the option of placing a thermocouple underneath the BGA nor sacrificing a board in drilling a hole on the underside for TC placement. In the old days, you could get away with snaking a TCs under the BGA, but with micro BGAs this is just not an option. So what do people do? They stick a TC on top of the BGA or along side it. Many do nothing at all which is kind of scary and wind up asking question like how many times can I redo my board.

To go to show how hot of topic this is, I held a series of webinars a couple months ago with a turnout in the hundreds. I shared some ideas, here is an abridged 8 min version of the session for those of you that missed it. Part of the answer is proper TC attachment which by the way is currently under study at RIT to see the most reliable method as well as determine if there is a non destructive methods that is both valid and repeatable.

The other part of the equation is profiling your PCB not only for your BGAs but also those components that cannot tolerate as high of temperatures. I’ve seen plenty of manufacturers so focused on a $500 BGA, ignoring pretty much what else is going on with other components on their PCB. Certainly having the ability to define separate specifications, for example a peak temp for a DIP while addressing the special needs of your BGAs will lead to fewer BGAs having to be reworked in the first place.

After all, which is better, to treat the symthoms or the root cause?

BGA Profiling Webinar Recording

July 31, 2009 by Profiling Guru Leave a Comment

The following presentation was first held as a 30 min BGA Profiling webinar in July 2009, with over 120 participants. Due to its popularity an abridged 8 min version was created.

To subscribe to my Podcast for iTunes (click here).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:00 — 50.7MB)