Challenges of the Miniaturization in the Electronics Production on the example of 01005 Components

Abstract

The electronics production experiences a continuous trend towards miniaturization of components. Smaller components lead to a number of challenges in the Surface Mount Technology (SMT) process chain to ensure a stable production process. This paper provides an overview on the main SMT production processes and focuses on the stencil printing process, which is said to be an error-prone process and has the demand of further optimization and research. One important criteria for the solder paste printing stencils is the area ratio (AR), which is defined by the IPC-7525 as the area of the aperture opening to the area of the aperture walls. Especially in mixed assembly designs AR is becoming critical low for the miniaturized 01005 components. In this paper, the printing process for miniaturized components is investigated using specially designed area ratio test stencils and an active squeegee system. The design of these stencils includes values for the AR from 0.65 down to 0.45 with different aperture shapes, which include gradually adjusted in length and width, rectangles as well as circular apertures for reference. Furthermore, the orientation of the rectangular apertures in relation to the printing direction is regarded. To include the effect of the active squeegee system all tests were conducted with the system activated as well as deactivated.