Process Qualification is used to ensure that existing or proposed manufacturing processes meet or exceed the requirements set forth by the company, a customer, or an established standard. Process Qualification involves assembling the boards with the process options and then testing the boards at various stages of the process. Ion chromatography is often used during Process Qualification, as well as other testing techniques, such as SIR, C3, and visual inspection. As always, Foresite consults with the customer throughout the process and delivers a final report outlining the findings and our recommendations.

This article, published in Circuits Assembly February 2005 issue, explores product reliability. There are a growing number of No Trouble Found (NTF) returns and many companies have not stopped to ask “why?” This article explains some of the root causes – and the repercussions – of NTF returns and what you can do to remedy the situation.

In a lead free (RoHS) compliant world, the optimization of the SAC 305 wave solder process has proven to be a bit more difficult than originally thought. This picture shows bridging on fine pitch bottom side SMT, which has proven to bridge easily, requiring additional touch up operations.