Failure Analysis of Soldering Defects on Immersion Tin PCB Pads

Soldering defects are a common cause of PCB failure. There are several different types of defects that can lead to PCB failure. The article below explores three types of defects: Wetting, Plating through hole barrel cracking, and Liquid fluxes.

Wetting defects

Exposure to environmental factors during the manufacturing process can affect the wetting ability of immersion tin pcb pads. This can reduce assembly yield and second level reliability. Therefore, it is important to avoid or correct poor wetting defects. This research explored the effects of different temperature conditions on the wetting ability of these pads.

Immersion tin pads exhibit a variety of defects that can cause the assembly process to fail. Unlike dewetting, which is a defect in which the soldering joint is not formed, wetting defects occur when the molten solder does not adhere to the wettable surface of the PCB pads or components. This can result in holes or voids in the solder joints.

Non-wetting defects can also cause serious structural issues. In addition, they may result in poor electrical conductivity, loose components, and poor PCB pad performance.

Plating through hole barrel cracking

This study evaluated the reliability of immersion tin pcb pads through a failure analysis of soldering defects. To do this, we studied the behavior of the intermetallics inside solder joints by SEM. We compared the results of the aged and non-aged assemblies to understand how the intermetallics affect joint reliability.

The results of the investigation show that the electroless nickel coating on immersion tin PCB pads is characterized by deep crevasses and fissures. These open boundaries are attributed to the corrosive environment generated during ENIG plating. This problem can be solved by introducing a nickel controller into the plating process. This countermeasure helps to maintain good wettability in the pad and prevent oxidation.

Liquid fluxes

This failure analysis of soldering defects also includes the analysis of the flux used in the process. The use of different liquid fluxes in the reflow process may lead to different results. One method used for analyzing the effects of flux on soldering defects on immersion tin PCB pads is to assemble the flip-chip assemblies with readout chips on the bottom.