Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Mehta, A..
The Electronic Fabrication Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) has been studying ways to improve Printed Wiring Assembly (PWA) processes. The PWA study described here contained typical surface mount devices including 20 mil fine pitch devices and various BGAs.
Ball grid arrays (BGAs), and other area array packages, are becoming more prominent as a way to increase component pin count while avoiding the manufacturing difficulties inherent in processing quad flat packs (QFPs)...Cleaning printed wiring assemblies (PWAs) with BGA components mounted on the surface is problematic...Currently, a low flash point semi-aqueous material, in conjunction with a batch cleaning unit, is being used to clean PWAs. The approach taken at JPL was to investigate the use of (1) semi-aqueous materials having a high flash point and (2) aqueous cleaning involving a saponifier.
This study focuses on improving the SMT assembly process in a low-volume, high-reliability environment with emphasis on fine pitch and BGA packages. Before a process improvement is carried out, it is important to evaluate where the process stands in terms of process capability.