TECHNICAL LIBRARY
Technical Papers/Articles
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BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastics, including baby bottles, sports bottles, reusable food and drink containers, bicycle helmets, CDs and DVDs. It is also an ingredient in the epoxy resins used to line metal cans.
A number of laboratory studies have linked BPA — a synthetic estrogen — to birth defects, low birth weight, cancer, early puberty and other health problems in rats. However, 11 safety agencies around the world have said that BPA is safe for use in food-contact applications.
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Organotin compounds have been used as heat stabilizers in PVC, biocides, wood preservatives, and marine anti-fouling agents. There are 4 classes of organotins with tri-substituted organotin compounds having the most toxic effects on the environment. These compounds are endocrine-disruptors and cause severe reproductive effects in aquatic organisms. There are also concerns in regards to neurotoxic and immunotoxic effects in higher animals.
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Phthalates are plasticizers used to soften rigid plastics and are also used as adhesives and solvents. These compounds are present in a wide variety of products such as children’s toys, cosmetics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and packaging materials just to name a few. There is concern that phthalates leach out of these products and can be absorbed by various means of contact. In the human body, there is serious concern that these compounds have possible adverse effects on human development and reproduction.
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Military Spotlight: Update On Military Qualification And Conformance Of Printed Circuit Boards - Rev. April 2010
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Electrochemical Migration has been discovered on your assembly after burn-in, or worse yet, on a product returned from the field. A leakage current developed between two isolated circuits and a short circuit occurred. You build IPC Class 2, Dedicated Service Electronic, and Class 3, High Performance Electronic, Products, so this type of failure is of great concern to your company. You want to know if this is an isolated incident or is your whole lot in danger of failing in the field? This article outlines options that are available to analyze this specific lot of assemblies and steps that can be taken to prevent ECM failures on future lots.
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The B revision of J-STD-004, Requirements for Soldering Fluxes, was published in December of 2008 and its release celebrated at the APEX conference held in Las Vegas in the spring. Although many flux users and suppliers are contributing members of the J-STD-004 group, there are others who have questions about how to move forward with the qualification of their products to the new standard.
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Trace Newsletter - June 2009
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During the last 5 years, the processes to remove flux residues especially for lead-free and challenging geometries have demonstrated new cleaning obstacles which have to be overcome. A new methodology has been recently developed to further increase the propensity for successful cleaning. At the core of this method is the thermal identification of the residue matrix. Thermal energy changes the physical state, i.e. transitions between liquid, solid and gas phases. By taking advantage of such specific information during phase transitions, the cleaning process can be tailored to such settings, which in turn increases the cleaning success significantly.
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Selecting products that have been qualified by industry standards for use in printed circuit board assembly processes is an accepted best practice.
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First Article Test (FAT) Plans are often required when selling an end product to a branch of the armed services or other industries.
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Originally published in SMTAnews & Journal of Surface Mount Technology, January – March 2009, Vol. 22, Issue 1.
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Many large Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have a detailed procedure and a significant capital investment in place for the selection of printed circuit board suppliers.
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Military Spotlight: Update On Military Qualification And Conformance Of Printed Circuit Boards
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Solid phase microextraction, or SPME, is a robust solvent-less sampling technique capable of concentrating volatile and non-volatile organic compounds in liquid or gas phase for subsequent gas chromatography (GC) analysis. This innovative technique is fast, economical and has the versatility to suit the majority of organic analytes.
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The responsibility of ensuring a quality product rests with the company whose name is on the package. The Supplier Qualification of product can be done in numerous different ways. The most effective and efficient way is having an internationally accredited laboratory certifying your supplier as per your AQL requirements.
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Ion Chromatography is the predominant instrument used in the determination of overall cleanliness of printed circuit boards and assemblies in the medical device industry. Cleanliness testing should be one of many steps in your quality assurance process and its importance is critical as a first step in predicting overall product reliability.
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This presentation covers an internal study focused on determining the affects, if any, of the solvent extract matrix selection on the cleanliness results of a given sample.
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To remain competitive in a global marketplace, businesses must continue to seek ways to deliver products at the lowest possible cost, faster, and at a higher quality level than their competition. A cost-effective means of assuring a high level of confidence in the development, design, and reliability of a new product is though HALT testing.
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All failure analysis is unique to the product and client involved. This procedure is meant as a guideline in conducting a failure analysis. The failure analysis scientist must rely on judgment, experience, knowledge, test results, and the information provided by the client to conduct a proper analysis.
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Keyboard Wear Testing Comparison Results
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October 2006 Update
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This Technical Spotlight addresses several protocols that allow for the RoHS Qualification testing of finished products, whether they are power supplies, network cards, or any other kind of printed circuit assembly.
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Trace Laboratories, a leader in Qualification and Conformance testing of Military PCB's and materials, is pleased to provide our customers with the latest official qualification and testing update notification from DSCC.
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Cleanliness, specifically ionic cleanliness, is an extremely important aspect in the design, fabrication, and construction of a printed circuit assembly as the unsuccessful removal of these materials can cause havoc for the functionality of an assembly once it has been installed into its final application.
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Regulatory restrictions established by the European Union (EU) are in place and will be imposed beginning July 2006. This provides that all manufacturers, retailers, exporters and consumers of electronic and electrical equipment to be sold in Europe comply with EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive.
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This paper studies the impact of the thermal gradient on thermal expansion measurements of materials with varying thermal conductivity characteristics and thickness.
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The September 2005 issue addresses important DSCC news and Trace tips and also includes a biography of those individuals involved in testing of military products.
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Trace Laboratories - East offers formal printed circuit board qualification in accordance with Nortel NPS-25001. Nortel requires the following items be submitted for these qualifications: three bare PCB's, artwork, master drawings, completed Nortel evaluation form, microsections, test coupons, and any special Nortel requirements...
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Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
(FTIR) is a standard technique used in the
identification of contaminating materials
on the surface of printed circuit boards
(PCBs) and around the leads of electronic
components (BGA, capacitors, resistors,
inductors, connectors, diodes, oscillators,
transformers, IC, etc.) on printed circuit
assemblies (PCAs).
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We have conducted a series of experiments designed to measure the flashover strength of various azimuthally symmetric 45 vacuum-insulator configurations. The principal objective of the experiments was to identify a configuration with a flashover strength greater than that of the standard design, which
consists of a 45 polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) insulator between flat electrodes.
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The use of Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) in the analysis of failure related issues of printed circuit boards (PCBs), assemblies (PCAs), and electronic components (BGA, capacitors, resistors, inductors, connectors, diodes, oscillators, transformers, IC, etc.) is a well-established and accepted protocol. As opposed to or simply in addition to normal optical
microscopy, SEM/EDS allows for the
“inspection” of areas of interest in a much
more informative way.
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To comply with recent international governmental mandates, electronics manufacturers are moving to eliminate lead in their products. This push to more environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques, has raised many questions about the quality and durability of products produced without lead. Lead-containing solders and lead-containing finishes of components and circuit boards have been used for decades in the production of electronic assemblies. Typical strength and durability characteristics of joints with lead-containing solders/finishes have been long known. However, there is very little data of these same properties for joints made lead-free solders/finishes...
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As the electronic industry moves to eliminate lead from product, pure tin coatings have become the common replacement for tin-lead surface finish. Tin finish can cause problems not seen with tin-lead, namely whiskers...
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For decades, product quality has been determined through environmental testing such as vibration tests, thermal cycling, mechanical shock, thermal shock, and more. More recently, there has been a significant trend in the marketplace to improve product quality even further. This paper will discuss why Highly-Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and Highly-Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) are starting to supplant traditional vibration and thermal testing to meet these new quality targets.
This article originally appeared in the January 2005 issue of Evaluation Engineering.
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Conformal Coatings are subjected to a wide array of both short and long term testing before their arrival at the assembler/user. This paper will familiarize you with these tests and associated usefulness and shortcomings.
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The broadening use of Surface Insulation Resistance (SIR) testing has brought about a need for a better understanding of the principles of SIR, a knowledge of proper techniques in testing, as well as an understanding of the common specifications governing this test. There are three basic reasons that SIR testing is run – to classify or qualify a product, to evaluate or control a process, or to compare materials or processes. The desired outcome in performing SIR testing is to determine if materials left following printed circuit board manufacture and assembly are likely to produce unacceptable current leakage levels or metal migration between conductors. SIR testing is a skill as much it is a science; proper sample preparation is key in producing an end product for test that simulates the manufacturing process. For the soldering paste or flux manufacturer, experimentation is often required to determine optimum process conditions for the material under test.
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Solder Masks are subjected to a wide array of both short and long term testing before their arrival at the assembler/user. This paper will familiarize you with these tests, their usefulness, and shortcomings.
As an overview, it is worth mentioning that the current industry accepted document for Qualification and Performance of Permanent Solder Mask is IPC-SM-840C, Amendment 1.
The vendor formally qualifies their mask in accordance with Table 1 Requirements of Qualification/Conformance of IPC-SM-840C, Amendment 1. The applicable testing is located under the Columns identified as A and B. The use of standard test boards, IPC-B-25A, and substrates are used for qualifying the solder masks...
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Trace Laboratories - Central's lead-free testing program examines products that are expected to be in compliance to the European RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances) directive.
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Presentations
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Presentation - "Reliability Testing in a Pb Free World" (PDF, 2.5 MB)
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Ionic cleanliness is an extremely important aspect in design, fabrication, and construction of PCA’s. Cleanliness testing has evolved and test methods using Ion Chromatography have been developed by the printed circuit board industry, as well as by the military and the automotive industry.
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Trace Laboratories provides rapid prototyping
services to customers using an in-house
Stereolithography (SLA) system. SLA is a rapid-prototyping process which produces a physical
three-dimensional part, a conceptual model, or a master pattern.
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Trace Laboratories – Central’s lead-free testing program examines products that are expected to be in compliance to the European RoHS (Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances) directive.
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Trace Laboratories assists materials, component, and assembly manufacturers with a variety of mechanical tests for design improvements, quality assurance, and product qualification.
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Trace’s three-meter semi-anechoic chamber can perform full scan radiated emission testing at frequencies up to 18 GHz. Using absorbing material to cover the reflected ground plane in the semi-anechoic chamber, we can perform radiated immunity testing at frequencies of up
to 18 GHz and field intensities of up to 200 V/m.
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HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Test) is a testing approach used to identify potential design problems not typically encountered. HALT uses the step stress method to define the operating/destruction limitations of a product. Subjecting products to the complete HALT program, one can determine design flaws much faster and less expensively than can be achieved with conventional test methods.
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Trace Laboratories - Central can conduct reliability testing on your electronic packages by utilizing state-of-the-art high-speed data acquisition systems.
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Is your product engineered and built to withstand potentially damaging environments of vibration and shock? Let Trace verify the structural and functional integrity of your product before it is released to the field.
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Press Releases
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With the addition of two new walk-in style chambers, Trace Laboratories, Inc., a full-service, internationally accredited, independent testing organization, has added both capacity and versatility to their environmental simulation test capabilities.
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In the fall of 1957, six printed circuit board manufacturers came together to create the
Institute for Printed Circuits. What did they have in common? A desire to promote the
new technology of printed wiring boards and the need for industry standards to create
common ground between themselves and their customers.
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Wastewater Discharge Permit Holder News - Fourth Quarter Sampling Requirements, Full Service Analytical Capabilities, and Seasonal Open House.
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Trace Laboratories announces its Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) test protocol to comply with the State of California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) requirement for pesticide registration.
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Trace Laboratories announces that several employees will be participating as contributing members of a groundbreaking ASTM Technical Committee (F40) on Declarable Substances in Materials.
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In order to assist customers with their design needs, and to help facilitate their time to market with new products, Trace Laboratories has added stereolithography and rapid prototyping services to its list of programs. With the new capabilities, Trace can produce a physical, three-dimensional part, a conceptual model, or a master pattern – usually in just a couple of hours.
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Chart is pleased to announce a technical seminar entitled “Integrating HALT & HASS into a Reliability Program.” This technical seminar will be held in Chicago, Illinois on June 23, 2005 at TRACE LABS and given by Mr. Mike Silverman, C.R.E.
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In an effort to better position Trace Laboratories as a single source for multiple testing needs covering a wide range of industries, and in order to provide better information and accessibility to both existing and potential customers, Trace has updated its website.
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Trace Laboratories-Central has established a new certification and testing program for tin whisker growth on components that are to be designed for lead-free compliance with the European Union's Directive on the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances ("RoHS Directive"). The program incorporates the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) specification for the testing of components to determine if tin whisker growth occurs during the life of the product.
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Trace Laboratories - East is proud to announce its acceptance as a fully Certificated Agency by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) for both Administrative and Engineering functions. This certification represents a milestone in Trace Laboratories' 20 year relationship with
Underwriters Laboratories and identifies Trace as one of a select number of labs in the world who holds this certification.
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HUNT VALLEY, MD - Trace laboratories East announces that IPC (Association Connecting Electronics Industries) honored two employees of Trace Laboratories-East at its co-located IPC SMEMA Council’s APEX/IPC Printed Circuits Expo/IPC Designers Summit exhibition and conference, held February 24-26, in Anaheim, California.
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Certificates
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