REDDITCH, UK — Global electronic demand continues to grow, but so too does the component shortage. The lack of parts to meet demand has impacted electronics supply chains, and this trend looks set to remain in 2023. With parts becoming expensive and more difficult to obtain, ensuring that the available supply is used carefully has never been more important.

Manufacturers are turning to Altus Group, a leading distributor of capital equipment for electronics assembly in the UK and Ireland, to help them improve their assembly quality.

Anthony Oh, Altus Technical Applications Manager explains: ‘’Implementing BGA inspection into production has never been more important. As BGA components become more valuable than ever, we have seen unprecedented requests from companies looking to improve the quality of the SMT assembly process.

“X-ray is perhaps the gold standard for void calculation if affordable or available on-site, but Optilia’s BGA Inspection unit offers customers a great alternative to inspect for BGA assembly quality at a fraction of the price. With its high capability traceability options and innovative software, it is an excellent entry point for a facility looking to increase its capacity to inspect and review BGAs.

“Our customers also really appreciate the option of picking and choosing the right configuration for their facility. Some have bought XL configurations with all the trimmings, with others opting for the standard inspection unit. Some have even requested bespoke mounts with handheld units embedded. There is a solution for all price points, which is why we have seen such demand for Optilia."

Optilia’s inspection device, in its simplest form, is a handheld optical microscope. It can use a variety of lenses for BGA inspection, depending on the pitch and the magnification required, to provide an image of the internal rows of solder balls.

For more precise inspection needs, there is a choice of fixed mounts, extra lighting, additional lenses, movable X-Y tables and Optipix software. These additions allow manufacturers to reduce the skill level required to achieve a good image of the solder balls.

Anthony concluded: “We understand that investment in new equipment is a big decision to make. It has to work with existing assembly processes and meet inspection goals. For this reason, we can run sample validation with a customer’s product using the Optilia equipment to ensure it is the right fit.”

To find out more about Optilia hand-held inspection equipment or the other options available from Altus, including X-ray and AOI platforms, visit www.altusgroup.co.uk

CLINTON, NY — Indium Corporation is proud to showcase its innovative products for electric vehicle manufacturing and e-Mobility, as well as thought leadership and expertise within this rapidly-evolving market, at IPC APEX Expo, Jan. 24-26, San Diego, Calif., U.S.

With its significant automotive industry expertise and an award-winning portfolio of proven products, Indium Corporation will feature its Rel-ion™ suite of electrical, mechanical, and thermal solutions which are designed to be reliable, scalable, and proven materials to reduce electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers’ time to market.

More than three million EVs are on the street with Indium Corporation’s Rel-ion™ products. Rel-ion™ material solutions deliver reliability by:

• Eliminating non-wet opens and head-in-pillow defects
• Preventing dendritic growth by meeting stricter surface insulation resistance requirements
• Preventing solder delamination with precise bondline control and increased creep and fatigue resistance
• Reducing hot spots-induced voiding through improved thermal efficiency

Some of the Rel-ion™ suite products include:

• Award-winning Durafuse™ LT, a novel solder paste mixed alloy system with highly versatile characteristics that enable it for energy savings, high-reliability, low-temperature, step soldering, and assemblies with large temperature gradients. It also provides superior drop shock performance to conventional low-temperature solders, outclassing BiSn or BiSnAg alloys, and performing better than SAC305 with optimum process setup
• The Indium8.9HF Solder Paste Series, an industry-proven solder paste series that delivers no-clean, halogen-free solutions designed to enhance electrical reliability, improve stability during the printing process, and deliver low-voiding for high-reliability automotive electronics
• InFORMS®, reinforced solder alloy fabrications, improve mechanical and thermal reliability, and are specifically designed to produce consistent bondline thickness for power module applications. They also address specific challenges for the power electronics industry by providing an enhanced material for the development of more reliable and higher performance modules.

In addition to featuring its proven products, Indium Corporation’s Global Head of e-Mobility and Infrastructure, Brian O’Leary, will co-chair a special panel discussion on e-Mobility on Thursday, January 26 from 10 a.m.–1 p.m. local time. The session, one of the first of its kind, will bring together key stakeholders from across the e-Mobility industry, including original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), their supply chain regulators, policy, and technology experts.

To learn more about why more than 3,000,000 electric vehicles are on the road with Indium Corporation’s proven materials, visit them at booth #2339 or at www.indium.com.

Electrical and electronic components come in a wide variety of sizes and mounting technologies. The classic is the through hole technology (THT), its modern counterpart is the surface-mounting technology (SMT). Unfortunately, these two technologies, which are combined in almost every electronic device, require different soldering methods. A dilemma? Yes and no.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no printed circuit boards. All components available at that time were wired freely by hand. It was not until around 1920 that the first prototypes were created: stamped conductor tracks riveted to hard paper and held together with sheet metal springs. In 1943, the Viennese engineer Paul Eisler was granted a patent for a printed circuit board. With moderate success for quite a long time. Manual wiring remained the standard for a good decade.

Through Hole Technology (THT) It was not until the early 1950s that the printed circuit board slowly gained acceptance. Near Düsseldorf, the through hole technology was born in the RuwelWerke. The connecting wires of the components were inserted through drilled holes in the printed circuit board, which were provided with copper conductor tracks on their underside. This approach simplified production and at the same time reduced the error rate during wiring. Today, this is called THT: Through Hole Technology.

Surface-mounting Technology (SMT)

Surface-mounting technology (SMT) is not that much younger, even though it is used for almost all modern electronic products. Its beginnings can be found in the 1960s, developed by IBM for the computers of the Saturn and Apollo missions. The reasons given for this development at the time were the cramped space conditions in the spaceships and a reduction in circuit impedance to increase switching frequencies.

Miniaturization

SMT and THT both have a fixed place in the production of every EMS company today. EMS stands for "Electronics Manufacturing Services", i.e. the production and assembly of complete assemblies. The increasing customer demand for mobile electronic devices is shifting the focus more and more to surface mount technology. Usually SMT components are much smaller and thus allow more compact end devices. Smartphones are the best example of this. Without SMT, they would be unthinkable in their current form.

In contrast to through-hole mounting, SMT components are "glued" directly onto the copper-clad surface of the board and then soldered in a reflow oven. Often, an SMT PCB even allows assembly on both sides, which doubles the possible, fully automated assembly density.

Hybrids as a consequence

However, not every component can be reduced in size at will. Stationary electronic devices almost always have a built-in power supply. Traditionally, this consists of a transformer, capacitors, resistors and a rectifier. However, even the switching power supplies used very frequently today cannot be "shrunk" to miniature dimensions, depending on the power required. Power needs space. If, for example, the power supply also has to be placed on the SMT circuit board, then it quickly becomes a tight squeeze for a transformer. Or let's consider the question of fuse protection: If a fuse blows in the event of an overcurrent, then it would be extremely useful if this fuse could be replaced without great effort. This need gave rise to hybrids: SMT circuit boards that contain additional drill holes for THT components.

The consequences of a hybrid

The use of two technologies has consequences in the soldering process. For the EMS provider, this means that each board must undergo two soldering processes. One for the surface-mounted components (reflow method) and a second for the components in through-hole assembly (wave soldering. It goes without saying that two soldering processes are associated with significantly higher costs and a longer production time. In addition, two soldering systems must be available. But there are other disadvantages as well.

Issue: Ageing

If a hybrid PCB has to go through two soldering processes, many components are heated twice to temperatures well above 200 °C. This is not beneficial to Circuit Protection them. High temperatures will shorten the lifetime of any electronic component.

Issue: misplacement

The double soldering process poses an additional risk from its practical implementation: It is usually the case that the THT components are inserted after the reflow soldering process for SMT. In particular, manual placement of the components for the second soldering cycle in the wave bath involves a massively increased risk of incorrect placement.

Approach: no hybrids

To avoid these problems, there are several approaches. The simplest is to prevent them from occurring altogether. In other words, use only SMT or only THT components. Then a single soldering process is always sufficient. However, this is often not possible in practice due to the technical properties that the end product to be soldered should have.

Alternative: THR

The abbreviation THR stands for "Through Hole Reflow". In fact, THRs are components with through hole technology. However, these THR components are specially designed for automated assembly and high thermal stress in the reflow oven. During the assembly process, a paste is first printed in the vias for the THT pins, and then the component is pushed through the solder paste. As the paste melts in the reflow oven, the liquid solder retracts into the vias due to wetting and capillary forces, forming a clean solder joint. Two technologies, one soldering process. Highly efficient!

Back to (fuse) protection

With this in mind, we should once again take a look at the circuit protection of a fully automatically assembled PCB. It would be highly advantageous to install a fuse holder on the SMT board, which can also be soldered right away in the reflow process. Such fuse holders exist. The glow wire resistant, open fuse holder SCHURTER OGN is a classic. It is designed for 5x20 fuses of various rated currents and tripping characteristics. If desired, it can also be easily converted into a closed fuse holder by means of a cover. Three versions are now available: classic THT, SMT and now also THR, which is fully compatible with the THT version. The right solution for almost every application. One soldering process is enough, isn't it?

About SCHURTER

The SCHURTER Group is a globally successful Swiss family business. With our components ensuring the clean and safe supply of power, input systems for ease of use and sophisticated overall solutions, we impress our customers with agility and excellent product and service quality.

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Orbit International Corp., an electronics manufacturer and software solution provider, today announced that consolidated bookings for the month of November 2022 were approximately $3,700,000. Deliveries for some of these orders have already commenced and are expected to continue through the first quarter of 2024.

Mitchell Binder, President and CEO of Orbit International commented, “We are pleased to report that our consolidated bookings for the month of November were approximately $3,700,000. This firm booking month comes on the heels of orders received in excess of $5,000,000 for the month of October, representing our strongest booking month of 2022. Our Electronics Group (“OEG”) bookings were approximately $2,600,000 and were highlighted by three orders received by our Orbit Instrument Division, including (i) a $725,000 order for displays used on a U.S. Navy program; (ii) an approximately $475,000 order for keypads used on a major aircraft program; and (iii) a $365,000 engineering contract for switch panels used on multiple aircraft platforms. Other bookings were for keyboards and displays. Our OEG bookings also include approximately $830,000 in orders received by our Simulator Product Solutions LLC (“SPS”) subsidiary.

Binder added, “Bookings from our Power Group (“OPG”) were approximately $1,100,000 and were highlighted by orders for several power supplies utilizing our VPX technology, an additional follow-on order for a COTS power supply used on a major missile defense system and approximately $500,000 for several other programs utilizing both our COTS and commercial power supplies. In addition, we continue to work with a customer on a significant follow-on order utilizing our VPX power supply. However, although we expected to receive this award in 2022, it now appears this contract will not be received until sometime in 2023.”

Binder concluded, “We are happy to report that many of the contract awards that were being held up have begun to come to fruition in the current quarter. As mentioned, we are now expecting a large VPX award to be delayed into the first quarter of 2023 and other awards expected by our OEG will also be delayed into 2023. However, bookings for our OPG for the last three months have exceeded $4,200,000 and total orders for the Company for the first two months of this current fourth quarter have reached approximately $8,700,000, which positions us to potentially post one of our strongest consolidated booking quarters in the last several years. As previously noted, timing uncertainty in the receipt of contracts from our prime contractors doing business with the U.S government is an inherent factor in our industry.”

Orbit International Corp., through its Electronics Group, is involved in the development and manufacture of custom electronic device and subsystem solutions for military, industrial and commercial applications through its production facilities in Hauppauge, NY and Carson, CA. Orbit’s Power Group, also located in Hauppauge, NY, designs and manufactures a wide array of power products including AC power supplies, frequency converters, inverters, VME/VPX power supplies as well as various COTS power sources.