The subcontinent explodes with new EMS work, prompting a spate of IPOs.
Putting aside the obvious supply chain disruptions, the two big stories out of the EMS industry in 2022 were the emergence of India, led in particular by Apple's pivoting from China, and the number of IPOs.
While the Indian government is aggressively recruiting foreign electronics investment, there's no question India's appearance as a viable competitor to – dare we say it? – China is being driven by Apple. The world's most valuable company tripled its production to more than $7 billion of iPhones in what is now the world's most populous country during the past fiscal year,1 mostly at the expense of China. Some reports hold Apple will raise India's share of its production to 25% in two years.
India’s largest ODM is looking to add PCB fabrication to complete its end-to-end mix.
VVDN is perhaps best known as a provider of end-to-end engineering and manufacturing of hardware, mechanical and electronics assemblies, and embedded software, among others. Founded in 2007, it now has 11 product engineering centers worldwide, plus seven manufacturing plants across India, where its capabilities include SMT injection molding, tooling, die casting and metal stamping among others.
Improving nozzle wettability will permit more challenging joints to be tackled.
Selective soldering utilizes a nozzle to apply solder to components on the underside of printed circuit boards (PCBs). This nozzle can be moved to either perform dips (depositing solder to a single component) or draws (applying solder to several components in a single movement). The selective soldering methodology thereby permits the process to be tailored to specific joints and permits multiple nozzle types to be used if required on the circuit board.
New advances permit defect detection in a fraction of the time.
Despite the prevalence of automated optical inspection (AOI) systems for PCBA manufacturing processes, many organizations still rely on manual inspection for the post-SMT stage of production.
However, three overlapping trends – 1) the industry’s well-documented labor shortage that’s poised to worsen; 2) the projected 15% year-over-year growth in PCB manufacturing; 3) the migration of sensitive electronics manufacturing work back to North America – are obliging organizations to examine automated solutions for manual aspects of their workflow.
Does lead roughness correlate to corrosion content?
The electronics industry perceives corrosion on soldering leads as a potential risk to the solderability of the components.1 Several traditional methods assess the solderability of an electronic component.2 In the defense industry, samples from a component batch that is suspected of poor solderability must be inspected according to MIL-STD-202, Method 208,3 and SAE 26262 used in the automotive industry. Typically, samples of the tested components are selected and tested under specified conditions to gauge solder wettability on the component leads and the bond strength. The current procedure is practiced on a very small sample of components within a batch under the assumption that few samples represent the entire batch. This is not the case, however.4 Yet, the effect of corrosion on soldering leads on product quality is rarely considered, despite numerous evidence and research on the impact of corrosion on the bond strength and its reliability.5-8
Imaging of hidden solder pastes under MLF-100s revealed joint and voiding formation mechanisms differed from each of the solder pastes evaluated.
SnPb (tin/lead) is considered the most reliable solder alloy for aerospace/defense (IPC Class 3) applications because of its ability to withstand shock and vibration and mitigate Sn whiskering. SnPb components, however, are becoming obsolete from increasing restrictions of Pb in commercial applications. Presently waived for AD, these solders are increasingly expensive, with increasing supply constraints and reliability limitations. Moreover, current SAC 305 alloys also fall short of commercial performance objectives, especially in automotive (electric vehicle) end-use environments. As a result, the Raytheon Lead to Lead-Free (L-LF) team evaluated two current baselines and seven next-generation LF solder paste alloys based on three major “pathfinder” studies on representative SMT assembled test samples, to identify the best LF alloys for the next phase for production prototypes. An L-LF working subgroup was formed to outline a path forward to better anticipate and prepare the transition to a “pure” LF metallurgical system for circuit card assemblies (CCA). Raytheon has been successfully mixing SnPb paste and LF SAC 305 parts with ~225°C processing temperatures without having to reball from SnPb to Pb-free; this is ~15% of product today. The strategy is to transition from SnPb to next-generation Pb-free solder paste alloys to mix-assemble with SAC 305 or Sn surfaces between 200° and 240°C or melting ranges between 183° and 220°C for minimum transition disruption, but not too low; e.g., low-temp (~150°C) solders (LTS) that risk reflowing material with lower temperature processing used in subsequent next higher assemblies (NHA) (FIGURE 1).
Press Releases
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- ESCATEC Appoints Industry Veteran to Lead Mechatronics Sales
- ZESTRON to Host Free Webinar on Enhancing Cleaning Process Efficiency and Maximizing Efficacy for Cost Savings and Increased Capacity