Moreover, by choosing the correct soldering nozzle, one can avoid the formation of soldering faults in the automatic selective soldering process. The distance between the individual pins, as well as the length of the pins, are likewise to be taken into account. The distance between a pad to be soldered and an adjoining one that is not to be wetted, also plays a role. For example, the shape of the pads and their distance in relation to each other can mitigate or, with proper design, exclude the formation of bridges. The target, therefore, has to be a zero-fault selective soldering process.Īn appropriate printed circuit board design is of the utmost importance here. Special focus has to be put on lead-free applications, as manual repair soldering processes can cause enormous thermal problems. Hidden costs, such as productivity rates, operator training and damaged assembly costs have to be taken into consideration as well. In addition, densely populated multilayer boards and miniaturised, high-pin-count, fine-pitch devices cannot be efficiently repaired with high quality. Manual repair soldering that is expensive, time consuming and cost intensive is already unacceptable due to the required quality and reproducibility of the whole manufacturing process.

For companies producing electronic equipment, it is therefore of extreme importance to reduce production costs whilst maintaining a consistently high quality level of the manufactured products.

The globalisation of markets results in stronger competition with clearly noticeably cost pressure.

Reiner Zoch, Heike Schlessmann, SEHO Systems

Altium designer pcb layout