The Best Flux For Hand Soldering and Rework
Solder Basics… If I needed to pick my favorite flux for hand soldering, it would easily be PoP Flux 030B. I know it’s probably never going to find itself in household soldering toolkits, it’s a...
View ArticleCoefficient of Thermal Expansion, CTE Mismatch: Indium and Indium alloys
Materials to be used in packaging of high power semiconductor devices are often chosen by their coefficient of thermal expansion, or CTE. For instance, substrates such as AlSiC, Molybdenum, and...
View ArticleDesigning with a Performance Phase Change Material
Generically, a phase change material is one which will store or release energy when it changes phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid. According to this generic classification, there are 4...
View ArticleUnderstanding Gold on Nickel
The use of gold layers deposited onto nickel is standard in many industries, from DRAM memory module edge connectors, to electrical test probe contacts, to power semiconductor die metallizations and...
View ArticleIndium to Discuss Green Electronics Manufacturing
Register at GlobalSpec to see Andy Mackie, Jim Hisert and me discuss various aspects of Green Electronics Manufacturing. This live event will occur tomorrow (December 9, 2009) at 2 PM EST. Andy will...
View ArticleSolder Pros Mention Indium PoP Paste
Two big names in electronics assembly (Vern Solberg and Phil Damberg) recently wrote an article for Circuits Assembly Magazine regarding “PoP Assembly Process Fundamentals“. The article goes through...
View ArticleGalvanic Corrosion of Unusual Solder Alloys
I have been asked on numerous occasions to calculate the potential for galvanic corrosion between metals. Most times, when I am approached with this, the concern stems from an application in which the...
View ArticleHigh Thermal Conductivity of Metal
At some point we have all had experiences which convinced us that metals have a high thermal conductivity. It may have been the hot spoon you left in your coffee after stirring in a little cream and...
View ArticleDr. Alan Rae: Nanotechnology in Electronics Assembly
I caught up with Alan Rae after a recent IWLPC committee meeting, where he jokingly asked me to, “Stop asking important questions” – LOL! He was kind enough to give me a few moments of his time to...
View ArticleSemi-Therm “热管理”的盛会
下周在硅谷地区，Indium公司会参加Semi-Therm—-“热管理”的盛会！ 在微型化(miniaturization)的今天，我们的各种电子产品都越来越小，但是性能更多更齐全，消耗功率更大，那么单位面积上所要求的散热，也应该越来越多。font face="Times New...
View ArticleLead (Pb) in ELV Solder: European Automotive Electronics Legislation - Feb...
Those of you have been watching this blog for a while will know that I’ve been keeping tabs on the status of the European ELV (End-of-life vehicle) legislation on lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd)...
View ArticleUnique Solderspheres
Solderspheres or solder spheres, or even solder balls: whatever you call them, Indium Corporation has been making them for years and has rightly acquired the reputation for doing whatever it takes to...
View ArticleIndium Thermal Evaporation Sources
In the surface mount technology (SMT) electronics and semiconductor packaging industries, Indium Corporation has a reputation for offering custom solutions. In the world of solar cell manufacturing, I...
View ArticleSolder Powder Types 3 4 5 6 7…
My friend and colleague, Eric Bastow, got back last month from an IPC standards meeting with some interesting news for those of us who supply and use solder paste. Here I’m talking about everything...
View ArticleThings I Learned at IWLPC 2010
Once again, here are some things I learned at this year’s IWLPC show 2010 in Santa Clara. Picture below taken at Philadelphia airport, where I drafted this blog posting. img style="border-bottom:...
View ArticleElectromigration (EM) and Electrochemical Migration (ECM)
I was asked this week to contribute to the upcoming IPC handbook (IPC-CH-65 HDBK) on the section on contamination and its effects on printed wiring assemblies (PWA’s). There is a clear crossover of...
View ArticleMoving from Silver Epoxy to Solder in Power Semiconductor Packaging
At the time of writing, the price of silver (Ag) was approaching the USD$50/tr.oz. (Troy ounce) level, and threatening to go higher. With 1 Troy ounce being 31.1grams, this makes the cost of pure...
View ArticleCold Welding Indium Metal
Indium metal has the unique ability to cold weld (bond) to itself at room temperature. Though this is, technically, not soldering, this property makes it especially useful for low-temperature bonding...
View ArticleSemiconductor Pictorial Roadmap: Semicon West 2012
One of the things that bring customers over to our semiconductor tradeshow booths, year after year, is the pictorial roadmap. This is the diagram you will see prominently displayed, at each show, that...
View ArticleMusings on Electronics Assembly Metals: Gold Unified a Country
Folks, In Ken Burn’s excellent miniseries The Civil War, Shelby Foote states that the Civil War made us a country by uniting North and South. He argues that before the War, its citizens might say...
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