Category Archives: Process


Jul03
[Case Study] Troubleshooting a Customer Complaint – Keypad Malfunction Caused by Oil & Powder Contamination on the PCB

post on July 3, 2025

This article shares a real case from Workingbear’s past experience dealing with an urgent customer complaint. One day, Workingbear was suddenly assigned to fly to a factory in China to “hunt for oil.” My manager even warned, “If you don’t … Continue reading →

Case study, EDX/EDS/SEM/IMC/FTIR, Keypad, Process, Quality     WorkingBear    Views (1,333)     comment (0)
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Jun26
What is Environmental Stress Screening (ESS)?

post on June 26, 2025

Environmental Stress Screening (ESS) is a method used to apply certain environmental and operational stresses—such as power on/off cycles, bias voltage, pressure, thermal cycling, and vibration—to new or repaired products (usually electronics or components). The idea is to expose hidden … Continue reading →

Process, Quality, Reliability, Test/Inspection     WorkingBear    Views (1,569)     comment (0)

Jun05
Tumble Test: How to Prevent PCB and BGA Failures in Electronics Manufacturing

post on June 5, 2025

From what I remember, one of the earliest and most frequent requests for tumble testing came from Motorola. Since some of Motorola’s mobile phones and products were designed for military use, their reliability and quality standards were exceptionally strict. However, … Continue reading →

Design, Process, Quality, Reliability     WorkingBear    Views (1,319)     comment (0)

May29
Uncovering the Culprit: How CAF Turned Out to Be the Hidden Cause Behind PCB Micro-Shorts — From Suspicion and Analysis to Solutions

post on May 29, 2025

Workingbear’s company was having a tough time with a strange issue: intermittent micro-short circuits inside the layers of the PCB. Since the shorts didn’t show up near any components, it was really hard to figure out what was wrong. Recently, … Continue reading →

Case study, EDX/EDS/SEM/IMC/FTIR, PCB/FPC/PTF, Process, Quality, Reliability     WorkingBear    Views (1,884)     comment (0)
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May08
The Deep Dive: BGA Pads: SMD vs. NSMD (Strength, Voids & Design Considerations)

post on May 8, 2025

Hey folks, welcome back to the blog! Today, we’re diving deep into something absolutely critical for the reliability of almost every electronic gadget out there: BGA solder joints. You know, those tiny connections that hold complex chips onto our printed … Continue reading →

Design, PCB/FPC/PTF, Process, Quality, Reliability, SMT     WorkingBear    Views (2,516)     comments (1)
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