Category Archives: Quality
Oct21
Can Increasing Solder Paste Volume Improve BGA Soldering Defects Such as HIP?
X-ray image of a BGA showing more solder on the outer rows than on the inner rows. Improving BGA solder joint quality is an ongoing goal for SMT engineers, especially when working with fine-pitch BGA components. In general, BGAs with … Continue reading
Oct14
How to Strengthen BGA Solder Joints Through Design to Prevent Cracking
Figcaption: How to Strengthen BGA Solder Joints Through Design to Prevent Cracking Recently, several colleagues have asked me the same question: How can we improve BGA design to strengthen solder joints and prevent BGA solder ball cracking? The question came … Continue reading
Sep16
Component Drop-Off on PCBs: How to Analyze, Troubleshoot, and Identify the Root Cause
Figcaption: Component Drop-Off on PCBs: How to Analyze, Troubleshoot, and Identify the Root Cause Components falling off a PCB can be a nightmare for many process and quality engineers. Workingbear has previously shared several cases involving components falling off PCBs. … Continue reading
Sep09
How to Read a BGA Red Dye Penetration Test Report: What the Results Really Mean and How to Interpret Them
Figure 1: How to interpret the deeper meaning of a laboratory BGA red dye penetration test report If I showed you the microscope image above (Figure 1), taken right after a Red Dye Penetration Test, could you tell Workingbear what … Continue reading
Sep02
BGA Red Dye Penetration Test: Acceptance Criteria for Cracks and Voids
Figure: BGA Red Dye Penetration Test: Acceptance Criteria for Cracks and Voids A reader asked Workingbear, “After performing a Red Dye Penetration / Red & Pry Test on a BGA, how should we determine the acceptance and rejection criteria?” At … Continue reading
