Circuit World: Volume 23 Issue 2

Hollow Fibres in PCB, MCM‐L and PBGA Laminates May Induce Reliability Degradation

A. Shukla, M. Pecht, J. Jordan, K. Rogers, D. Jennings*

The presence of hollow fibres in laminates used in printed circuit boards, multichip modulelaminated substrates, and plastic ball grid arrays has a potentially significant impact…

Visual In‐process Inspection

S.W. Wirth

Baker Hughes INTEQ, a mid‐size manufacturing operation, has successfully developed and implemented an innovative, visual, in‐process inspection programme that can be used on any…

Design for Plastic Ball Grid Array Solder Joint Reliability

S.‐W.R. Lee, J.H. Lau

Computational stress analysis was performed in this study to investigate thesolder joint reliability of plastic ball grid array (PBGA) packages with variousconfigurations. The…

PWB Build‐up Technologies: Smaller, Thinner and Lighter

H. Holden

Ball grid arrays, chip‐sized grid arrays, directchip attach and flip chip are packages which are increasingly penetrating the market. However,the challenge to PCB fabricators will…

General Principles of Design and Layout (of Printed Board Assemblies)

W. MacLeod Ross, G. Leonida*

This issue of the journal features the third part of a three‐part series whichcomprises Chapter 8 from Volume 1 of the recently published book ‘AComprehensive Guide to the…

Impedance Control of Conductors Acting as Transmission Lines in Printed Boards for High‐frequency Digital Applications

J.E. Jeffery

High‐frequency performance of printed boards(PBs) — a term which encompasses printed wiring boards (PWBs) andprinted circuit boards (PCBs) — is becoming increasingly important in…

Lead‐free Tin Surface Finish for PCB Assembly

C. Melton, H. Fuerhaupter

The use of lead in electronics assembly operations has come under scrutiny due to health and environmentalconcerns associated with lead exposure. Lead is one of the most useful…

Non‐precious Metal Finishes for Fine Pitch Assembly

P. McGrath, A. Soutar

The industry trend towards higher density interconnecton PWBs has caused board fabricators to explore alternatives to the traditional hot air solderlevelling (HASL) technology…