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Minutes of the Joint Soldering Technology Committee (STC)
Tempe, AZ
Tuesday, April 14, 2003

1 Committee organization and procedures

1.1 Membership and attendance

Self-introductions were made and attendance was taken.

1.2 Approval of the Agenda

The Committee unanimously accepted the Agenda as presented.

1.3 Approval of the Minutes

The Committee unanimously accepted the Minutes of the last meeting as written.

2 Old business

2.1 Review/status of ANSI J/STD-001-C

ANSI J/STD-001-C was published March 2000. New revision activity kicked off in New Orleans last November. A working draft is being prepared for ballot/comments. The STC should expect to receive a draft for review/comments during the next 3 months.

3 New business

3.1 Review of ANSI J/STD-002-B

3.1.1 J-STD-002B Status

Mr. Romm provided an update provided by Dave Hillman on activity for the J-STD-002 "Solderability Tests for Component Leads, Terminations, Lugs, Terminals and Wires". Mr. Hillman reported to the Chariman (prior to the meeting) that the IPC 5-23b committee has voted to begin work on the J-STD-002C revision effort. The 3 areas of focus for the revision are review/dispostion of J-STD-002B comments, Pb-free solderability parameters, and validity of the wetting balance test method.

On the topic of Pb-free solderability test parameters the IPC committee had identified the following parameters inclusion into a DOE:

" Solder alloy (Sn63 versus SAC)
" Temperature (245C versus 260C)
" Test method (dip-and-look versus wetting balance)
" Flux (Actiec 2 versus Actiec 5)
" Various component finishes

STC comments on this study included:
" Pb-free solder alloy must be identified for testing.
" Surface mount solderability test method must be included in the test matrix.
" Use of the wetting balance method was questioned because of lack of correlation in historical gauge R&R studies.
" Temperature control is critical. If 260C is identified as peak temperature for testing, we want to know the temperature control capability so that peak temperatures are not running greater than 260C.
" The solder heat resistance test method was mentioned. Question was raised whether or not the temperature in the solder heat resistance test method needs to be higher.

The wetting balance test method is currently listed in ANSI/J-STD-002 under the section "Tests without Established Accept/Reject Criterion". Input from Dave Hillman prior to this meeting was that the IPC committee discussed the options of either validating or removing the wetting balance method as an accepted method. After discussion in this STC meeting, there was no support among the committee members to move the wetting balance method to an 'accepted' method. Further discussion will be held with the Joint committees. The STC will participate in any further discussion or testing.

3.2 Consolidation of Mil 883/2003 and Mil 750/2026

JEDEC JC-13 is balloting a proposal for consolidation of Mil 883/2003 and Mil 750/2026 into 1 specification that references J-STD-002. JEDEC JC-13 is balloting a proposal for this consolidation now that J-STD-002B has been published. The JEDEC JC-13 committee will review the ballot status at the upcoming JEDEC JC-13 meeting in May in Colorado Springs.

3.3 Possible replacements for steam pre-conditioning

The Chairman presented historical data which suggests that the steam pre-conditioning environment can negatively impact solderability test results, particularly on Pb-free component finishes. TI data presented to the committee indicates excellent soldering of units stored on a shelf out to 4+ years. However, fresh units that were steam pre-conditioned showed degradation in wetting balance performance (wetting time) that did not correlate with board level soldering performance.

Committee members agreed that an area for future work is the replacement of steam pre-conditioning. Investigation of industry data and other pre-condition methods in use will be needed. Mr. Hillman has indicated that he will support this activity.

4 Next meeting

The next meeting is tentatively planned for Fall 2003 in conjunction with the ECA Fall Engineering Summit in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Yates will forward the meeting notice.

5 Adjournment

The Committee moved, seconded, and unanimously agreed to adjourn at 5:00PM.

This meeting was conducted in accordance with the EIA legal guidelines and the EIA manual of organization and procedure.

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