Study of influence of thermal capacity and flux activity on the solderability

Abstract

During the surface mount technological process the assembled PCB is exposed to heat when molten solder alloy wets the surfaces and creates future solder joints. The PCB with all components should ideally be exposed to the same temperature profile during the soldering process. The temperatures differ throughout the PCB due to different thermal capacities of used materials and components even though the temperature profile is stable. The aim of the study was to assess the solderability of the copper material with different thermal capacity and to consider the effect of different types of fluxes. The measurement was done by wetting balance method, where the wetting force is measured as a function of time during which the test specimen is immersed into, remains immersed and then it is pulled out from the solder bath. In our experiments we used copper wire of four different diameters (0.7 mm, 1 mm, 1.5 mm), three types of solders - one lead (Sn63Pb37) and two lead free (Sn99Cu1, Sn97Cu3) solders and three types of fluxes.