A novel placement method for mini-scale passive components in surface mount technology

Jingxi He,Yuanyuan Li,Shrouq M Alelaumi,Yuqiao Cen,Daehan Won

doi:10.1007/s00170-021-07147-7

Jingxi He, Yuanyuan Li + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-07147-7

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Abstract

This paper aims to propose a novel placing method, i.e., place-between-paste-and-pad (PB), for mini-scale passive components to enhance electronic assembly lines’ yield. PB means a component is designed to be placed at the midpoint between the pastes and pads on the length direction while it aligns with the pads’ center on the width direction. An experiment that involves 12 printed circuit boards (PCB) and 4500 resistors R0402M (0.40 mm × 0.20 mm) is designed and conducted to get comparative results of PB and two industrial placing methods, i.e., place-on-pad and place-on-paste. Based on this experiment’s results, PB outperforms the other two methods in terms of minimizing the components’ final misalignment. Furthermore, PB is a low-cost placing strategy because PB does not need the real-time communication between the solder paste inspection machine and the pick-and-place machine. The placement method proposed in this study is expected to offer a low-cost exploration in the pick-and-place procedure to enhance the surface mount assembly quality of mini-scale passive components.

Highlights

Surface mount technology (SMT) is an advanced method in electronic packaging
The placement method proposed in this study is expected to offer a low-cost exploration in the component pick-and-place procedure to enhance the surface mount technology (SMT)
Stencil printers have been used in the stencil printing process (SPP) to deposit the solder paste onto

Summary

Introduction

Surface mount technology (SMT) is an advanced method in electronic packaging. Compared with conventional electronics manufacturing (e.g., Thru-Hole manufacturing), SMT shows its possibilities in producing more reliable assemblies at a reduced weight, volume, and cost [12]. The molten solder is mainly used to connect surface mount components and matting Cu pads on the printed circuit board (PCB). There are three primary operations in the SMT assembly lines. Stencil printers have been used in the stencil printing process (SPP) to deposit the solder paste onto. PCBs. surface mount components are picked and placed on PCBs by pick-and-place (P&P) machines. The mounted PCBs are sent to a reflow oven to form reliable solder joints between chip components and PCBs [1]

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