<title>Laser spot welding of electronic micro parts</title>

Abstract

This paper deals with parameter optimization and online monitoring of laser spot welding (LSW). Using Nd:YAG laser, a wide range of experiments regarding the welding process have been carried out for both successful and failed welds. The typical failures appearing during packaging of surface mounted devices (SMDs) on flexible printed circuits (FPC) include gaps, a loss of connection between the welded components, and damage of the printed circuit boards. A flip-flop device called SO16 and lead frames as two components of widely used SMDs were packaged on FPCs in the experiments. The reproducibility of the weld quality for SO16 (FeNi) is greater than for lead frames (CuFe2P); this points out the difficulties appearing during copper or copper alloy welding. However, a correlation between the weld quality and the detected emission signals recorded during the weld process has been found for both components. The detected signals of the optical process emission for successful welds depict identical characterisics which are divided into three relevant signal phases. Changes in the signal characteristics, especially in these phases, imply information about the weld quality. While monitoring the welding processes for both components are possible, the detected signals for SO16 are less sensitive to process variations compared to those for lead frames. Based on spectral analysis, the intensity of the detected emission due to SO16 welding is slightly higher than the intensity due to lead frames welding.