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Making Solderless Supply Chains Work
August 8, 2007 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Joe Fjelstad, Verdant Electronics founder
SANTA CLARA, Calif. Verdant Electronics introduced Occam, a solderless method of package-to-PCB interconnection, with predictions that eliminating solder and plating packages directly to circuit traces would streamline the electronics assembly supply chain, in addition to circumventing reliability issues with various solder metallurgies.
The reverse-interconnection process builds a PCB assembly (PCBA) by plating trace layers onto any SMT package. To learn more about the processing technologies, read Solderless PCBAs Use Reverse-order Interconnection. Joe Fjelstad, founder, Verdant, sees the process as essentially fusing assembly and circuit manufacture. "SMT assemblers have some of the equipment, but not yet all of the capabilities to implement the Occam process," he said, noting that more vertically integrated companies with PCB design and manufacturing capability possess more reverse-interconnect knowledge than pure EMS providers. "Also, a PCB manufacturer could become an Occam assembler if it made some investment. Verdant is working toward the design and production of equipment that will provide all of the manufacturing functions in the future," Fjelstad added.
The supply chain chould shorten as the reverse-interconnect method ramps, Fjelstad claimed. "There are fewer manufacturing steps and a reduced number of tools required to complete the assembly," he explained, and some traditionally SMT tools could be retargeted to serve this approach. There likely will be certain permutations on the basic concept, and Verdant actively seeks patents on variations that accommodate the equipment and supply-chain management capabilities of various EMS types.
Fjelstad explains that the SMT assembly supply chain supports many links that vary in number with the complexity of the assembly. The PCB can be manufactured with any of a number of RoHS or non-RoHS finishes, which must be accounted for further down the manufacturing line. Assemblers then require tooling and consumables to apply, reflow, and clean solders and fluxes on assemblies. These include stencils, pallets, adhesives, solder pastes, fluxes, stenciling equipment, spares and consumables, cleaning chemistries, and other products. Adding lead-free assembly, often alongside tin/lead, increases a facility's materials usage, and can require investment in additional capital equipment to prevent contamination or meet lead-free reflow, cleaning, or rework requirements. In the Occam process, the materials count can be reduced to about three encapsulants, circuit metals, and insulation materials, in the case of a direct-write circuit type in the simplest assembly form. Ordering components will not require complex "RoHS and non-RoHS" segregation, as the process is unaffected by finishes.
This method provides a green supply chain by eliminating, not changing, substances, Fjelstad said. Lead-free solders continue to create environmental problems due to mining situations, disposal and recycling issues, and the scarcity of certain metals, like indium. By removing toxic solder and flux metals, and the waste water and chemical steps inherent in PCB and PCBA manufacture and assembly, logistics improve, and environmentally harmful elements, beyond lead and RoHS, lose significance, Fjelstad predicted. Solder suppliers, rather than leaving the electronics assembly space, will reinvest materials sciences into more benign, controllable substances, he concluded.
As Occam is an emerging technology, the supply chain will face challenges, Fjelstad noted. However, certain extant materials can be adapted to the Occam process, so investments and R&D for new processes and equipment are unnecessary. "Existing technologies only need to be applied in a different manner," Fjelstad said, which allows EMS providers and PCB manufacturers to adopt the Occam supply chain without sourcing new materials and equipment providers. Resistance to change may deter the development of a dedicated Occam infrastructure, he added, though assemblers that adopt nontraditional interconnection methods can adapt a traditional supply chain to suit its requirements.
By Meredith Courtemanche, assistant editor