Indium Corporation Blogs

As the world began transitioning to Pb-Free solder in the early 2000’s, the electronics industry determined that SAC387 (95.5Sn/3.8Ag/0.7Cu) was the most appropriate alloy to replace eutectic SnPb.  While it did have a higher melting point than eutectic SnPb, SAC387 was seen as the best option relative to solderability and usability.  The industry quickly shifted to SAC305 (96.5Sn/3.0Ag/0.5Cu) because its lower Ag content resulted in a lower price.

At that time, the industry didn’t realize the performance impact of the Ag content.  We now know much more.  Ag has a significant impact on a solder alloy's reliability. When thermal cycling higher Ag content SAC alloys (3-4% Ag), the performance tends to be quite good (Ag adds creep resistance to the alloy).  However, because of the alloy's rigidity (more Ag - more rigid), it is more prone to brittle fractures during mechanical shock.  We achieved significantly improved mechanical shock resistance at the expense of sacrificed thermal cycling performance.  The diagram depicts the balance between mechanical shock resistance and thermal cycling performance.

Over the past several years, the Indium Corporation has developed an alloy that minimizes this SAC solder alloy composition compromise.  SACM™ is a low-Ag alloy that is doped with Mn.  This not only improves the mechanical shock resistance over other low-Ag alloys, it also enhances the thermal cycling performance, making it comparable to SAC305.  For more information about SACM™, check out our website at www.indium.com/SACM.

*This post is part of the Introducing SACM™ series.

Folks,

I was at APEX 2013 San Diego this past week.  San Diego is a great venue for the show, but I always forget how cold it can be (55-65°F) this time of year.  The folks at iConnect 007 interviewed me at the show; the topic was lead-free reliability and has cost for consumer electronics been demonstrated.  You can see the interview here.

These are topics I think about often, so let’s discuss them a bit. First, let’s consider reliability.  RoHS was enacted on 01 July 2006, more than 6 ½ years ago.  Each year more than $1 trillion-worth of electronics are made, therefore, in this period of time, something over $3 trillion worth of consumer electronics have been manufactured.  There have been no “the sky is falling”-type of reliability issues in this time.  How can I say this?  Well, my office at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth is across the hall from the IT (information Technology) Dept.  They purchase all of the millions of dollars worth of PCs, printers, displays etc. that Thayer uses.  Several years ago (say early 2011) I stopped by when most of the department was in and cheerfully asked if the reliability of the equipment they purchase has gone down since lead-free assembly was enacted.  They asked me in unison, “What’s lead-free assembly.”  After I explained what lead-free assembly was, they confirmed that they have noticed no changes in reliability.  Since RoHS, my family has purchase about 100+ electronic devices, a few have had reliability problems, about as many as in the past.  Most were attributed to hard drive fails.  Of the scores of friends and colleagues I have, no one has ever commented that they have noticed an increase in electronics fails. So, my conclusion is that consumer product reliability is not "practically" worse if my family and  these many  other folks haven’t noticed it.

I have made an informal study of reliability data of lead-free vis-a-vis tin-lead solders published in papers.  A statement from Rockwell Collin’s JCAA/JGF-PP No Lead solder Project: -55C-125C Thermal Cycle Testing Final Report  sums up my overview conclusion nicely: “Test vehicles assembled with lead-free materials (notably tin-silver-copper) exhibited lower reliability under some test conditions.”  Nay sayers might be quick to suggest that this statement  says that lead-free is no good.  However, the statement could be reworded to say: “In considerably more than half of the test conditions, test vehicles assembled with lead-free materials had higher reliability." Counting the comparisons in the Rockwell Collins paper shows lead-free better in 51 cases, tin-lead better in 31 cases, and one draw.  However, it is disturbing that a small percentage of lead-free assembled test vehicles had much much worse reliability than tin-lead test vehicles.  This later information makes me believe that lead-free is not yet ready for mission-critical, high-reliability, long-life products.  These small numbers of much poorer reliability assemblies must be understood and corrected before lead-free is ready for mission-critical prime time.  The much shorter life cycle of today’s consumer electronics may also mask this concern.

What about cost?  I don’t at all want to minimize the expense that many went through to go lead-free and RoHS compliant.  In about 2007, one of our colleagues estimated that it cost the electronics industry $20 billion to become RoHS compliant.  I think this number is low, but, from a consumer’s perspective, there has been no cost hardship.  The price of a PC continued to go down during and after RoHS implementation, as shown in the figure below.  While performing my non-scientific survey of co-workers, family, and friends on reliability, I also asked about cost.  All agreed, electronics are cheaper than ever.

Challenges still exist, even in consumer electronics with the Head-in-Pillow, Graping, non wet opens, and other defects.  However, we can all purchase lead-free, RoHS compliant products at a reasonable cost and reliability.

 

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

The source for the image is :http://thomaslah.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/apple-and-intel-defying-gravity/

Folks,

Let’s step away from electronics assembly challenges, and deep considerations of solder paste, solder preforms, and wave soldering, to ponder where electronics have gone in the last decade or so. 

The mobile phone of the early 2000s was just that, a phone. Today it is a phone, music player, PalmPilot-type organizer, camera (still and video), video player, gamer, TV remote, GPS system, web portal, etc.  There is almost nothing electronic that it can’t do.  The USB memory stick of 2002 with 0.5GB of memory cost $500, today $5 will get you 4GB one, a cost reduction of 800 to one, the equivalent of halving in price about every year.

There is no reason to expect any less dramatic advancements in the future.  But, predicting the future of electronics is never easy.  In the January 2013 edition of Scientific American  Ed Regis wrote an article titled, The Bold and Foolish Effort to Predict the Future of Computing. In this article, Regis interviewed eight computer luminaries, including Stephen Wolfram and Nathan Myhrvold,  to ascertain their perspectives on where computing will be in 150 years.  The conclusion was that no one can predict the future of computing, as interviewee George Dyson said, “All I can guarantee is that any prediction will be wrong."

One person less humbled by the difficulties of computing predictions is Ray Kurzweil.  His prediction success level of more than 80% would seem to support such confidence.  Kurzweil also just got a new job at Google. I am finishing his new book “How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed” and, while I  finding it fascinating, I think he goes too far.  He believes the mind is a sophisticated computer and that, when computers get to a certain point equaling and surpassing the human mind's computational ability, they will be considered human.

Supporting this point, he hopes to, someday, resurrect his father, as Bloomberg states:

“Among the stranger things Ray Kurzweil will say to your face is that he intends to bring his father back to life. The famed inventor has a storage locker full of memorabilia—family photographs, letters, even utility bills—tied to his father, Fredric, who died in 1970. Someday, Kurzweil hopes to feed this data trove into a computer that will reconstruct a virtual rendering of dear old Dad.”

Call me a religious fanatic, but I think there is something more to each of us than our memories and our brains computing ability. 

Kurzweil endorses IBM's computer system, Watson’s victory in Jeopardy  in February of 2011 as a major step in the direction of computers as humans.  IBM provided commercial support for these Jeopardy episodes.  In the commercials they strongly reminded us that Watson was not thinking, but only doing what it (not “he”) was programmed to do.  Someone summed it up nicely, Watson won, but did he know he won?

I think there are a few major things that people like Kurzweil minimize when they propose that computers will be recognized as human.  These points are:

1. Humans are sentient (they would know whether or not they won or lost Jeopardy, we have emotions and feelings).  I know of no progress in sentience development for machines.
2. Humans have a will.  We get up in the morning, we decide what we will do that day and do it.  There is no progress (thankfully?) in giving computers a will.
3. Humans have a biological body.  We smell the newly cut grass, feel a refreshing breeze, get tired, enjoy a meal, enjoy sports etc.   It is easy for some to minimize the importance of the body in being human. Again no progress in this area.

However, I don’t want to minimize much of what Kurzweil predicts.  In her ground breaking book, Alone Together, Sherry Turkle tells us that, in addition to the fact that the average teenager in the US sends 200 text messages a day, electronic companions already exist.  As time goes by they will become more realistic and will be capable of interesting and stimulating speech and interaction.  Having all of the world’s knowledge at their fingertips (pun intended), these companions will likely be more stimulating than people, they will easily pass the Turing Test, and, for good or ill, will make us more “alone together” than ever.  But our companion will not love, fear, hate, or know that it is a companion.

As has been pointed out, this brave new world is coming whether we like it or not.

BTW, on another topic,  the History Channel has produced a terrific video series, Men Who Built America http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america.  It is a the spell-binding story of Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, Edison, and Henry Ford.  If you missed it, it is coming out in DVD in January.

Cheers and Best for the New Year,

Dr. Ron

Folks,

It's been a while. Let's look in on Patty......

Patty stared, bleary eyed, at her laptop screen.  It was the day after the election.  She and Rob were following the election closely as a “statistical thinking” exercise.  They had met at a conference with The Professor in late October and agreed that following the election would test their statistical thinking skills.  They established beforehand that they would not discuss who they favored, just the data.

All agreed that Mitt Romney had a greater challenge than President Obama.

As Rob said, “Of the six most populated states, even the Republicans agree that Obama will win California (1), New York (3), Illinois (5), and Pennsylvania (6).  Romney is only a shoe-in for Texas (2).  Only Florida (4) is a toss up”

“I thought some analysts were saying that Pennsylvania is in play,” The Professor commented.

“They’re dreaming,” Patty said with conviction.  “Pennsylvania has too many big cities; typical democratic strong holds,” she continued.

“Many pollsters have 255 electoral votes in Obama’s column and only a little over 200 for Romney. It’s hard to see a Romney path to victory.  It is statistically unlikely he could win all of the swing states” Rob added.

The Professor beamed as he listened to his protégés' intelligently analyze and argue the situation.

They all agreed that it was hard to understand why many were referring to it as a close race, although voter turnout could change everything.

As election night went on, Patty felt she could call the election at 8PM EST.  However, she was sympathetic that the networks needed a high level of certainty. The major networks were finally calling it at 10PM.  When they did, Romney was ahead in the popular vote by about 1 million.  Patty chuckled to herself, when a renowned TV anchor commented that it might be a governing challenge to Obama to win the electoral college and not the popular vote.  Clearly he had not factored in the fact that, although California was “called” for Obama around 10PM EST, it was called with only a few percent of the votes in.  The networks were using exit polls and statistical analysis to make a projection.  By the time all of the west coast votes were counted, Obama will comfortably win the popular vote - because of California’s large population.  Patty thought this should be obvious to the pundits.

Patty had stayed up until about 11PM to watch the results.  It was comforting that her analysis was spot on.  However, she was so “wound up” that she couldn’t fall asleep and she was now paying the price.

As her attention shifted back to the email she was writing.

Suddenly, she was jarred by a loud, cheerful voice.

“Hey kiddo, pack your bags, looks like we’re on the road again,” Pete said loudly.

As usual Patty thought,” How does Pete always know these things before I do…..I’m the boss!”

“What’s the scoop?” Patty asked.

“Remember our facility in Ohio?  They are having wave soldering yield and throughput problems,” Pete answered.

“What!” Patty shouted.  “We spent a lot of time there six months ago optimizing their wave soldering operation and teaching them the appropriate use of solder preforms. What happened?” She finished.

“Not sure,” Pete responded. “I thought we worked really well with their team and developed a good process.  It seemed to me it was one of the more productive projects I was involved in in quite awhile,” Pete finished.

“And you didn’t even offend any of the senior managers,” Patty teased.

Pete chuckled but his cheeks did turn a little red.  Pete was a terrific process engineer, but he had a little bit of a “short fuse,” although he was usually right.

“In talking to some of my buddies there, they told me that senior management hired a very senior fellow who is considered an expert in wave.  Strangely, things fell apart right after he joined,” Pete explained.

“Well, you are on your own for this one.  I've got a number of family commitments over the next two weeks,” Patty said with a little sadness in her voice.  Patty enjoyed these types of challenges.

“As soon as I get the official request, you’ll be on your way,” Patty said.

“Oh, and don’t offend anyone,” she teasingly finished.

As Pete left her office, she checked her emails. Sure enough, there was a note from Mike Madigan asking her to intervene in this wave soldering problem.

Two days later Pete was in ACME’s Ohio facility sitting in the office of Pam Olinski, the site's quality manager.

“Pete, I’m so glad you could come.  Three months ago our wave soldering first pass yield was 95% and our production was about 2,000 boards per day.  Yield is now 90% and production is off 15%. “Help!” Pam said.

“Tell me about the new guy?” Pete asked.

“Fred Castle; he has very impressive credentials, but he has been running the wave process like a dictator. He stops the process a lot to adjust the wave machine.  I think he will be offended that you are here to audit the process,” Pam finished.

Because of this concern, they agreed that it might be best to have Pete initially view the process from afar.  So, they decided that Pete would be given an operator’s smock and walk around the shop floor for half a day or so.

As Pete arrived on the shop floor, almost immediately he saw Fred stop the wave machine and make some adjustments.  While  making the adjustments, Fred held a board in his hand - and he looked at occasionally.  After the wave machine was running again, Pete saw that Fred looked carefully at every board.

Pete saw one of the wave operators was going on a break.  Pete remembered Molly Stark from his visit to optimize the wave process six months ago, so he stopped her and ask if she could join in for lunch.

The morning passed quickly, and Pete was off to lunch with Molly.  As Pete had suggested, Molly brought another operator, Chuck Petrus to lunch.  Pete insisted on treating, so Molly and Chuck left their brown bags behind. 

In total, Fred stopped the line four times during the almost 4 hours of Pete's observations. Each time he made adjustments on the wave machine. After exchanging pleasantries Pete asked, “Why was that fellow stopping the wave line so often?”

Molly got quite animated and answered, “That’s Fred Castle, the supposed wave genius. He stops the line every time there is a defect and adjusts the wave machine parameters.  A number of us complained to him that he shouldn’t make adjustments on the machine that with just one fail.  That’s what you taught us.”

“What did he say?” Pete asked.

“ ‘I’ve forgotten more about wave soldering than you will ever know’……No one has said a word since,” Chuck responded.

“You and Patty taught us about special cause and common cause variation. I don’t think Fred understands that,” Molly commented.

“He’s also a knob twiddler,” Chuck added.

Does Fred know the difference between common and special cause variation?  Is that the root of the yield and throughput problems? 

What is a knob twiddler? Stay tuned to find out.

 

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Folks,

Some time ago, I mentioned that I was working on a consensus of the status of lead-free/RoHS compliant assembly. My hope is to find data and facts that will support the consensus. I am making progress, but at this time I would like to share the subtopics in the consensus. Look them over and see what you think:

1.       Was/Is lead-free electronics/RoHS needed to protect the environment?

2.      Is lead-free solder easier and safer to recycle than lead-containing solder?

3.      How has the increased use of tin and silver affected their supply and price?

4.      How much did it cost to implement lead-free/RoHS compliant electronics?

a.      What is the cost adder to a typical lead-free product?

5.      What are the process challenges of lead-free assembly?

a.      Are these challenges being addressed?

b.      If so, how?

6.        What is the reliability of lead-free vs leaded electronics for commercial applications?

a.      E.g. 0C to 100C thermal cycle, drop shock

7.        What is the reliability of lead-free vs leaded electronics for harsh environment/military applications?

a.      E.g. -55C to 125C thermal cycle, other Mil stress tests

8.      What is the threat of tin whiskers, tin pest and other similar lead-free related reliability phenomena?

9.      What is the status and need for halogen-free assembly?

 

Help me by suggesting topics that I have left out.     
Contact info here.
Cheers,
Dr. Ron

Folks,

In a recent posting we discussed that the higher melting temperatures of lead-free solder require reflow soldering temperatures to be higher, thus more electricity is used in lead-free assembly. However, as we calculated, this increased use of electricity is very small compared to all electricity used in the world.

An additional concern that some have voiced is the claim that RoHS, with its lead-free requirement, actually makes the environment worse because more tin and silver is used in lead-free solders.   They argue that the increased use of these metals, creates mining pollution and has driven the price of these metals sky high. Let’s examine these claims.

Prismark has estimated that approximately 90,000 tons of solder are used in electronics, with about 80,000 used in wave soldering and 10,000 tons for SMT soldering. It is important to remember that electronics solder is a subset of all solder. All solder (alloys for brazing pipes etc) uses about 190,000 tons of tin. Solder is the single largest user of tin. See Figure 1. 

Figure 1. Solder is the largest end use of tin. Tin is the base material for almost all solders. 

If tin-lead solder were still used predominantly, approximately 57,000 tons of tin (90,000 x 63% tin) would be used annually. With lead-free solder, about 88,000 tons (90,000 x 98% tin) of tin are used per year. This is an apparent increase of about 30,000 MT of tin used each year. However, an interesting thing to consider is that lead-free solder is about 14% lighter than tin-lead solder. Knowing that, and knowing that solder used in wave soldering (remember wave soldering accounts for almost 90% of all solder used in electronics assembly) is consumed by volume not weight (i.e. assuming approximately the same fillet size), about half of this increase is canceled out. 

This is all a bit confusing however, so it may be best to just to look at tin use. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), about 300,000 tons of tin are mined each year. Figure 2 is a graph of world tin production at mines per year (this graph does not show recycled tin.)  The amount of refined tin used each year in the US is depicted in Figure 3. Figure 3 includes about 15,000 tons a year of recycled tin. Recycling solder is very cost effective. Scott Mazur just pointed out (Printed Circuit Design and Fab and Circuits Assembly, p 36, August 2011), that recycling solder dross is 10 times as cost effective as recycling aluminum cans.

Looking at these graphs, it is hard to say that the amount of tin used has gone up since RoHS. It would appear that tin use is likely more affected by the economy and that it is really difficult to see an effect from RoHS’s July 2006 enactment.

Figure 2. World Tin Production at Mines. 

Most wave soldering solders have low or no silver. So, about 3% of the 10,000 tons of SMT solder, or 300 MTs of silver, are used in electronics. This is about 1.5% of the 22,000 MTs of silver produced each year. Silver use in electronics does not make anyone’s list of top silver usage.

Figure 3. US consumption of tin has decreased since RoHS was enacted.

So electronics solder use since RoHS has not caused tin use to increase, nor is it a significant factor in silver use. Therefore it is highly unlikely that electronics' use of tin or silver has been a prime driver in their stunning price increases in 2011.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

Based on a recent post I published regarding the use of bismuth (Bi) in solder alloys, John writes:

"If Bismuth comes from the production of Pb, and if the use of Pb is being reduced, won’t the availability of Bi be reduced…and the price would increase?"

"Just thinking…"

Dr. Ron responds:

Lead has been banned from many of its original uses, paints, solders, water pipes, gasoline, etc. However, its increased use in batteries has actually caused lead consumption to rise. The USGS estimates that 88% of lead produced is used for lead-acid batteries.

Many of us, in electronics assembly, have been focused on the 2006 RoHS lead ban. This may have caused us to believe that lead use in electronics was significant. About 9 million metric tons (MT) of lead are consumed each year, only about 20K metric tons were used for solders prior to July 2006, this amount is only about 0.22% of the total. Electronic lead use being so small, is likely why the lead industry had little visibility in fighting RoHS. Their important customers were making batteries.

Lead is quite effectively re-cycled, as about 60% of the 9 million MTs/yr are from recycling and 40% from mining.

Over 100 million lead-acid auto batteries are sold each year in the US alone. In addition, the use of lead-acid batteries in fork-lifts, electronic vehicles, and golf carts has increased demand for lead. So, the bottom line is that lead use is expected to grow at about 2% per year.

Considering that we calculated that bismuth use in solders would be at most 5% of total bismuth production, it is unlikely that this use, or lead production reduction, would affect bismuth supplies.

Image source.

There seems to be a growing trend to use a low-Ag or Ag-free solder alloy for Surface Mount Technology (SMT) electronics assembly, similar to what is commonly offered for bar solder, used in wave and selective soldering.

For through-hole performance, the strength and stability come from the entire barrel of solder, whereas it is usually the foot and heel fillets that give SMT solder joints their strength.

Lets talk about the other issue with using a eutectic solder alloy in SMT: tombstoning.  One of the benefits of using the SAC (tin-silver-copper) alloy for SMT and solder paste, is that it has a built-in plastic range, similar to that of Sn62 (62Sn 36Pb 2Ag).  It is this plastic range that prevents tombstoning, and takes into account the inconsistent heating of the solder across the part (which is the sole cause of tombstoning).  Switching to a eutectic alloy eliminates the plastic range and opens the door for tombstoning.

Any powder manufacturing issues, such as the inconsistent distribution of dopants throughout the alloy and powder matrix, takes a back seat to the surface mount reliability concerns. 

There are other alternatives, such as SAC0307 (99Sn 0.3Ag 0.7Cu)… But, with the price of Ag finally coming down, and a long history of SAC usage, we don’t think it’s going to be a major player.

Next time, we'll talk about the manufacturing and costs associated with low-Ag and Ag-free alloys. 

I hope this helps. Contact me with any questions.

Folks,

 A few people asked some questions after my last post on bismuth solders. Here they are:

1.      The low melting point of these solders is encouraging. What are realistic field use conditions?

Bismuth solders tend to be brittle, so drop shock environments such as mobile phones would not be recommended. However, thermal cycle performance from 0 to 100C is good, so stationary office equipment, televisions, desktop computers, etc may be good candidates.

 

2.     I am working with your colleagues on an automotive application and I am curious whether you have any idea how this alloy will perform between -40 and 0°C? We have not been reviewing bismuth-containing alloys due to their lower sheer strength, but may need to look at them in the future.

We can find no information on thermal cycle performance at these low temperatures.

3.     I hear that bismuth is rarer than silver, if we start using bismuth in solders couldn’t that make it very expensive.

An old number from Prismark puts the world solder use at about 50,000 metric tons (MT) per year.  Assume bismuth solders took a 5% market share (I think this would be the highest) that is 2,500 MT of bismuth solder (Bi57Sn42Ag1) or 1,425 MT of bismuth.

 

Although bismuth's occurrence in the earth's crust is 0.009 ppm (silver is 0.075 and gold 0.004 ppm), about 22,000 MT are produced each year.  In comparison, about 2,000 MT of gold, 20,000 MT of silver, 400 MT of indium and 5 MT of rhodium are produced each year.  In comparison to more common metals, total lead production is 8,000,000 MT/year and tin a little less than 700,000 MT.

 

 Realistically, it would seem to me to be unlikely that use of bismuth in solder, at 1,425MT/year out of 22,000 MTs,  would affect the price much, especially if the adaptation rate is more like 1-3%, instead of 5%. 

For those interested in how bismuth is produced, this Wikipedia quote may be of interest:

 

"According to the United States Geological Survey, world 2009 mine production of bismuth was 7,300 tonnes, with the major contributions from China (4,500 tonnes), Mexico (1,200 tonnes) and Peru (960 tonnes).^[11] World 2008 bismuth refinery production was 15,000 tonnes, of which China produced 78%, Mexico 8% and Belgium 5%.^[9]

The difference between world bismuth mine production and refinery production reflects bismuth's status as a byproduct metal. Bismuth travels in crude lead bullion (which can contain up to 10% bismuth) through several stages of refining, until it is removed by the Kroll-Betterton process or the Betts process. The Kroll-Betterton process uses a pyrometallurgical separation from molten lead of calcium-magnesium-bismuth drosses containing associated metals (silver, gold, zinc, some lead, copper, tellurium, and arsenic), which are removed by various fluxes and treatments to give high-purity bismuth metal (over 99% Bi). The Betts process takes cast anodes of lead bullion and electrolyzes them in a lead fluorosilicate-hydrofluorosilicic acid electrolyte to yield a pure lead cathode and an anode slime containing bismuth. Bismuth will behave similarly with another of its major metals, copper. Thus world bismuth production from refineries is a more complete and reliable statistic."

So I don't think bismuth supply and price would be affected by its use in solders.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

image source

Folks,

Many people have been infatuated by the price of gold in recent months, but the price of silver has also skyrocketed. In 2000 silver was about $3.00 per troy oz. In the eight years that followed, its price grew to $15/oz. Today it is trading at over $41/oz! This price is almost an all time high, except for the time when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in 1980. The aberration of their efforts jolted the silver price to just short of $50/oz, but it settled down to $11 or so after the Hunts came under margin call and other pressures.

Unfortunately, the dramatic price increase today, does not appear to be an aberration. Although we may hope that it will soon drop to more historic levels, we may not have reason to expect that it will.

Although not as dramatic, tin and copper have experienced significant prices increases as well. The price of tin has doubled in the last year to $15/pound and copper has increased from about $3/lb to $4.50.  These metals are obviously key ingredients in critical electronic materials such as solder pastes, solder bar, and solder preforms.

In addition, oil, which is used for most organic electronic materials such as PWB resins, flip chip underfill, and epoxy fluxes, has increased to $110/bbl - approaching its all time high of $145/bbl.

All of these price increases have a significant impact on the electronic materials supply chain. Although we are used to price decreases in the cost of our mobile phones and PCs, at this point in time, the price of the materials that go into these devices will be increasing.

As one materials supply chain executive commented at APEX, “It’s not like we can be clever and somehow work around the price increase of silver and these other materials, we have to pass it on to our customer, or go out of business.”

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

At the time of writing, the price of silver (Ag) was approaching the USD$50/tr.oz. (Troy ounce) level, and threatening to go higher. With 1 Troy ounce being 31.1grams, this makes the cost of pure silver ingot close to USD$1.60/gram.

Image from goldsilveroz.com

Materials costs are therefore a major consideration for anyone using silver in any form. Naturally, we are now seeing a few Power Semiconductor packaging houses evaluating the possibility of moving away from silver-filled epoxies for die-attach. The alternatives they are considering include the adoption of solder paste (or solder in some other form: wire / ribbon / preforms) versus a silver-filled epoxy.

Here are some thoughts on the Power Semiconductor assembly pros and cons, based on using solder paste as an alternative to silver-filled epoxies.

Good news (+)

+   Reduced materials costs
+   Improved pot-life / shelf-life *
+   Improved high temperature thermal-cycling
+   Strong, metallurgical joint formed between leadframe (substrate) / joining material / die
+   Improved thermal conductivity
+   Faster throughput (more units per hour, UPH)**
+   Easy clean-up ***
+   Does not wick onto NiPd surface to cause poor wire bondability

 * Although it is true that solder pastes are stored under refrigerated conditions, they do not require the -40C storage that is typical of silver-filled epoxies. 

 ** The dispense of solder paste is very rapid and can be done using multi-dot dispense heads. It undergoes rapid temperature reflow, versus the slow cure needed for metal-filled epoxies, which can be up to typically 1-3 hours, depending on the volume of silver epoxy.

 *** Because the solder paste flux does not cure like a polymeric material,  tubing and other conduits for the solder paste are easily cleaned out using common solvents, or can be simply purged with flux.


  ==================

Bad news (-)

-   Capital costs #
-   Adoption time / new process learning ##
-   Needs a solderable die surface
-   Voiding increase ####

 # The main cost-drivers here are:

- Reflow: Specialty reflow equipment is required for high temperature solders, such as
Heller or BTU reflow ovens

- Cleaning: If wirebonding is required after the reflow process, standard cleaning equipment and cleaning chemistry (aqueous or solvent-based) will be needed to remove flux residues

- Gas: Forming gas (H2/N2) or simple nitrogen may be needed to assist reflow.

Note that increasingly, for clip-bonding (non-wirebonding) applications using the new ultralow residue solder paste Indium9.32, even cleaning may not be needed, as the residue has been found to be compatible with compatible with a number of molding compounds in the industry.

 ## By partnering with a company like Indium Corporation with many years of experience in die-attach soldering, the ramp-up time can be significantly reduced.

 ### A solderable surface is usually a sequence of Ti / Ni / (Ag or Au) plated layers. The thickness of the silver (Ag) or gold (Au) precious metal layer is usually limited to 100nm (0.1microns). Compare this to a standard silver-epoxy bond line thickness (BLT) of 0.5-2mils (12-50microns).

 #### Acceptable voiding of less than 5% of the total die area is fairly easily achieved with good quality substrates and die-finishes.

  ==================

In closing, I am indebted to my friend and colleague Sehar Samiappan (Indium Corporation Area Technical Manager - South East Asia) for his insights.

Contact me to discuss this further.

Cheers!   Andy

Folks,

HIS iSuppli performed a teardown analysis of an iPad . They estimate that the cost of the bill of materials (BOM) is  $336.60 for a GSM 32 GB version. 

Observing the BOM is interesting. Many of us in the assembly business are disappointed that this innovative product is assembled in the Far East. However, assembly cost savings may not be the only reason for Far East assembly. If one looks at the bill of material, almost all of it comes from the Far East, the memory, the display, the applications processor, etc.

iSuppli estimates the assembly cost as $10 dollars. This amount strikes me as too low. A good rule of thumb is that assembly cost is at least $0.01 per I/O assembled. So if the all of the PCBs have more than 1000 I/O the assembled cost is likely higher. It is hard to estimate the I/O, but there are 100s of passives alone and typically the BGAs will have high I/O counts.  I just noticed that I don't see passives on the BOM.  Typically they are about 90% by part count of the electrical components. 
They are inexpensive, but with their high numbers, their price can add up.

Solder paste is typically about 0.05% of assembled cost or about $0.20. When one considers the importance of good solder joints, it always pays to use the best solder paste available.

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

The image is from iSuppi's article.

Jon major recently joined the Indium Corporation as a Product Manager for Solar back-end assembly products. I greeted him with this impromptu interview.

Jim: First of all Jon, welcome. It’s great to have you as a new addition to the team!

 

Jon: Thank you Jim – it’s an exciting time to be at Indium Corporation and a fantastic time to be a part of the growing solar industry. I am extremely enthusiastic about my new position and am looking forward to making a positive contribution to the solar industry.

 

Jim: I noticed it didn’t take you long to get up to speed. Your time in Silicon Valley must have helped.

 

Jon: Coming from the electronics industry with a focus on product development, new product introduction, manufacturing, and external partner management, I am excited that my past experiences can contribute both to the industry and to Indium Corporation. After joining Indium only a few weeks ago, not only am I getting used to Upstate NY weather, but I have been immersing myself in solar with the goal of gaining a comprehensive understanding of:

 

•       Both rigid and thin-film technologies

•       Technology trends

•       Global and regional markets (EU, China, US, North America)

•       Solar supply chain (Silicon, wafers, cells, module, equipment, inverters, integrators)

•       Equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and how we can collaborate with them to move the industry forward

•       Our products and pricing

•       Our current and future customers

•       Our short and long term opportunities

•       Our competition

•       Our roadmap

•       Our strengths, weaknesses, and threats

•       Our manufacturing capabilities and our QA process

•       Our sales channels, value proposition, key differentiators

•       All Indium processes

 

Jim: I know you've got solar products on your mind. Let our readers know a little bit more about your role here at Indium?

 

Jon: As a Solar Backend Product Manager I will focus (officially) on the business development and growth of Indium’s Solar Back End product offerings.  Now that sounds great but what does it actually mean? I could cut and paste my official job description but I prefer to explain it in my own words. As I think about the first part of that statement, “business development and growth…”, I see my role as:

 

–      Know the market, the customers, the product, and the competition

–      Develop relationships with the Indium team, reps, partners, equipment manufacturers, and, of course, customers

–      Write valuable data sheets, publications, and sales literature

–      Listen to our customers' needs and provide solutions

–      Manage schedules and orders with minimal surprises

–      Build cross-functional collaboration (sales, distribution, marketing, engineering, R&D, QA, production, management)

–      Never let down partners or customers

–      Support all functions of the organization, both internal and external

–      Deliver above & beyond commitments

–      Make great bets – on technology, customers, and opportunities

–      Understand the product life-cycle

–      Ship high quality, consistent product

 

The second part of that statement “..of Indium’s Solar Back End product offerings” is fairly straightforward. Of course this means I will focus on Indium’s current back end products (tabbing ribbon, bus ribbon, metallization paste (or as I prefer to call it – “grid ink”), flux and flux cored wire). With a product development background, this also means I have an opportunity to work with customers, partners, and R&D to develop and bring new products to market that will advance the module assembly industry – very exciting for me personally.

 

Ultimately, I think of my role as both building awareness of Indium’s products and superior technical support available to our customers as well as helping to shape our growing industry.

 

Jim: Okay Jon, you’ve had a while to settle in and get familiar with our Solar Team’s past and present – what are you planning for the future of module assembly?

 

Jon: Regarding the future of module assembly it’s a bit early to know for sure but I am excited about our low-temperature bismuth-containing alloys. These low temperature, lead-free, bismuth-containing alloys reduce the soldering process temperatures, thus reducing thermal stresses. I’m also working with the Indium production team to further reduce our tabbing and bus ribbon yield strength. A lower yield strength will reduce mechanical stress on cells during the assembly process. This is crucial to minimizing the possibility of microcracks and cell breakage during the solar module assembly process.

 

In closing, having lived in California for the last 10 years, I am not 100% familiar with our Upstate New York climate, and especially not all the snow shoveling. I see in my future a solar powered driveway heater!

 

Jon can be reached at jmajor@indium.com

When was the last time you were in your favorite store and headed toward your favorite aisle only to find that they have rearranged everything?  Of course, they do that to attract your attention to different items, but it is only for their benefit.

At Indium. we have made some changes on our e-commerce site but these are for your benefit.  We summarized the solder wire, solder ribbon and research kit options so you can more easily find a solution to your application. 

The solder ribbon and solder wire sections give a summary of the available alloys and the prime characteristics to help you home in on the proper alloy.  The research kit section has had like kits grouped together into solder, thermal management, plating, solar tabbing and NanoFoil options.

And, because budgets are tight, but the work still has to be done, we have lowered the prices on the individual solder wire and ribbon options and added a 10ft wire option.  You can still buy the research kits that have multiple items at a great price, but if you have narrowed down your choice to that one best option, you can test it for less than $100.00.

If you need a little extra help in determining the best solution, we have a lot of ways for you to contact us:
1) Live Chat (see our home page)
2) Askus@indium.com
3) Regional technical support personnel
4) esolders@indium.com
5) Call us at 1-315-853-4900 or 1-800-446-3486

Solderspheres or solder spheres, or even solder balls: whatever you call them, Indium Corporation has been making them for years and has rightly acquired the reputation for doing whatever it takes to meet our customers' unique needs.

Unique Alloys:

Hard to find alloys (like multipart alloys; low-melting alloys and even gold/tin (80Au/20Sn)) are our bread and butter. As "Indium Corporation" it should be no surprise that we lead the world in our ability to supply low-melting indium-alloy solder spheres, as well as other forms of these alloys, such as engineered solders or solder pastes.

Unique Quantities:

We don't want you to buy more than you absolutely need. If you just want 100 spheres, we can easily do that: if you want more - we can do that, too. But remember that, because each customer's need is unique, our prices may be higher than our competitors, especially for more standard alloys. Some customers also have unique inventory-control needs, so we work with many customers to ship on-demand by retaining a buffer stock of spheres here at Indium.

Unique Sizes:

Our current dimensional capabilities as of this writing are from 80microns to 0.062inches, or even bigger. Generally, the bigger the sphere - the less spherical it is (within the limits of surface tension and viscosity), and we can't control the laws of physics, so instances where a very large amount of solder is needed, a preform may have better dimensional control. Also, notice that we won't ask that you order in a specific unit of diameter measurement, like the mil or the micron or the millimeter: we're a global company - just tell us what you need.

Unique Packaging:

Often needed for more delicate alloy spheres, we can offer specialty overpacking that eliminates oxides from the atmosphere around the solder spheres, essentially stopping oxidation in its tracks. It's the same technique we use to package our soft solder die-attach (SSDA) wire: a technique that showed that the very reactive wire was still "as new" 3 years later. We also offer spheres in tape & reel packaging (see image) for 24mil, 35mil and 62mil diameter spheres.

Unique Tolerances:

Just as a case in point, a MEMS customer of ours had a need for a low-melting indium-alloy solder sphere with a tolerance of +/-5microns (+/-0.005mm) for a sphere with a 350micron diameter. That demands a tolerance of just over 1% - pretty demanding, but we did it.

Our standard tolerance is +/-1mil (1 thousandth of an inch, or 25.4microns), but as you can see, we have the capability to go to much tighter tolerances using three proprietary manufacturing techniques.

Other Needs:

We are also seeing people asking for doped-alloy spheres; low-alpha emission solder spheres and other things that we could never have dreamed of...

So please just let us know what you need. We'd be happy to help out, and if we can not do what you ask - we'll let you know why.

Cheers!  Andy

Folks,

APEX 2010 appeared to be a great success. Attendance was high and my “Lead-Free Assembly” workshop broke a personal record of about 60 attendees.

While at the show, I was invited to a meeting on solderless assembly, ably organized by Phil Marcoux. About 15 people were at the meeting. The intent of the meeting, was to crystallize what is needed to make solderless technology a reality. Many have suggested that solderless assembly’s time is now. The main reason being the challenges of lead-free solder-based assembly and its perceived lack of reliability. Some believe that solderless technology is a next logical step in assembly on the order of importance of the advent of SMT assembly.

I was well behaved at the meeting (I am a somewhat renowned skeptic of solderless assembly), but pointed out, early on, that any solderless assembly technique (the Occam process being a likely contender), must be disassemble-able to meet the requirements of WEEE.

Much spirited but pleasant discussion transpired, related to what is needed to make this technology a reality. Several folks mentioned that a “killer app” would be needed to kick-start solderless assembly, and supply the considerable monies needed.

Finally, near the end of the meeting, Phil, suggesting I had been too quiet, and asked me to chime in. I said that I agreed that a killer app was needed, and proceeded to tell a story. It went as such:

Let’s say it was several years ago and Steve Jobs heard about solderless technology.  He was wondering if it might be right for Apple’s future killer app, the iPad.  So we are invited to visit him on Infinity Drive. After confidentially agreements are signed, he starts speaking.  He proceeds to tell us that the BOM for the entry level iPad is $250 and assembly adds $9 .  Reliability of lead-free products has been equal to, or better than, leaded products and lead-free enables finer PWB lead spacings than does leaded solder.  So he is not unhappy with lead-free assembly, but would like to do solderless technology, if it makes sense.   The assembled cost has to be less than the $259 and solderless reliability must be better.  We would need to be ready for an April 2010 launch. 

I think the cost metrics in this scenario would be difficult for a solderless technology to compete with. And, even if the price was a few dollars less, what is the compelling reason to change?

SMT arrived because through-hole technology could not meet the miniaturization requirements of modern electronics. We could not have modern electronics without SMT. What are the compelling reasons solderless technology should be used in an application like the one discussed above? The answer still escapes me.

Cheers,
Dr. Ron

Image source.

Patty was checking her email. She noticed a note from someone who had attended last night’s SMTA meeting. Patty had just been elected chapter president, after giving a talk on the head-in-pillow defect. In her talk, she also shared how important it was to work closely with your materials and equipment suppliers. To her, it was obvious that her suppliers were interested in her success. If they were competent, why shouldn’t she rely on them for technical information and help. If she didn’t think they were competent, she should get new suppliers. She was surprised at how much “push back” she got from the attendees. Several people stated that they felt that suppliers where just out to make a sale and that a smart person just bought from the supplier with the cheapest price. Patty thought that this perspective was negative and self destructive. She was sure that 60% of all process knowledge was learned from her suppliers, either in person or at the technical shows like APEX and SMTAI. She felt the main reason to go to these shows was the technical program. And some of the best papers were presented by the better equipment and materials suppliers. 

One of their marketing VPs even told her, “We believe that the more technical help we give our customers, the more successful we will be.” 

“Well wasn’t that a condensation of what good business should be like?  He who helps his customer is the most successful,” she thought.

As she was thinking these thoughts a new email popped up on her PC. It was from Hal Lindsay, a noted curmudgeon.   Patty read on….

“ I heard you telling some of the people at the meeting last night that lead-free assembly had some process advantages: Hogwash. Lead-free has no process advantages, and it’s not needed,” he started.

After a few more complaints, he finished, “ It’s because of young tree huggers like you that never stood up and fought lead-free that we are in this mess to begin with.”

In preparing her response, Patty’s mind went back to some conversations about this she had had with The Professor. He had made two strong points:

1.       The first purpose of RoHS is to make recycling safer. So much recycling isperformed in poorer countries with chemically unsafe processes. RoHS compliant products will save the lives of the unfortunate people who have to perform this type of recycling to survive. 

2.       Lead-free soldering is challenging because the solder does not wet as well. This situation forced us to develop assembly processes with tighter process windows. However, an initially unseen benefit is that tighter lead spacings are possible with lead-free soldering because of this poore wetting. Many portable products such as mobile phones, could not be assembled with leaded solder. There would be too many shorts.

Patty was including this information in her response to grumpy Mr. Lindsay, when the phone rang. It was Rob.

 

 

He began, "我可能要出差去中国探访几家ACME在那里的新工厂。我想你可能也要在焊接工艺上做一些工作。"

(For our few readers that can’t read Mandarin: "It looks like I will be traveling to China to visit some of ACME's new factories there.   I think you will be going to work on some soldering issues too.")

 

“Whoa!,” Patty exclaimed, “Why would you be going to visit ACME’s factories in China?”

 

Rob went on, “You know things haven’t been going well here at AJAX, we never adopted “Lean Sigma” techniques like ACME did. Today, we had a layoff and I got hit.”

 

“Yikes!” screamed Patty. Her mind went through many scenarios with Rob being unemployed 5 weeks before their wedding.

 

“Easy girl,” Rob implored. “My GM called me in and said that he was sorry to see me go, but being a friend with your GM, he got me a job at ACME.   I am to be the liaison for the 3 factories that ACME has in China. My fleuncy in Mandarin made the difference,” he finished.

 

Patty and Rob were unusual for Americans, in that they both spoke Spanish and Mandarin. Both of their dads had encouraged them to take Mandarin at Tech as they had both taken many years of Spanish in high school. Both did a language study abroad (LSA) term and an internship in China. As their dads said, “If you can speak English, Spanish, and Mandarin, you can speak to almost any professional in the world.” Both Patty and Rob found that their language skills gave them a ready bond when they were abroad. One German colleague even told Patty that she was the only American he knew that would not fit the European view of Americans when they ask, “Are you bilingual, trilingual, or American?”

 

After Patty calmed down, she asked Rob why he thought she would be going.

 

He responded, “When your GM gave me the job offer on the phone, he alluded to a team visit to China, by me and this genius young woman that is a process expert. Apparently, they have some Head-in-Pillow, graping and productivity issues. I will be handling the business aspects, you the technical. He also mentioned he would like The Professor to go. I don’t think he knows we are engaged.”

 

Patty congratulated Rob and finished to conversation. She hoped that their being married wouldn’t create any issues in working together. She also was a little annoyed that she always seemed to be the last to know about trips that the executives were planning for her and her team. It was especially annoying that Pete seemed always know before her when they would need to go on one of their adventures. After all she was Pete’s boss. Well at least this time it was Rob, not Pete. There is now way Pete could know about this potential adventure.

 

She went back to finishing her note to cranky Hal Lindsay when she heard, “Pack your bags kiddo, it looks like China this time. Oh and Rob is going.”

 

Cheers,

Dr. Ron

I saw Patty at a recent SMTA meeting.  I mentioned that many of her fans would like to see a photo of her.  Surprisingly, neither of us had a camera.  As you remember she is also a self taught artist,  I asked if she would mind sketching herself.   Here tis.

 

 The reflow image of leaded and lead-free solder coutesy of Motorola.

Shelf life means different things in different situations.  Post something on the internet and it will last forever.  Leave fresh fruit out on a hot day and it won't make it through the afternoon.

Jim Hisert recently wrote a blog post on Solder Shelf Life where he teams up with Eric Bastow to discuss Solder Shelf Life.  As they state, Solder Paste has a very defined shelf life because of the flux component.  The shelf life of Solder Preforms, on the other hand, is defined by the solder alloy's propensity to form oxides on the surface of the metal.

How do you minimize Solder Shelf Life issues?  There are several ways:

1) Order quantities that are reflective of your usage. It is attractive to get a large-volume price break, but you need to be able to use the product when the time comes.
2) Request that the solder preforms be packaged in quantities that you use them.  Getting a year's worth of preforms in one bottle may be cheaper, but the constant opening of the jar will only cause the remaining parts to oxidize and become unusable. If you consume 120,000 preforms per year, consider having your order shipped 10,000 pieces per month to assure a fresh supply of material.
3) Store preforms in their original, unopened containers, in a nitrogen dry box.
4) Once you have opened the jar, keep the lid on while it is at the work station.  At the end of the day, return the jar to the nitrogen dry box with the lid off so the nitrogen can purge the oxides that may have begun to form.
5) Consider tape & reel packaging.


 

Many consumer electronics transitioned to Pb-Free 4-5 years ago.  However, there are still a substantial number of electronics being built with Sn/Pb solder.  As some of these products begin to transition to Pb-Free, the decision on a bar solder alloy for the wave soldering process is a challenging one.  There are two widely recognized options to choose from:

• use SAC305 and keep the alloy the same as the SMT process
• choose a low silver (Ag)/Ag-free alloy which is substantially lower in cost

From a cost perspective the Ag-Free alloys are 40-50% cheaper than SAC305.  This is a substantial savings when you consider that solder pots hold around 1,000 lbs of solder.  In this arena, Indium offers our Sn995 which is a cobalt doped Sn/Cu alloy.  In addition to being lower in cost, Sn995 produces shinier solder joints than SAC305.

It would be great if that were the whole story, but there are cases when SAC305 should still be considered as a bar solder for wave soldering processes.  One advantage of SAC305 is that it has a faster wetting speed than any of the Ag-Free alternatives.  This can help when you have a board or process that is challenged with poor hole fill.  The chart below shows the difference between popular Pb-Free alloys for wave.

Another potential advantage of SAC305 is in thermal cycling reliability.  Because the typical wave solder joint is large and very robust, reliability may not be a concern for many consumer products.  However, as the reliability requirements increase for industries such as automotive, aerospace, and military, the stronger SAC305 solder joint may be what is needed to meet more stringent reliability requirements.

Both SAC305 and Ag-Free alloys, such as Sn995, have their place within the electronics manufacturing arena, but it is essential that the correct decision is made based on the product being assembled.

After just finishing her department’s monthly activity report, Patty took a break to stare out of her window, admiring the beauty of last night’s fresh snowfall. Her mind quickly went to the events of the past week. Rob had “popped the question” and Patty had quickly said yes. Her and Rob’s mothers were ecstatic. Both Patty and Rob liked and enjoyed each other’s parents. Patty recognized this as a blessed situation, but both mothers were now spending 10 hours each day planning the wedding. A result, Patty and Rob were both fielding 3 or 4 calls a day from each mom. Patty decided to go “with the flow” and count her blessings that both she and Rob had great parents.

She briefly looked down at the ring Rob had given her. It was a striking two carat emerald with 0.4 carat diamonds on either side. Rob was concerned that Patty might not like an emerald, but he explained that the price of diamonds is controlled and that “you could pave your driveway with diamonds for each equally good sapphire, ruby and especially emerald that exists in nature.” He went on to tell her that “all of the emerald mines of Colombia produce only one or two good 2 carat emeralds per year.”

Well one of them was right there on her finger. In addition to the uniqueness of emerald, the setting was in rhodium, the hardest and rarest of the precious metals. “Five hundred times more rare than gold,” Rob told her. She was especially impressed when she looked up rhodium on the internet and found this quote: “Rhodium has been used for honours, or to symbolize wealth, when more commonly used metals such as silver, gold, or platinum are deemed insufficient.” Gold and platinum insufficient!?

Rob was really secretive about how he found such an apparently rare ring. But it was consistent with his many other successes in life. She was thrilled to have him as a future hubby, even if she did beat him at golf. 

These happy and a little stressful thoughts were interrupted, by Pete coming to her door.

“Hey, kiddo, get packed, looks like will be going on another trip. Guadalajara, this time. Como es su espanol?” Pete said with gusto.

“Mi espanol es muy bueno. Why do you think we will go to Guadalajara?” Patty asked.

“Well, I just talked to Pedro and he said that they performed our productivity audit. Uptime is 29%, and all lines are time balanced to +/- 2%, about as best as could be hoped.”

Patty and her team developed a “Productivity Audit” from what they learned with The Professor in their recent adventures together.

“So then what is the problem?” Patty inquired.

Pete responded, “Jane, the finance exec we met on our trip to South Carolina, implemented a company-wide profitability software program. It was implemented and Guadalajara is 10% too low. No one can figure out why. I think we’ll want The Professor for this one.”

Patty called and was stunned that The Professor was again available. Apparently this was his off term teaching at Ivy University, as he teaches over the summer.  

When our trio arrived at ACME’s Guadalajara facility they all spoke in Spanish. Patty had taken Spanish starting in 4^th grade through high school, Spanish was one of the 7 or 8 languages The Professor spoke and Pete was second generation from Puerto Rico. They were surprised that the site GM, Harry Hopkins, asked them to speak in English.

“Give me a break, I grew up in Boston, I can barely speak English,” he joked in his heavy Boston accent. “We want you to help us find that lost 10%, we must be doing something wrong. Help us find it,” Harry implored. “One thing I can tell you is that I am really proud of my team, they are really working hard, you can tell by all of the product that is out there. It makes me proud just to walk out on the shop floor and see all of the product!”, he went on.

Patty was relieved that Harry was so supportive. Apparently Jane had sent the “good word” about how the trio had helped ACME’s South Carolina plant.

As the trio went on a tour, one thing immediately struck Patty, there was hardly room to walk around. There were partly assembled boards all over the place.

At the end of the tour Patty spoke up, “This facility is striking in how much partially completed product is on the shop floor.”

“And there-in lies the problem,”  responded The Professor.

How can profits be off when uptime and line balancing are so good? Could it be that Guadalajara uses poor performing solder paste, fluxes, or performs? Will our illustrious trio find the problem? Does Patty really like her emerald engagement ring? Stay tuned for the latest.

Cheers,
Dr. Ron