Folks,
Let’s see how Pete is handling the wave solder crisis.
Pete had to admit that he was surprised by the positive outcome of his meeting with Fred Castle. He had sent Patty a text the day before, after he took the operators to lunch, before meeting Fred. The text was a little negative. So he was eager to send her the good news about the surprises in his two meetings with Fred since then. He was frustrated that he kept on getting her voice mail. Finally she answered.
“Advanced Processes,” Patty speaking.
“Hey, kiddo, it’s your favorite process genius!” Pete responded cheerfully.
“Oh, this must be Oscar Patterson!” Patty joked, and they both laughed. Patterson was an annoying chap they had to deal with a few years ago. He topped their list of most annoying people. Pete had almost come to fisticuffs with him.
“How is it going there?” Patty asked.
“Shockingly well. My meetings with Fred Castle were very productive” Pete answered.
“Well, that is shockingly positive news. But I thought he said, ‘I’ve forgotten more about wave soldering than you’ll ever know,’” Patty responded.
“That’s the first thing he said to me when we shook hands, but he was clearly teasing. He slapped me on the back at the same time and chuckled. He went on to say that he had worked in wave soldering for over 30 years, typically at companies that had processes that were out of control. It was clear that he understood a lot about wave. We talked for 30 minutes about what makes a good wave process. As far as I could tell he was right on in everything he said. I think the operators didn’t pick up on his teasing, by the way,” Pete elaborated.
“What about special cause vs common cause?” Patty queried.
“He didn’t have a clue,” Pete replied.
Patty was bracing herself. She was concerned that Pete might have insulted Castle.
“And you didn’t tell him he was an idiot?’ Patty teased.
“Patricia! I’m shocked you could even think such a thought,” Pete replied.
Pete went on, “We bonded, and he admitted that he was frustrated with the yield loss increasing. He was studying the situation and spending a lot of time trying to figure out the issues. He said he was having trouble sleeping. He mentioned that, in his last job, he was responsible for the wave processes at 10 locations. He was constantly fighting fires and got good at it. He had never worked at company that performed DOEs and developed optimized processes.”
“I’m dying to know how this situation worked out,” she interrupted.
“Patience, patience,” Pete admonished jokingly. He continued, ”It was clear that Fred likes to learn, so I mentioned that, recently, The Professor had mentioned the importance of understanding the differences between common cause and special cause variation when trouble shooting a process. I suggested that maybe studying these topics might help. So I gave him a few links to The Professor’s posts on common cause and special cause.” (Dr. Ron note, it will be helpful understanding this story to read The Professor's post, if you are not familiar with common cause and special cause fails.)
“What happened then?” Patty asked, the impatience in her voice apparent.
“Remember, this is now the end of my first day. I watched the process in the morning, took Molly and Chuck to lunch, and then met with Fred. On the second day I had a morning meeting with the quality director, Pam. Then Castle and I went to lunch,” Pete elaborated.
“And?” Patty asked impatiently.
“Castle was all excited. After studying common cause and special cause all night, he realized that he was seeing common cause fails in his detailed scrutiny of the wave line. By adjusting the process parameters slightly when he found a common cause fail, he was moving away from the optimized process settings that were determined by a DOE, so the failure rate got worse. In his previous job, he was mostly seeing special cause fails, as the processes were not optimized, so he was used to intervening,” Pete explained.
“It seems like he won’t have enough to do now,” Patty commented.
“I suggested he help quality. They are stretched thin and he is a detailed-oriented fellow. He keeps meticulous Pareto charts of the fails,” Pete said.
So, where are things now?’ Patty asked.
“Yesterday and today, first pass yields are at 96%. Fred also started helping quality today. It felt good to help and not offend,” Pete finished.
Patty thanked Pete for the great job he did and complimented him strongly for being successful and making friends at the same time. As she hung up the phone, she saw an email from Pam Olinski in her in box. It was a kind note thanking her and Pete for his help. It recounted much of what Pete had said.
She wistfully looked out her window. She was happy and grateful for all of her success, but, to be truthful, she missed the action of being out on the shop floor solving these types for problems.
She was jolted from her chair when she suddenly remembered it was her turn to take her twin sons to karate lessons. So she packed up quickly to pick them up at her mother-in-law's, to get them to the gym by 5PM.
Cheers,
Dr. Ron
Today we celebrate the birthday of the co-discoverer of indium, Hieronymus Theodor Richter.
Ferdinand Reich, (pictured right) German mineralogist and chemist (19 February 1799 – 27 April 1882), co-discovered indium in 1863 with Hieronymus Theodor Richter. Reich, who was born at Bernburg in Germany, studied at the University of Göttingen and taught at the Freiberg Mining Academy.
Don’t throw away that solder iron yet! There are many ways to activate NanoFoil® with heat. All that’s needed to 
If you have ever witnessed one of our NanoFoil® demonstrations at a tradeshow, you may remember we used a 9-volt battery to activate the material. Yes, it can be that simple – especially for parts less than 15cm in bond diameter or bond length.
POSITIONING: Typically, in this process, a soldering iron is used. The first problem arises from trying to hold onto the soldering iron AND the wire to be joined to the prefluxed pad AND the solid-core solder wire you are using. An extra hand would be nice! Some people use a system of fixtures or clips to hold the wire and the pad in the appropriate position. (see image and link, below)*.
Attaining consistent and accurate solder (and flux) volume uniformity in hand soldering has long been a critical quality and performance issue. Traditional hand soldering creates consistency and quality issues from operator to operator, from shift to shift, from day to day, and even within the same operator within the same day!
In 
Assuming that your application 
During a 
Holonyak, Jr. of GE Advanced Semiconductor Laboratory in Syracuse, NY (just down the road from Indium Corporation's global headquarters). Fortunately, he did not listen to his critics who said mixing gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide would not work to make a visible light LED, because they were wrong!
One of my favorite methods of examining a solder bond is cross sectioning. This may not give you 
As mentioned in a 
The first time I was taught how to solder (as a child), I was told: “All the surfaces need to be mechanically cleaned and chemically cleaned.” The person who told me this was referring to pipes, I was learning about plumbing. (I would have never thought we'd be using nanotechnology to create solder joints!) Although your application is probably far from a plumbing job, the basics of soldering remain the same. The best solder bonds are formed when oxides and contaminants are not present.
While on a recent trip to Malaysia, I interviewed two colleagues regarding trends in semiconductor assembly. My previously-published interview with Sze-Pei Lim appears 
One of the biggest misconceptions about NanoFoil® is that it is a form of solder. While it may contain a solder coating if specified (usually tin), it is really a heat source. A NanoBond® requires solder, whether it comes from a plating on the joining surfaces, 
Connect with Indium
+ Read our latest posts!