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FEATURES

• Industry Models
  What We Can Learn from Singapore
  A tour of seven facilities in the city-state opens the author’s eyes to an emerging government-industry infrastructure for responding to continually changing market conditions and business needs.
  By Susan Mucha
  

• Cover Story
  BGA Reballing Reliability
  During solder ball removal, a manual method using wicking braid resulted in fewer thermal stresses than would be encountered with a flowing solder bath. But a robust nickel layer on the component provides a very effective barrier against copper dissolution during the latter.
  By Ray Cirimele
  

• Alternative Energies
  Cell Efficiency is Key to Success of Photovoltaics
  Unlike semiconductors, there appear to be no technical barriers to the acceptance of new PV technologies. Photovoltaics will be governed more by economics than by any performance specifications, and the economics of these devices depend on little more than manufacturing cost and efficiency.
  By Alain Harrus and Jim Handy
  

• Reflow Profiling
  On the Use of 3 Thermocouples to Verify a PCB Profile During Reflow
  By simulating changes to the oven – performed by altering belt speeds and a temperature zone from the baseline profile – evidence shows that by putting tight specifications on the two response variables for the temperature profiles of the three T/Cs located on the surface of the laminate’s leading edge, one can effectively verify the board’s characterization profiles are still within specification.
  By Daryl L. Santos, Arun Ramasubramanian and Laurence A. Harvilchuck
  

FIRST PERSON

• Caveat Lector
  America’s next top model?
  Mike Buetow

MONEY MATTERS

• Global Sourcing
  Don’t let anger be your guide.
  Jennifer Read

TECH TALK

• Screen Printing
  Flexible systems are all the rage.
  Clive Ashmore

• Better Manufacturing
  How recession forces efficiency.
  Peter Grundy

• Test and Inspection
  AOI in the high-mix environment.
  Stacy Kalisz Johnson

• Tech Tips
  Giving fine-pitch a wedgie.
  American Competitiveness Institute

• Wave Soldering
  Turning up the (pre)heat.
  Ursula Marquez de Tino

• Wave Soldering Troubleshooting
  Bottom-side insufficients.
  Paul Lotosky

• Process Doctor
  Designing for SIR.
  Dr. Harald Wack

• The Defects Database
  Flux shorts on BGAs.
  Dr. Davide Di Maio

• Technical Abstracts

DEPARTMENTS

Industry News
Market Watch
Product Spotlight
Ad Index
Assembly Insider

On the Cover: A Pb-free flowing solder bath is expected to cause copper dissolution, but the nickel layer on some BGAs prevents solder from leaching.