Is automotive, not military or space, the impetus behind today’s electronics innovation?

Never say never. Every time I even think of saying “I will never,” something happens that makes me regret it. And yet here I am, once again, admitting to another of those instances of “I will never.”

This time, I allowed my experiences and background to cloud the reality on the ground. I started my career in the shadows of NASA. That great American technological juggernaut began when Kennedy challenged us to land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. Conceptually, it all seemed so simple. For generations the US government, originally through the military and later with NASA’s help, drove dramatic technological advances by investing in new technology and the materials and processes necessary to achieve them, so that besides filling their immediate needs, those technologies would eventually become commercial standards integrated into consumer products.

As the seasons changed, so did the economic winds.

Housing price increases had outpaced the demand curve, as unit sales slowed and new starts cooled. Automotive sales dived for the longest stretch in years. The stock market tanked. Interest rates ticked up. The bond yield curve inverted, suggesting investors had turned pessimistic about short-term prospects for the economy. Foreign investment stalled. The government, having primed the consumer economic pump through huge capital inflows to the domestic economy, struggled over hard choices of whether to borrow even more in the hopes of stemming a potential recession.

Faced with all of the above, coupled with rising labor costs, a cascade of confusing new government rules, and an increasingly treacherous trade environment, manufacturers started looking for friendlier climes.

Improper reflow profiles make cleaning harder, if not impossible.

FIGURE 1a and 1b show QFN packages that have been reflow-soldered to boards, then mechanically removed in order to examine the flux residues under the body of the component and terminations. Many debates have been held on effective cleaning under this low-standoff package. It is clear in these examples that flux residues remain.

Experience shows that, with the correct paste reflow profile, flux residues can be cleaned. Still, flux residues must also be cleaned with the correct chemistry and cleaning process, else the results shown in Figures 1a and 1b are to be expected. The images show a combination of unsuccessful cleaning, practical solubility and white residues were not soluble in the cleaning process and remain on the parts and the board.

The revamped online course is supplemented with interactive webinars.