Temperature Distribution Analysis during Solidification Process in Reflow Machine for Printed Circuit Board

Abstract

In the semiconductor industry, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is soldered by using an SMT Reflow Machine. It has several phases and within each phase, a temperature profile is fixed so that the solder paste could melt and cooled efficiently. However, uneven temperature distribution still poses a big challenge on reflow soldering of surface mount components. In this study, a non-conventional reflow oven is built to duplicate the reflow process and to improve the soldering quality of a PCB. The reflow oven prototype developed in this project has been tested and is able to be used to complete a soldering process but with a longer period of time. A comparison has been made which shows that both profiles obtained from conventional and industrial reflow oven have a similar trend. A simulation of the reflow soldering has also been done on selected IC component to study the temperature distribution on the component especially on the IC pins. It shows that heat transferred in both directions which are to the IC packages and circuit board. In the simulation results indicates that the process has an unequal distribution of thermal energy. Time study will be done to investigate the solidification process as obtained in experimental study.