Douglas

Our evaluations of cleaning OA fluxes with DI water only, has shown that
there are still corrosive residual levels of contaminants left on the
surfaces of the PCB.  These corrosive residues have direct impact on field
performance of your product.  When the DI water is heated, the levels do
decrease slightly but the residues are still present at levels that pose a
risk of electromigration and field failures.  The addition of a saponifier
substantially reduces the residues to acceptable levels.  Many people have
added heating systems to the DI water and attempted to eliminate the
saponifier as a cost reducing measure, only to find the resulting cleanliness
levels are too high and the product is at risk for field failure.

Generally, we recommend a customer evaluate the cleaning process by
performing a baseline assessment of their current activity before any changes
are made in the cleaning process or flux selection.  This gives a reference
point to evaluate the impact of subsequent changes.  Evaluations with
customers have shown that the combination of hot DI water in addition to
using a saponifier have proven to be the best at removing processing residues
to acceptable levels.  Subsequent evaluation can be made at this point to
determine the concentration level of saponifier required in your process to
achieve adequate cleaning.

Hope this helps.  If you need more information, please contact me off line
for more information.

Regards,

Pat Kane
Technical Sales Manager
Contamination Studies Laboratories
765-457-8095

##############################################################
TechNet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c
##############################################################
To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the body:
To subscribe:   SUBSCRIBE TECHNET <your full name>
To unsubscribe:   SIGNOFF TECHNET
##############################################################
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information.
If you need assistance - contact Gayatri Sardeshpande at [log in to unmask] or
847-509-9700 ext.5365
##############################################################