Dear All,

What would your recommendations be for equipment to measure board
cleanliness under the following circumstances?:

Number of boards = 10 pcs per month up to a total of 280 boards.
Board size = typically VME - approx 9.5" x 6.5"
Board type = FR4, Class 3, 10 or 12 layer ENIG or HASL finished.
Assembled with 63/37 solder paste and water-soluble flux, reworked using
Kester 63/37 cored solder with compatible w/s flux
Other main residues would come from fingerprint oils and residues from
stripping Humiseal off boards using Conformox or Forane.

I am trying to set up a new capability here and am looking for the least
expensive equipment that will reliably measure genuine cleanliness levels
down to 0.02ug NaCl eq/cm^2. I can only justify equipment expenditure
against this one small contract that involves a total of 280 boards, hence
the need for cost-effective (aka low-cost) choices.  So far, I see that the
Omegameter still features heavily in discussions on this topic - is it
still a good tool to use, or is it's technology too old now to be capable
of measuring accurately the high levels of cleanliness demanded by today's
high-reliability electronics? Other options, like the Zero-Ion, or
Concoat's Contaminometers, good as they seem to be, are several magnitudes
more expensive and harder to justify as a result unless there's a good
reason why less expensive options are not suitable.

I could also use your recommendations on SIR test equipment.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Peter

---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional
information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315
-----------------------------------------------------