Joe,

I highly recommend including IC tests (Ion Chromatography) on highly
populated sections of your boards. IC tests help you to analyze how well
your cleaning system works in tight areas like under QFP or BGA. They
identify concentrations of chemical elements (chloride, bromide, weak
organic acid etc) that contribute electromigration, dendrite growth and
premature failure in electronic circuits.

First, sections of bare board should be tested before cleaning and
after cleaning. Then sections of an assembled board are tested for IC.
Most of failures in IC are rooted in bare board cleanliness level, or
the effectiveness of cleaning system to clean in tight spots.

thanks
Matthew P.

>>> [log in to unmask] 6/3/2004 3:38:24 PM >>>
Fellow technets,

We are in the process of selecting a new saponifier for our in-line
cleaner
and developing the accept/reject criteria for the selection.  We mainly
use
RMA fluxes on densely populated, double sided smt boards with various
BGAs.
The typical visual and ionic contamination tests (using an Omegameter)
will
be run using test boards, and we would consider other tests as required
such
as having a lab perform a SIR test.  Some suppliers of saponifiers
have
offered to run cleanliness test as part of the evaluation process.

Would anyone like to comment on:
*       What types of tests should be run to determine the cleanliness
of a
populated board when evaluating different saponifiers?
*       What IPC spec defines the SIR requirements and methodology?
What
are the benefits of running a SIR type of test as far as cleanliness
goes?

Look forward to your inputs.  thanks again

joe

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