High density interconnect (HDI) printed circuit boards (PCBs) and associated assemblies are essential to allow space projects to benefit from the ever increasing complexity and functionality of modern integrated circuits such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs) and application processors. Increasing demands for functionality translate into higher signal speeds combined with an increasing number of I/Os. To limit the overall package size, the contact pad pitch of the components is reduced. The combination of a high number of I/Os with a reduced pitch places additional demands onto the PCB, requiring the use of laser drilled microvias, high aspect ratio core vias and small track width and spacing. While the associated advanced manufacturing processes have been widely used in commercial, automotive, medical and military applications; reconciling these advancements in capability with the reliability requirements for space remains a challenge.

This paper provides an overview of the ongoing ESA project on high-density PCB assemblies, led by imec with the aid of ACB and Thales Alenia Space in Belgium. The goal of the project is to design, evaluate and qualify HDI PCBs that are capable of providing a platform for assembly and the routing of small pitch AAD for space projects. Two categories of HDI technology are considered: two levels of staggered microvias (basic HDI) and (up to) three levels of stacked microvias (complex HDI). In this paper, the qualification of the basic HDI technology in accordance with ECSS-Q-ST-70-60C is described. The results of the thermal cycling, interconnection stress testing (IST) and conductive anodic filament (CAF) testing are provided. The test vehicle design and test parameters for each test method are discussed in detail.

Micro vias, be they mechanically, or more typically laser drilled have revolutionized the technical capabilities of today PCBs. Their high hit rate, and low-cost during manufacture, in combination with their small real estate requirements enable the High-Density Interconnects that have allowed PCB and product designers to push their applications to capabilities beyond anything thought possible with more traditional drilling techniques. That being said, with their number easily running into the many 1000s in a single PCB assembly, there is increasing concern about the long-term reliability of micro vias, especially when used in a stacked configuration.

Over the last few years, there has been a slow, but increasing number of reports concluding that stacked micro vias are failing preferentially when compared to an alternative staggered via design. However, while a staggered interconnect arrangement could be seen as a solution to satisfy the reliability demands, they are usually undesirable as they consume larger amounts of real estate which can’t be tolerated in many applications.

With strong evidence available, the preferential failure of stacked micro vias can’t be denied, and as such, there is now a growing number of investigations ongoing to examine microvia reliability and determine if and why staggered micro vias fail preferentially, and also trying to identify what is the ideal microvia structure for best reliability performance.

As a result of the ongoing need to understand the nature of any failure, there is an ever-increasing array of analysis tools being drawn on in order to inspect microvia structures. Optical microscopy has in many cases been superseded by the Scanning Electron Microscope, and the SEM is now being supplemented with other tools such as the Focused Ion Beam Microscope and Tunneling Electron Microscope to name a few. However, with each new analysis tool there comes a wealth of new information, and this needs to be understood and interpreted before that information can be valuable.

As part of investigations into microvia failures, we review the published data and find that while these new analysis tools are being readily used, there is what we consider to be some misinterpretation of the data, leading to inaccurate route cause diagnosis, and conclusions that are questionable at best, or wrong and misleading at the worst.

This paper summarizes these initial investigations and discusses the misinterpretation of data as well as offering some insight into other microstructural characteristics which will likely impact the physical properties and reliability of plated blind micro vias.

Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) in the form of in-circuit and manufacturing defects analyzers have been used successfully for finding catastrophic flaws that occur during production and assembly. Functional testing that involves the powered-up circuit elements interacting in the manner they were designed, has become much more challenging. General purpose test instruments, such as power sources, signal generators, voltmeters and waveform analyzers may be useful in design verification tests, they are too simple to stimulate or characterize complex protocols, sequences or even high-speed signals used in high volume where manufacturing test needs to determine whether the product is faulty or acceptable. Unlike traditional electronics that could be rendered defective when communications were disturbed, today’s circuits are more forgiving and allow for retransmission. An error in communication is no longer grounds for replacing or repairing the unit under test (UUT). Instead, we measure error rate, and unless that rate exceeds one error in 1012(1 trillion) transmissions, we allow the UUT to “correct” itself using error correction codes. To detect and diagnose manufacturing defects that are not correctable, one must test many trillions of transmissions before deciding whether the UUT is defective. These transmissions are not simple patterns but follow sequences and protocols that the test developer must know in order to develop tests with general purpose test instruments. Standard ATE instruments, such as voltmeters and signal generations, even arbitrary waveform analyzers are too simplistic to evaluate high-speed complex signals. Instruments, such as oscilloscopes and bit error rate testers (BERTs) can analyze such signals, but for complete analysis, it is difficult to have them sufficiently automated so that they fit into an ATE. Synthetic Instruments (SIs) have come to the rescue. SIs can be configured in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) so that they perform test instrument functions. A BERT SI, for example, can analyze the eye diagram not only for fault detection but can often ream diagnostic information and pinpoint the root cause. Additionally, SIs can perform higher level functions as well. For example, testing a USB 3.2 Gen 11high-speed serial interface, one can utilize an SI that can mimic SerDes functions or completely emulate the USB 3.2 Gen 1protocols. Having a USB 3.2 Gen 1 host controller embedded in the FPGA that provides the stimuli enables necessary test operations not feasible with the traditional ATE. Because the FPGA is configurable, it does not require a dedicated tester to be housed in the ATE. This new approach to functional ATE testing will enable test engineers to develop functional tests easier and faster and will result in better tests at a lower cost.

Several incidents occurred that prompted a team to investigate Printed Circuit Board (PCB) supplier best practices and rework procedures. Two of the more prominent incidents that occurred and precipitated the best practice and rework investigation include: 1) the stripping of cured soldermask/legend which led to weave exposure and the scrap of 100 affected PCBs, and 2) evidence of a foreign inclusion that is believed to have been a catalyst for Conductive Anodic Filament (CAF).

An investigation into the root cause of the exposed weave PCB manufacturing lot (item #1 above) determined that a caustic rework procedure was responsible for the erosion of the buttercoat leading to exposed glass fibers on the surface of the boards. Additionally, it was derived that Foreign Object Debris (FOD) played a catalytic role leading to CAF resulting in a short on a delivered Printed Circuit Assembly (PCA) (item #2 above). FOD was believed to have been created during the manufacturing process. As a result of the two events above, the team concluded it was in the programs best interest to visit each program qualified PCB supplier and conduct site surveys into the suppliers rework best practices.

The PCB suppliers site survey had three main objectives: 1) identify and document all potential rework scenarios, 2) better understand supplier FOD program and look for opportunities for improvement and 3) once all potential reworks are understood and documented, identify potential rework procedures that could be detrimental to the program and take steps to mitigate their occurrence. Through the interview of many PCB manufacturing personnel in four manufacturing locations, the PCB rework investigation team documented 60 possible rework scenarios and assessed each one’s relative risk of occurring and potential impact to PCB quality and reliability using a weighted formula based on several factors.

This paper provides a structured overview of the team’s methodology to investigate PCB supplier rework processes, including identifying rework procedures that have potential implications to PCB functionality, and the approach to weighting reworks to determine the associated level of risk.

Printed circuit board manufacturers are continually challenged to fabricate denser solder mask patterns with smaller features to accommodate advanced electronic components. This trend is motivating manufacturers to adopt novel methods to achieve the required solder mask designs. One such method is direct imaging, which utilizes a controlled light source to directly expose the design image onto photosensitive solder mask material. Another method, termed herein direct jetting, uses inkjet printing to direct deposit jettable solder mask ink onto the circuit surface per the designed pattern. Both methods enable manufacturers to achieve fine solder mask features and circuit design registration with tight tolerances. The implementation of these methods in production requires testing and parameter setup as prerequisites, to ensure that the quality criteria are met, and the production process remains robust. This paper details the recommended steps to carry out such testing, included dedicated test vehicle designs that reduce the time and production resources required, while providing valuable data critical to defining process parameters and capabilities. The derived data is analyzed and compared with predefined performance criteria requirements to determine the optimal parameters that should be implemented in actual production.

In manufacturing multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs), the PCB layer stack-up usually includes multiple plies of various types of prepreg along with the inner layer core material. Most of the layer stack-up process is manual operation relying on an operator to place the correct type and quantity of prepreg at designated dielectric openings. Missing or adding additional one or more plies of prepreg can result in a overall board thickness which will possibly still fall within its thickness specification limits but, its electrical property will be greatly affected (e.g. impedance, loss etc.). In this case, this abnormal board could possibly escape to customer unless detected by more expensive electrical property testing. Impedance measurement may catch the missing / extra prepreg for the dielectric layers related to impedance. Other layers without impedance control could still possibly escape. Considering impedance TDR measurement is time consuming and costly measurement process, a new lower cost approach was developed to detect extra / missing prepreg and validate the correctness of the stack-up. Our first approach is looking for statistical outliers for each given lot board thickness measurements after lamination. This approach is able to detect extra / missing prepreg, but its false alarm is too high due to missing one ply prepreg can be less than 0.002" thick which is generally less than one sigma of total board thickness. Thus, second approach using machine learning technique was developed with board thickness data (known bad and known good board thickness) and other features (e.g. prepreg type, lamination parameters etc.). From the model we developed and validated that our escape rate is still0% and its false alarm rate was reduced by 85%.

The advent of the Industry 4.0 Revolution and Internet of Manufacturing (IoM) has started to yield Smart factories, intelligent machines and networked processes, that have brought us improvements in yield and the ultimate in production efficiency and traceability. For most companies however, the cost and overhead of the implementation of Industry4.0 practices can seem like a large mountain to climb. Questions of cost, time, required resources and system-to-system communication protocol issues loom large, and can often hinder implementation.  The IPC CFX (Connected Factory Exchange) standard (IPC-2591)has been created to streamline this process, providing a standard communication protocol and messaging that is compatible across all SMT and other assembly equipment. In particular, this paper focusses on CFX as it applies to Reflow soldering, including adoption, integration, connectivity, messaging and the values that can be made available through CFX.

Electronics assembly can be delivered at competitive market prices only as long as the manufacturing process is continuously improved. Manufacturing companies are mastering with the help of Industry 4.0and simulation tools: a high degree of variance, continuously shrinking batch sizes, and fluctuations in order volume that are increasingly difficult to predict. The word “simulation” is defined as the computer-based modeling of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. With this definition in mind, it is easy to understand why simulation is ubiquitous in engineering and industrial organizations; imitating a real-world process or system allows experts to study the process or system they are interested in within a controlled environment. Manufacturing simulation allows companies to identify manufacturing bottlenecks and opportunities to increase throughput, identifying cost savings opportunities such as optimization of direct and indirect labor, managing inventory levels, and validating the expected performance of new or existing production facilities or value streams. Manufacturing simulation consists of plant simulation and process simulation. Plant simulation enables studies of material flows, bottleneck analysis at the area and line level, movement optimization, AGV movement simulations, and resource optimization studies. Process simulation enables studies of processes and operations to optimize sequencing of operations, robot and collaborative robots (“cobot”) operations, spatial risk analysis when humans are close to robots and cobots, and ergonomics simulation for optimal human movement. Simulation ensures compliance to Lean Manufacturing methodologies and removal of “waste.”  We answer the question; is manufacturing simulation applicable and effective in electronics assembly manufacturing?

This paper describes the design and implementation of several manufacturing simulation use-cases at an electronics assembly factory in Nanjing, China. This factory has six surface mount lines, fairly high product mix and variants, and also demands some high-volume production. Also, they have integrated circuit (ICT)and system tests, manual assembly lines, software loading stations, box-build cells, packing and labeling, shipping and, aftermarket service and depot repair. The chosen factory is an ideal candidate for testing the effectiveness of manufacturing simulation in electronics manufacturing. We describe the use-cases investigated, the approach, KPIs used to monitor progress, changes made to production, and the results of the theoretical simulation vs. actuals. We will also discuss using the Digital Twin of the factory and processes in additional use cases, such as sales evaluation and estimation validation. Finally, we publish results that may be used as an example of how other factories can use simulation to optimize throughput and cost in their factory to make steps forward in their digitalization journey and remain competitive.