What is the Ideal Stencil Thickness?

Board Talk is presented by Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall of ITM Consulting. Process Troubleshooting, Failure Analysis, Process Audits, Process Set-up CEM Selection/Qualification, SMT Training/Seminars, Legal Disputes

Phil Zarrow With over 35 years experience in PCB assembly, Phil is one of the leading experts in SMT process failure analysis. He has vast experience in SMT equipment, materials and processes. Jim Hall A Lean Six-Sigma Master Blackbelt, Jim has a wealth of knowledge in soldering, thermal technology, equipment and process basics. He is a pioneer in the science of reflow.

Transcript

Phil
Welcome to Board Talk. This is Phil Zarrow and Jim Hall, sometimes known in certain corners of the world as the Assembly Brothers. We're here to answer the questions you sent in on surface mount process, assembly, materials, equipment, anything that may be bothering or perplexing you.

Today's question is from a Mr. or Ms. V.F. from Dallas, Texas, who writes, I have several PC boards with mixed density components. In other words, I have some of what you guys call coarse pitch, 50 mil big capacitors and the like, but I also have some difficult fine pitch, including some .5 millimeter pitch CSP's. If I use a 6-mil stencil, I have problems with my CSP's and if I go down to a 4 or 3 mil stencil, how do I get sufficient volume for the big boys? So what do I do? I'm all mixed up. Help me.

Jim
Before we get started, let me talk about the rampant use of the term mixed. This questioner is using mixed densities talking about having different sized components on the board with different pitch or size leads.

Think of the other times mixed has been used. I defined mixed technology 30 years ago as printed circuit boards that have both surface bound components and through hole components on the same board.

But more recently, we've talked about mixed assembly being backward and forward compatibility with lead-free assemblies, in particular backwards compatibility with lead-free components being introduced unknowingly or inadvertently into a tin lead assembly.

So be careful when somebody says mixed. It's a very common word. I would have to say most boards assembled in the world today fall into this category where you have some 50-mil pitch IC's and some big capacitors which require a relatively large volume of solder. If we consider the solder fillet on the size of the leads, to get a good solder joint, you need a relatively large volume relative to the size of the pad.

On the other hand, for fine pitch 20-mil pitch IC's or in this case, .5 mm pitch CSP's, they're very small leads, very small balls on the bottom of the CSP's. They need a relatively small volume of solder and solder paste to be applied in order to get the appropriate joint.

What are some of our options here, Phil?

Phil
The obvious is we could do a reduced aperture and that would to a certain degree help out the little guys.

Jim
That's where we'd stay with the thicker, in this case the 6-mil stencil. Normal apertures for the big components, reduced apertures for the small components.

Phil
But the liability here is what we like to call too-tall apertures.

Jim
For a thick stencil, as we start making the aperture smaller and smaller, we reach a point where the aperture becomes so tall and narrow that it's difficult to get repeatable flow of solder paste in and out of the aperture. So therefore, when we go to print, we don't get consistent results because the solder paste just won't fill and release repeatedly from this tall, narrow aperture.

What other options might we have?

Phil
Well, of course we can go to the other extreme. We can go down and reduce the thickness of our stencil. Let's go down to say a 4-mil stencil maybe even that much and that would certainly help out those little CSP guys.

Jim
Right, but then what do we do about the big guys?

Phil
That's right. Yeah, what do you do? If you go into an overprint, you're going to risk things like bridging and of course the ever present, ever ominous solder balls, so that may or may not work.

And finally, another solution, and it goes under that category of everything old is new again, the old step stencil. You want to explain what a step stencil is?

Jim
A step stencil is really the most robust solution for this problem. It's where you actually create different thicknesses in the stencil in different areas.

The most common technique would be start with a thicker, in this case, 6-mil stencil, and then in the areas where you have my fine pitched parts reduce the area, usually by milling or etching the thickness of the stencil to what's required for the fine pitched part. You don't have to do any aperture reduction. You can get good fill and release and get the proper volume for the parts.

Unfortunately, when you go to a step stencil, you open a whole bunch of other potential problems for design, process variables, limitations, and so forth. I think as much as we can say now. We're gonna have to come back on another session and talk about the details and trade offs for step stencils.

Basically that's the problem, you have three options: thick stencil aperture reduction, thin stencil overprint, or a step stencil.

Phil
So Jim Hall and Phil Zarrow of ITM for Board Talk. We are otherwise known as the Assembly Brothers and we remind you, don't solder like my brother.

Jim
And don't solder like my brother and keep those kids away from the solder pot.

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