Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1243344
10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2020 Feature Interview by the I-Connect007 Editorial Team The I-Connect007 editorial team spoke with Dr. Ron Lasky about why the world has not embraced some of the exciting alloys that com- panies like Indium Corporation have developed. He also provides an overview of solder alloys, including the difficulty of qualifying SAC305. Nolan Johnson: Ron, thanks for joining us in this conversation. What's your role in the industry? Dr. Ron Lasky: My day job is as a professor of engineering at Dartmouth, and I also work with Indium Corporation as a senior technologist. Barry Matties: What do you teach? Lasky: I teach engineering statistics. We have a program called a Master of Engineering Man- agement (MEM). It's a graduate program for students that are engineers but would like to get into management. Most of the courses I teach are in this program. Half of the MEM program is taught by the MBA Tuck School of Management and the other half is taught by the engineering department. The topics that I focus on—and I have an additional program at Dartmouth on this—are Lean Six Sigma topics like process optimization, design of experi- ments, and statistical process control. I also teach a class on engineering statistics and one on optimizing manufacturing processes. I focus on one manufacturing process mostly, and that's electronic assembly because that's what I know the best. The optimization work I do is quite general; it's not specific to solder paste. I developed a Lean Six Sigma program at Dartmouth that has become quite successful because—since Dart- mouth is part of the Ivy league—people like the fact that they get a certificate in a yellow belt through master black belt that was granted by the school of engineering at Dartmouth Col- lege, but it isn't specific to electronic assembly. Matties: When thinking of solder paste, is there a critical performance metric that you think is often neglected? Lasky: Yes. There is something that's a crit- ical performance metric in solder paste called "response to pause." If you have to shut the line down for some time because you have to put components on the pick-and-place machine or some other task, some solder pastes will stiffen up, and you can't use the first print. You have Dr. Ron Lasky: A Solder Alloy and Solder Paste Overview Dr. Ron Lasky