IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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IPC COMMUNITY 32 FALL 2023 • New methods of reliability assessment. Areas of focus include electrochemical processes for conductive anodic filament (CAF), modeling insertion loss in circuits, modeling laser via hole (LVH) reliability, evaluating the effects of plating thickness on cycles to failure, and faster thermal testing. • Next generation flex materials. Areas of focus include reinforced flex laminate for ultra-low Dk (ULDk) development, com- pliant conductive technologies, degrad- able materials, and very-high-speed elec- tronic luminescence (EL) materials. How does it work? HDP's mission is accomplished by running projects of interest to members. Membership includes system integrators, PCB assemblers and fabricators, material suppliers, and test houses—representation across the electronics manufacturing supply chain. HDP was founded on the premise that by working together and sharing the risks and rewards of implementing new technology, all members and the industry would accomplish much more at a lower cost than going it alone. The activities are run in a domain where members can gain much more by joint activities rather than duplicating work in each member company. Thirty years of suc- cessful operation have proven that premise to be true. What is our process? HDP uses a mature, well-defined gating pro- cess to run projects. HDP is a member-driven organization; any member may propose a new project at any time. The Idea and Definition phases ensure that a proposed project has suitable member support, the scope is well defined, required resources are identified and committed, and an achievable project plan is prepared. Approval by the Board of Directors is required before the Implementation phase begins, ensuring that the value of the project aligns with HDP's mission, that the project plan is complete, and that the project makes efficient use of resources. HDP projects are designed experiments to address challenges members face. As the need arises, HDP projects are structured to gener- ate data that meets IPC's gauge R&R require- ments as part of meeting the prerequisites of IPC-TM-650 MDP (IPC Test Method Develop- ment Packet). There are currently two such projects underway. What are our successes? HDP contributes significantly to our mem- bers and the industry at large. HDP runs 20 to 30 projects concurrently, completing about seven per year with a typical implementation cycle of 18 months. Sixty-six projects on var- ious subjects were completed in the last 10 years, as shown in the chart (Figure 2). Two examples show the long-term sustained focus that HDP brings to evaluating new and evolving technologies: • Pb-free solders. HDP has been at the fore- front of evaluating Pb-free solder systems for over 20 years. While early Pb-free work was done in the 1990s, the devel- opment of mainstream Pb-free materials and processes began around 2000. There was a need to converge to a shared set of requirements to enable an economically viable ecosystem, faster time-to-market, Figure 1: The project gating process.