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10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I DECEMBER 2024 Feature Interview by Nolan Johnson I-CONNECT007 Stan Farnsworth, director of customer sat- isfaction at PulseForge discusses advance- ments in photonic soldering, highlighting its energy efficiency and versatility. Over the past two years, the company has refined its applica- tions for flexible substrates and energy reduc- tion, finding that photonic soldering allows the processing of materials that typically aren't thermally compatible, and offers significant energy savings compared to traditional meth- ods. e technology, used in various industries since 2015, now extends to soldering, provid- ing innovative solutions for complex electronic designs and reducing production costs. Nolan Johnson: Stan, how are you incorporat- ing photonic soldering with your customers? Stan Farnsworth: Photonic soldering is based on the use of intense flashes of pulsed light as a means of delivering energy for thermal process- ing, such as for drying, sintering, or in this case, soldering. e process preferentially heats the desired target materials such as solder, with- out overheating the other materials, such as substrates. e process is very fast, generally taking a second or less to achieve a full reflow and wetting. e process area is much larger than lasers, at over 200 cm 2 per flash. Over the past two years, we have gained a better under- Advancing Photonic Soldering