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August 2017 • SMT Magazine 73 0.05 mm. It may continue to become lower than that. This is a challenge because water will no longer be able to penetrate such low stand- off heights. You need chemicals to wash. But you also must consider material compatibility issues. We are the first in the market to offer what we call pH-neutral cleaning solutions. Now, we have our third-generation pH-neutral cleaners. With pH-neutral solutions, we are able to ad- dress material compatibility issues, especially with copper lead frames. Las Marias: Do people still have some sort of misconception when it comes to no-clean sol- der pastes? Yeoh: If you talk about the aerospace and the automotive industries, cleaning ensures it's 100% clean. Even though you use no-clean flux or paste, you still clean because there is a reli- ability issue and safety issue. When it comes to reliability and safety, I think nobody wants to take a chance. A few years ago, people started talking about no-clean solders and fluxes, and that the cleaning business will go away. It did not. In fact, the business just kept on increas- ing, first, because of the safety and reliability is- sues; and second, as you go to lower and lower standoff heights, you basically just cannot clean with water anymore. So, cleaning is essential; it will be a priority as we move forward. Of course, there are still some who use DI (deionized) wa- ter for cleaning. But moving forward, as stand- off heights become significantly lower, there is no choice. Chemical cleaning is the trend. Las Marias: There are still companies who are manually dosing their bath to maintain the sta- bility of the cleaning solution. What's the chal- lenge here? Yeoh: Manual replenishment is not wrong; it's okay. The only thing is that what I think companies look for in terms of their pro- duction is stability. If I am a manager in a manufacturing company, I will always look at consistency. If Zestron tells me my clean- ing system must run at, let's say, 20%, I want to make sure that at any point in time when I go to the line or when my customer comes for audit, it's 20%. If I manually do it, it may fluctuate. With Zestron EYE and Zestron EYE CM, all these are coordinated, which means if the concentration level drops from 20%, there will have a trigger that will inform you that it's time to replenish the chemical. In terms of ISO, it is also good. Because you will have a record to show your auditors that it's always at 20%. This is one of the areas that the Zestron EYE or Zestron EYE CM can help customers in terms of stability and consistency, which are very im- portant now from a manufacturing perspective to ensure yield. Las Marias: To make your line more efficient, it makes sense to automate some processes and remove the human element, to improve the yield and minimize errors. I think from a clean- ing perspective, that's what Zestron EYE is offering. Yeoh: Exactly. Of course, we will keep educat- ing the market, as it will take the industry some time to fully automate that process. But we be- lieve that two or three years down the road, it will become standard practice, especially if you have a high throughput, because customers want stability and reliability. Las Marias: What are the developments right now in your Zestron EYE and CM technology? CLEANING THAT MATTERS