Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/924542
JANUARY 2018 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 51 conference session we have, so we give prior- ity in some ways to someone who's chairing a standards meetingand chairing a session. We'll give them the power to move things around. Goldman: Continuing with the conference, are there any new tracksor hot topics this time around? Bath: We have some that are generally consid- ered hot topic sessions. There will be sessions on bottom termination components, which is a growing technology. We have the emerging technology session where we cover wearables, printed electronics, and emerging technologies like stretchable applications, wash-ability of materials for e-textiles, and an overview of XR virtual reality or augmented reality. That's a nice session. We have the traditional PCB fab- rication and assembly sessions and component reliability. We have voiding sessions, which is a hot topic in terms of voiding areas for BGAs and components and how to minimize voids. We have a session on jetting, which is a new- er technology where people are looking at non- contact dispensing for solder paste. Then we have the traditional sessions, but some of those like surface insulation resistance (SIR) are still continuing issues. There are still challenges in terms of not just existing materi - als, but developing materials, masking materials, flux residue issues, etc. We'll have session(s) on reliability of plated through-hole materials, is - sues with reliability in terms of degradation and glass epoxy degradation. We're trying to cover things that are challenging, or issues that are coming up in the industry. Goldman: Of course, all the papers are fresh and dealing with the latest technology. Bath: Exactly. We also have a session on creep corrosion, where we have experts from IBM talking about the new developments in corro- sion testing. Typically, you've got your alloy sessions, your high-speed/ high-frequency ses- sions, and where we're going on that. Then surface finish reliability, where we'll talk about recommendations for increasing shelf life with PCB finishes. A paper we have for the clean- ing session is looking at cleaning challenges when we get to very fine powder sizes for sol- der paste. Goldman: How clean is clean, right? Bath: How clean is clean, and how clean can you get it? What are the challenges of remov- ing flux residue? We have solder paste testing development on where we are in terms of the test technologies and J-standard 005, what test vehicles you can use for solder paste evalua- tions, and paste development for laser solder- ing applications. It's the kind of things that dis- cuss new applications coming up, like minia- turization. We're getting smaller and smaller paste deposits. Some of the components to as- semble are temperature-sensitive so reflow ov- ens can't be used so you may have to use la- ser or other non-contact applications to reflow those locations. We've got rework application sessions. Re- work is still interesting and still coming up. Session speakers will talk about the challeng- es for big board rework and optimizing bottom heat for manual rework applications. Then there are the typical copper foil issues, alloy reliability, and test/X-ray inspection issues. For instance, the impact of X-ray on prepro- grammed managed NAND devices and under- standing if the X-ray is causing any radiation damage to thedevices with best practices. IPC APEX EXPO 2018 PRE-SHOW SPECIAL COVERAGE