DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION

ANDHRA PRADESH
Name : S. SHIVAKUMAR
Designation : Senior Lecturer
Branch : ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGG.
Institute : GOVT. INSTITUTE OF ELECTRONICS SEC’BAD.
Year / Semester : III Semester
Subject : ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS-I.
Sub.Code : EC – 302
Topic : Fabrication of ICs
Duration : 150 minutes
Sub – Topic : Surface mount technology
Teaching Aids : Pictures

EC 302.71to73 1
 Recap

We have discussed the following in previous topics:

• Integrated circuits which are soldered on PCBs

using through-hole technology.
• Now we discuss technology which avoids
through-hole technology

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 OBJECTIVES

Upon the completion of the topic the student will

know

• Surface Mount Technology (SMT)

• Surface-Mount Devices or SMDs.
• Mounting SMDs
• Soldering methods

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 Surface-mount technology

• Surface mount technology (SMT) is a method for

constructing electronic circuits.
• The components (SMC, or Surface Mounted Components)
are mounted directly onto the surface of
printed circuit boards (PCBs).

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 Surface-mount technology

• Electronic devices so made are called surface-mount

devices or SMDs.
• In the industry it has largely replaced the through-hole
technology construction method of fitting components with
wire leads into holes in the circuit board.

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 Surface-mount technology

• An SMT component is usually smaller than its through-

hole.
• It has either smaller leads or no leads at all.
• It may have short pins or leads of various styles, flat
contacts, a matrix of solder balls (BGAs), or terminations
on the body of the component.

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Surface Mount Technology

 It is a significant contributor in device to device

interconnection costs.
 In SMT, the following are important:
• Device to device interconnection costs.
• Signal integrity and operating speeds.
• Device to Substrate interconnection package.
• Thermal management of Assembled package.

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SURFACE-MOUNT DEVICES or SMDs

• Surface mounting components are mounted

on the surface of printed wiring board.
• No need to drill for insertion of component
leads.

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SURFACE-MOUNT DEVICES or SMDs

28 pin MLP integrated circuit

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 SURFACE-MOUNT DEVICES or SMDs

SMDchips:

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 SURFACE-MOUNT DEVICES or SMDs

SMD
capacitors:

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PLACING SMDS

SMD placement method can be classified into

• Manual placement

• Automatic simultaneous placement

• Automatic sequential placement

• Automatic placement with factors of sequential and

simultaneous methods.

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Mounting of SMCS

• Assuming mechanical strength at the

component substrate interface.
• During Wave Soldering the components
should not drift.
• They require adhesive firing.
• Apply the adhesive on the component itself.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Where components are to be placed, the printed circuit

board has flat, usually tin-lead, silver, or gold plated copper
pads without holes, called solder pads.
• Solder paste, a sticky mixture of flux and tiny solder
particles, is first applied to all the solder pads with a
stainless steel stencil.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• If components are to be mounted on the second side, a

numerically controlled (NC) machine places small liquid
adhesive dots at the locations of all second-side
components.
• The boards then proceed to the pick-and-place machines,
where they are placed on a conveyor belt.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Small SMDs are usually delivered to the production line

on paper or plastic tapes wound on reels.
• Integrated circuits are typically delivered stacked in static-
free plastic tubes or trays.
• NC pick-and-place machines remove the parts from the
reels or tubes and place them on the PCB.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Second-side components are placed first, and the

adhesive dots are quickly cured with application of low heat
or ultraviolet radiation. The boards are flipped over and first-
side components are placed by additional NC machines.

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 Mounting of SMCS
• The boards are then conveyed into the reflow soldering
oven.

• They first enter a pre-heat zone, where the temperature of

the board and all the components is gradually, uniformly
raised.

• This helps minimize thermal stresses when the

assemblies cool down after soldering.

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 Mounting of SMCS
• The boards then enter a zone where the temperature is
high enough to melt the solder particles in the solder paste,
bonding the component leads to the pads on the circuit
board.
• The surface tension of the molten solder helps keep the
components in place, and if the solder pad geometries are
correctly designed, surface tension automatically aligns the
components on their pads.

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 Mounting of SMCS

There are a number of techniques for reflowing solder.

• One is to use infrared lamps; this is called infrared reflow.
• Another is to use a hot gas.
• At one time special fluorocarbon liquids with high boiling
points are used in a method called vapor phase reflow.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Due to environmental concerns, this method is

falling out of favour.
• Today, it is more common to use nitrogen gas or

nitrogen gas enriched air in a convection oven.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Each method has its advantages and

disadvantages. With infrared reflow, the board

designer must lay the board out so that short
components don't fall into the shadows of
tall components.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Component location is less restricted if the

designer knows that vapour phase reflow or
convection soldering will be used in production.

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 Mounting of SMCS

Following reflow soldering, certain irregular or heat-

sensitive components may be installed and
soldered by hand, or in large scale automation, by
focused infrared beam (FIB) equipment.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• After soldering, the boards are washed to remove flux

residue and any stray solder balls that could short out
closely spaced component leads.
• Rosin flux is removed with fluorocarbon solvents, high
flash point hydrocarbon solvents, or limonene (derived from
orange peels).

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Water soluble fluxes are removed with deionized water

and detergent, followed by an air blast to quickly remove
residual water.
• When aesthetics are unimportant and the flux doesn't
cause shorting or corrosion, flux residues are sometimes
left on the boards, saving the cost of cleaning and
eliminating the waste disposal.

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 Mounting of SMCS

• Finally, the boards are visually inspected for missing or

misaligned components and solder bridging.
• If needed, they are sent to a rework station where a
human operator corrects any errors.
• They are then sent to the testing stations to verify that
they work correctly.

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 SOLDER PASTE

• A solder is available in many forms

• They include wire, sticks, pref

• orms, powders and pastes.

• Paste is not suitable form for surface mounting.

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 SMD SOLDERING METHODS

They are

• Reflow soldering
• Infrared reflow
• Vapour-phase reflow
• Hot air reflow
• Hot gas soldering
• Laser soldering

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CLEANING OF SOLDERED JOINTS

• It is mandatory for long-term reliability of the assembly.

• The flux and residues left on the board must be removed.

• If not, the joint will corrode leading to feature.

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Reworking defective SMD components
Defective surface mount components can be repaired in two
ways:
 by using soldering irons (depends on the kind and
amount of connections)
 or using a professional rework system.

• In most cases a rework system is the first choice because

the human influence on the rework result is very low.

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Reworking defective SMD components

Generally, two essential soldering methods can be

distinguished:
• infrared soldering and
• soldering with hot gas.

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Methods of applying the Adhesive

• Pin Transfer.
• Pressure Syringe Transfer.
• Screen Transfer.

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EC 302.71to73 34
Q1).Advantage of SMT over the older
through-hole technique is-----------

1. Smaller, lighter components

2. Fewer holes need to be drilled through
abrasive boards
3. Components can be fitted to both sides of
the circuit board
4. Above all

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Q2). Disadvantage of SMT over the older
through-hole technique is----------

1. The manufacturing processes for SMT are

much more sophisticated than through-hole
boards.
2. the initial cost and time of setting up for
production is high.
3. Above all.
4. None of above.
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Which of the following are SMD
soldering methods
1. infrared soldering

2. soldering with hot gas

3. All the above

4. None of the above

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Frequently asked Questions

1. Describe briefly about surface mount

technology (SMT)?
2. State the advantages of SMT?
3. State the limitations of SMT?

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 summary
We have discussed the following

 Surface Mount Technology (SMT)

 Surface-Mount Devices or SMDs.

 Placing SMDs

 Soldering methods

 SMT advantages and disadvantages

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