Vapour Phase Soldering of SMDs—Reliability Characteristics

This paper will outline a viable, in use, production process that focuses on the utilisation of vapour phase soldering. The process will address the soldering of surface mounted devices, the repeatability of solder joint quality, and the resultant environmental characteristics of assemblies produced using the mentioned techniques. The paper will also address the field history obtained by SMD hardware produced at the author's company, to illustrate the environments into which vapour phase soldered joints can be successfully implemented.