The document discusses best practices for improving the printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain. It recommends creating a PCB commodity team to oversee supplier selection and management. The team should establish criteria for initially qualifying suppliers and ongoing monitoring through metrics and audits. Supplier selection criteria include capabilities, certifications, quality programs, and technology roadmaps. Onsite audits of suppliers are important to validate published capabilities and controls. Key areas for audits include materials selection, surface finish, process control, cleanliness, defect recognition, and testing. Managing relationships through scorecards and business reviews helps ensure supply chain quality.
The document discusses best practices for improving the printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain. It recommends creating a PCB commodity team to oversee supplier selection and management. The team should establish criteria for initially qualifying suppliers and ongoing monitoring through metrics and audits. Supplier selection criteria include capabilities, certifications, quality programs, and technology roadmaps. Onsite audits of suppliers are important to validate published capabilities and controls. Key areas for audits include materials selection, surface finish, process control, cleanliness, defect recognition, and testing. Managing relationships through scorecards and business reviews helps ensure supply chain quality.
Original Description:
Practices for Improving the PCB
Supply Chain: Part II
The document discusses best practices for improving the printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain. It recommends creating a PCB commodity team to oversee supplier selection and management. The team should establish criteria for initially qualifying suppliers and ongoing monitoring through metrics and audits. Supplier selection criteria include capabilities, certifications, quality programs, and technology roadmaps. Onsite audits of suppliers are important to validate published capabilities and controls. Key areas for audits include materials selection, surface finish, process control, cleanliness, defect recognition, and testing. Managing relationships through scorecards and business reviews helps ensure supply chain quality.
The document discusses best practices for improving the printed circuit board (PCB) supply chain. It recommends creating a PCB commodity team to oversee supplier selection and management. The team should establish criteria for initially qualifying suppliers and ongoing monitoring through metrics and audits. Supplier selection criteria include capabilities, certifications, quality programs, and technology roadmaps. Onsite audits of suppliers are important to validate published capabilities and controls. Key areas for audits include materials selection, surface finish, process control, cleanliness, defect recognition, and testing. Managing relationships through scorecards and business reviews helps ensure supply chain quality.
Discuss new products and technology requirements in the
development pipeline. Pricing, delivery, and quality performance issues with approved PCB suppliers should also be reviewed.
Team is also tasked with identifying new suppliers and
creating supplier selection and monitoring criteria 4
Supplier Selection Criteria
Established PCB supplier selection criteria in place.
Criteria should be custom to your business
Commonly used criteria are:
Time in business Revenue Growth Employee Turnover Training Program Certified to the standards you require (IPC, MIL-SPEC, ISO, etc.) Capable of producing the technology you need as part of their mainstream capabilities Dont exist in PCB process niches where suppliers claim capability but have less than ~ 15% of their volume built there Have quality and problem solving methodologies in place Have a technology roadmap Have a continuous improvement program in place
PCB Qualification Criteria
Rigorous qualification criteria which includes:
On
site visit by to the facility which will produce
your PCBs by someone knowledgeable in PCB fabrication techniques.
Review process controls, quality monitoring and
analytical techniques, storage and handling practices and conformance to generally acceptable manufacturing practices. Best way to meet and establish relationships with the people responsible for manufacturing your product.
Sample
builds of an actual part you will produce
which are evaluated by the PCB supplier
Also independently evaluated by you or a
representative to the standards that you require.
PCB Supplier Tiering
Use of supplier tiering
Low, Middle, High strategies if you have a diverse product
line with products that range from simpler to complex.
Typical criteria for tiering suppliers include:
Allows for strategic tailoring to save cost and to maximize supplier
quality to your product design. Match supplier qualifications to the complexity of your product.
Finest line width
Finest conductor spacing, Smallest drilled hole and via size Impedance control requirement Specialty laminate needed (Rogers, flex, mixed) Use of HDI, micro vias, blind or buried vias.
Minimize use of suppliers who have to outsource critical
areas of construction. Again, do not exist in the margins of process capabilities!
PCB Relationship Management
Partner with your PCB suppliers for success.
Critical for low volumes, low spend, or high technology and
reliability requirements
Some good practices include:
Monthly calls with PCB commodity team and each PCB supplier
PCB supplier team should members equivalent to your team members
QBRs (quarterly business reviews)
Review spend, quality, and performance metrics, and state of the
business , business growth, new product and quoting opportunities Address any upcoming changes
Factory expansion, move, or relocation, critical staffing changes, new
equipment/capability installation etc.
Twice per year, QBRs should be joint onsite meetings which alternate between your site and the supplier factory site.
Factory supplier site QBR visit can double as the annual on site visit and audit that you perform. 8
PCB Supplier Scorecards
Use Supplier Scorecards
Perform quarterly and yearly on a rolling basis
Typical metrics include:
On Time Delivery PPM Defect Rates Communication speed, accuracy, channels, responsiveness to quotes Quality Excursions / Root Cause Corrective Action Process Resolution Supplier Corrective Action Requests Discuss recalls, notifications, or scrap events exceeding a certain dollar amount 9
PCB Continuous Quality
Monitoring
Review the following:
Top 3 PCB factory defects: monitoring and reporting Process control and improvement plans for the top 3 defects Product Yield and scrap reports Feedback on issues facing the industry Reliability testing performed (HATS, IST,
solder float,
etc.) Review IPC-9151B, Printed Board Process Capability, Quality, and Relative Reliability (PCQR2) Benchmark Test Standard and Database at:
http://www.ipc.org/html/IPC-9151B.pdf PCB suppliers may be part of this activity already.
Ask if they participate and if you can get a copy of their results.
10
PCB Prototype Development
Ideally, all PCBs should come from the same
factory from start to finish Prototype
(feasibility), pre-release production
(testability & reliability), to released production (manufacturability).
Any factory move introduces an element of risk
Product
must go through setup and optimization
specific to each factory and equipment contained there.
While not always possible, all PCBs intended for
quality and reliability testing should come from the actual PCB production facility. 11
PART II: PERFORMING THE
PCB PROCESS AUDIT
Everything looks great on paper or on the web
12
Why Perform an Onsite Audit?
No industry standard methodology for qualifying
PCB suppliers Standards
do exist for lot-based PCB testing and
acceptance within the IPC 6010 series Sourcing follows the as agreed upon between user and supplier (AABUS) approach IPC began discussing this gap in 2008 with a Blue Ribbon Committee
IPC has recently launched a Validation Business Unit with
plans to eventually move towards an IPC Qualified Manufacturers List (QML) for suppliers, including PCBs [3]. I
In
the meantime, however, onsite audits remain the
best approach 13
PCB Fabrication Processes
Knowledge is key! Processes are complex, chemistry intensive and there are a lot of steps
More than 180 individual steps required to manufacture typical printed circuit boards
14
Audit Focus
All steps are obviously important but this
presentation will focus on: Requirements
Surface Finish Highlight
Process
Control & Analysis
Cleanliness Recognizing Common Defects Test & Final Inspection Material Handling
15
Communicate Requirements Define the standards needed Communicate both quality & reliability objectives!
Help
your supplier help you
Create a PCB Fabrication specification
Outlines
requirements and communication
required for modifications to drawings 16
PCB Materials Selection
Laminate selection is frequently under specified! Some
common issues:
PCB supplier frequently allowed to select laminate material
No restrictions on laminate changes Generic IPC slash sheet requirements used Laminates called out by Tg only and with no measurement method specified (there is more than one) No cleanliness requirements specified Failure to specify stackup
Not all laminates are created equal
Failure to put some controls in places opens the door to
failure
Quality, Reliability & IPC Class 2
versus Class 3
Good quality is necessary but not SUFFICIENT to guarantee
high reliability. IPC Class 3 by itself does not guarantee high reliability
A PCB or PCBA can be perfectly built to IPC Class 3 standards
and still be totally unreliable in its final application. Consider two different PCB laminates both built to IPC Class 3 standards.
Both laminates are identical in all properties EXCEPT one laminate has a CTEz of 40 and the other has a CTEz of 60. The vias in the laminate with the lower CTEz will be MORE reliable in a long term, aggressive thermal cycling environment than the CTEz 60 laminate. A CTEz 40 laminate built to IPC class 2 could be MORE reliable than the CTEz 60 laminate built to Class 3. Appropriate materials selection for the environment is key! 18
Importance of Surface Finish
The selection of the surface finish on your PCBs
could be the most important material decision made for the final electronic assembly. The surface finish influences the process yield, the amount of rework, field failure rate, the ability to test, the scrap rate, and of course the cost. One can be lead astray by selecting the lowest cost surface finish only to find that the eventual total cost is much higher. The selection of a surface finish should be done with a holistic approach that considers all important aspects of the assembly. 19
Surface Finish Selection Guideline
Attributes
High Volume Required
Cost Sensitive Product
Cosmetics of Finish is Important Pb-Free Wave Solder (PCB > 62mil)
High Yield ICT
Required
SF Type
Fine Pitch Components Used
Pb-Free Shock/Drop is a Concern
Corrosion Failure is Possible Wire bonding to Finish is Required
Is Important to Product
Is not required for the Product 20
Process Control & Analysis
Cross Sections In
process & taken to
verify:
Hole wall quality
Desmear / Etchback Plating thickness Dielectrics Cross sections of finished product supplied per customer specification.
Inspections Visual
Inspections Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI)
Programmed from the
gerber data to inspect the etched copper panels.
X-Ray
Inspection
Drilling Performance Layer alignment
Cleanliness
Measurements
21
IPC PCB Cleanliness Standards
IPC-5701: Users Guide for Cleanliness of
Unpopulated Printed Boards (2003) IPC-5702: Guidelines for OEMs in Determining Acceptable Levels of Cleanliness of Unpopulated Printed Boards (2007) IPC-5703: Guidelines for Printed Board Fabricators in Determining Acceptable Levels of Cleanliness of Unpopulated Printed Boards (Industry Review Draft) IPC-5704: Cleanliness Requirements for Unpopulated Printed Boards (2010) 22
IPC Ionic Contamination Test
Standards
Resistivity of Solvent Extract (ROSE) Test Method IPC-TM-650
2.3.25
Modified Resistivity of Solvent Extract (Modified ROSE) Test Method
TM 2.3.25.1
The ROSE test method is used as a process control tool to detect the presence of bulk ionics. The IPC upper limit is set at 10.0 mg/NaCl/in2. This test is performed using a Zero-Ion or similar style ionic testing unit that detects total ionic contamination, but does not identify specific ions present. This process draws the ions present on the PCB into the solvent solution. The results are reported as bulk ions present on the PCB per square inch.
The modified ROSE test method involves a thermal extraction. The PCB is exposed in a solvent solution at an elevated temperature for a specified time period. This process draws the ions present on the PCB into the solvent solution. The solution is tested using an Ionograph-style test unit. The results are reported as bulk ions present on the PCB per square inch.
Ion Chromatography IPC-TM-650 2.3.28.2
23
Test Procedures: Best Practice
Ion Chromatography (IC) is the gold standard
Some,
but very few, PCB manufacturers qualify lots
based on IC results
Larger group uses IC to baseline ROSE /
Omegameter / Ionograph (R/O/I) results Perform
lot qualification with R/O/I
Periodically recalibrate with IC (every week, month, or quarter) 24
Common PCB Defects
Basic understanding of common
PCB defects is helpful Ask
for cross-section images
Required for process control
Knowledge
can be used by an organization to monitor supplier performance over time Insufficient Plating, Voids, Nodules, Folds, Etch Pits, Fiber Protrusion 25
Insufficient Plating Thickness
ANSI/IPC-A-600 requires an average plating thickness of 20 um, with isolated areas allowed to reach 15 um. Insufficient plating thickness is caused by either insufficient current/time in the copper plating bath or poor throwing power. When insufficient plating thickness is observed throughout the PTH, instead of just at the center, the root-cause is more likely insufficient current/time in the plating bath.
26
Glass Fiber Protrusion
Glass fiber protrusion
into PTH walls affects PTH plating thickness and hence can contribute to PTH cracking. Glass fiber protrusion may be due to process control variabilities during hole drilling, hole preparation or application of flash copper. Glass fiber protrusion is allowed by IPC guidelines only if the min. plating thickness is met.
27
Plating Folds
Plating folds create detrimental
stress concentrations. Rough drilling or improper hole preparation can cause plating folds. Rough drilling can be caused by poor laminate material, worn drill bits, or an out-of-control drilling process. Improper hole preparation is due to excessive removal of epoxy resin caused by incomplete cure of resin system or a preparation process (desmear/etchback) that is not optimized.
28
Plating Nodules
Root causes of nodulation include
poor drilling, particles in solution, solution temperature out of range, or brightener level in excess. The relatively straight hole walls and the lack of particles in the nodules seemed to suggest the later two as root cause. The presence of plating nodules can be detrimental to high reliability. Plating nodules create highly stressed areas in the plating wall and can possibly reduce lifetime under temperature cycling. ANSI/IPC-A-600 states that nodules are acceptable if the hole diameter is above the minimum specified. 29
Plating Voids
Plating void is a generic term to
describe voids present in and around the PTH wall. Can cause large stress concentrations, resulting in crack initiation. The location of the voids can provide crucial information in identifying the defective process. Around the glass bundles In the area of the resin At the inner layer interconnects (aka, wedge voids) Center or edges of the PTH
30
Test & Final Inspection
Electrical Test IPC-D-356
netlist is uploaded into the tester. Each PCB is manually placed on fixture and tested for continuity and resistance
packaging until assembly Package PCBs in brick counts which closely emulate run quantities PCBs should be stored in temperature and humidity controlled conditions Packaging in MBB (moisture barrier bags) with desiccant and HIC (humidity indicator cards) may be needed for some laminates
Vacuum Sealer
Humidity Indicator Card
Moisture Barrier Bag32
Conclusions
Foundation of a reliable product is a
reliable PCB PCBs
Have a comprehensive strategy for
selecting and qualifying PCB suppliers
are always custom, critical components
Ensures that the foundation is strong
Performing effective on site audits is a
critical component of that strategy. 33
Speaker Biography
Cheryl Tulkoff has over 22 years of experience in electronics manufacturing with an
emphasis on failure analysis and reliability. She has worked throughout the electronics manufacturing life cycle beginning with semiconductor fabrication processes, into printed circuit board fabrication and assembly, through functional and reliability testing, and culminating in the analysis and evaluation of field returns. She has also managed no clean and RoHS-compliant conversion programs and has developed and managed comprehensive reliability programs.
Cheryl earned her Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech. She is a published author, experienced public speaker and trainer and a Senior member of both ASQ and IEEE. She has held leadership positions in the IEEE Central Texas Chapter, IEEE WIE (Women In Engineering), and IEEE ASTR (Accelerated Stress Testing and Reliability) sections. She chaired the annual IEEE ASTR workshop for four years, is an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer and a member of SMTA and iMAPS.
She has a strong passion for pre-college STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) outreach and volunteers with several organizations that specialize in encouraging pre-college students to pursue careers in these fields.
