GS-20-024

Rev: A Page 1 of 13

Pin-in-paste
Application guide
(Pin-in-paste, Paste-in hole, intrusion reflow etc.) (Pin-in-paste, Paste-in hole, intrusion reflow etc.)

Pin-in paste
Application guide
Introduction of this publication

GS-20-024
Rev: A Page 2 of 13

This application guide is a handbook in implementing board edge and front I/O connectors to SMT-processes. The aim is to give information to all people involved in the process of developing and manufacturing electronic hardware. For further specific information, please contact your local sales office as listed on the rear cover.

Content

Introduction
SMT process description 3

The pin-in-paste technology

Introduction Paste application Stancil apertures Component feeding and package Component picking and assembly Reflow Inspection, quality references Micro sectioning of solder joints 4 4 5 6 6 7 7 8

Pin-in-paste connectors
General Ability to carry forces Positioning Board layout Solder mask application Solder paste application Utilization of area for paste printing Paste application close to the connector Guiding wafer stand-offs Hold down features Repair/replacement 9 9 9 10 10 10 11 11 12 12 13

About FCI
Created in 1989, FCI rapidly secured its place among the worlds top three manufacturers & suppliers of connectors and interconnect systems. With a turnover of 1.97 billion Euros (1.8 billion dollars) in 2001, FCI is operating all around the world, with activities geared towards major markets: communications, data, consumer, industrial, military and aerospace, automotive and electrical power interconnect. FCI has its headquarters in Paris, France and employs 16 000 people in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The company is a member of the AREVA group, which also includes COGEMA, Framatome ANP and an 11% interest in ST Microelectronics. For more information: www.fciconnect.com.

Liability

We believe that the information contained in this publication is the best currently available on the subject. It is offered as a possible helpful suggestion in any experimentation you may care to undertake and is subject to revision as additional knowledge and experience is gained. FCI makes no guarantee of results and assumes no obligation or liability whatsoever in connection with this information. This publication is not a license to operate under, or intended to suggest infringement of, any existing patent. Information given on the drawings in this document is not suitable for tooling design and construction. To obtain the correct drawings for these purposes, contact your local FCI representative.

AW: KM

Pin-in paste
Application guide

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Rev: A Page 3 of 13

Introduction
SMT process description

A typical SMT-process is in principle 3 steps, application of solder paste on the bare boards, assembly of components and reflow soldering. To achieve high efficiency the process in reality is more complicated.

The boards are automatically handled into the screen printing equipment for solder paste application. A screen printing stencil is provided with openings(apertures) to control the paste printing. The stencil thickness may vary, but typical values are 0,125 and 0,15 mm. The paste is pressed into the apertures with a squeegee, or with a special paste head providing vertical pressure on the paste while passing over the stencil (e.g. ProCon). The screen printing can be made in one or more strokes to provide wanted aperture filling After the paste application vision-based automatic inspection equipment can inspect crucial areas for defects in the paste application. The boards are carried on a conveyor through the process steps. The first component assembly station normally handles the smallest components with a very high mounting speed. They are placed in the paste, and a vision inspection may be placed after the assembly, or after some more assembly steps. Further assembly stations may be used, depending on type of boards and components involved. The final assembly normally deals with larger and odd shape components. After final assembly and optional vision inspection, the boards pass through the solder reflow oven. The final inspection is either manual or automatic.

Large/odd shape component assembly

2 nd assembly (optional)

1st assembly station

Paste application

Reflow soldering

Bare board

Assembled and soldered board

Check/inspection Components on reels/trays

Figure 1 Typical SMT process overview.

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Application guide

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The Pin-in-paste (PIP) technology

Board with hole Stencil

squeegee Solder paste

Introduction
The principle for PIP is that solder-through-hole component posts are placed in holes with SMT-solder paste and then reflow soldered in the same operation as the SMT components. Process parameters are hole size, pin size, board thickness, stencil aperture, stencil thickness, paste filling into hole and paste properties. Compared with wave soldering the process normally shows better result in wetting and less bridging, but for components with thin pins in large holes with thick boards it may sometimes be hard to put enough paste on to get 100 % filling. Industry standard quality requirements has taken these into account, and permit less filling for pin-in paste soldering. (see further in section Inspection, quality references).

Component assembled

Reflow soldered

Figure 2 Pin-in-paste process sequence

Especially for connectors in backplane systems the position requirements and the external forces need special attention. Pin-in paste connectors are therefore provided with location and in some cases also hold-down features (HDF) for proper adaptation to the SMT process.

Squeegee Paste application

The amount of paste necessary to give an appropriate solder joint can be calculated. Normally there is a need to print paste also on the board surface (overprinting), not only in the hole itself, so the stencil apertures are larger than the land of the hole. Paste applied on the board surface will later be sucked into the hole in the reflow process.

45

Stencil

Figure 3 Paste application squeegee

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Application guide

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Stencil apertures
In principle the hole grid for connectors can be printed with paste all over, but then the amount of solder sucked into the holes will differ from joint to joint depending on where the melting of the paste starts. It is therefore recommended to let each hole have its own defined paste printing shape. In the case with connector solder tail grids, the paste amount is often maximised by the grid size, e.g. 2 x 2 mm. Separating space should normally be equal or more than 0,3 mm. (see figure 16). The apertures in connector grids may very well be optimised in size using unsymmetrical placing of paste apertures (see figure 22). The amount of paste in the hole will depend on which vertical pressure the paste applicator can provide. A normal squeegee will improve the vertical pressure if the angle is reduced from 60 to 45 (see figure 3). Improved filling can also be achieved with applicators providing a static pressure against the board/stencil. Figure 4 Stencil aperture principle

land hole paste printing aperture

The filling degree (Fd) of a joint can be calculated according to following: Fd = P/V P= metal volume in applied paste V= volume to fill (hole - post)

Solder paste

X T

m= metal volume in paste. (normally about 50% = 0,5) Z =paste filling in hole, dimension from board surface and into the hole

D
Figure 5 Paste volume calculation definitions

Calculations will show that the length Z is important for the filling degree, as well as not having the hole oversized. Additional paste can also be applied with dispensing units. As SMT-lines are not often equipped with dispensing units this will be used in special cases. In addition to the possibility to add more paste, the paste can also have different properties (viscosity, metal content) to give better filling degree. Screen-printing stencils may also have partially thicker areas to increase the paste volume at the connector positions. Some limitation must be taken into account as squeegee moving direction, connector positions, more expensive stencil etc.

P = {(Y * X* T) + [(D/2)2 * p] * Z}* m

Pin-in paste
Application guide
Component feeding and package
For SMT components the package is a part of the product. It is important that the component is fed into and presented to the assembly process in a proper way. Normally the preferred package is tape according to EIA 481 specifications. This allows for use in most SMT-equipment. Metral connector tape is shown in figure 6.

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Rev: A Page 6 of 13

Component picking and assembly

The assembly equipment normally has a vacuum nozzle as picking and handling tool. Special designed mechanical grippers could also be used. To allow for a proper use of the vacuum nozzle the component must be provided with a flat surface of enough area, and this surface must be parallel to board mounting plane. It is recommended to use vacuum nozzle without rubber edge in order to allow the connector to self-correct position during the final part of the mounting cycle. The handling cycle normally includes a vision inspection, where the position of the component is controlled, and parameters given to the control system to adjust position for the board assembly. The vision system may also be able to check features like solder terminals etc. A connector, often having features for locating to board holes, shall normally have visible reference features to control the position. For connectors, in general the placement on the board shall be made with only z-movement (vertically). This is to avoid interference with already assembled adjacent connectors. If the connector assembly needs force due to locating/fixing features, a board support has to be installed. A large component/odd shape component assembly machine principle is shown in figure 8.
Longituditional rod Vision inspection Feeder Tape Tray/tube picking area

Figure 6 Tape-and-reel packaged connectors

Figure 7 Vacuum nozzle picking connector from tape package

Component Board Transverse positioning Assembly head (longituditional position)

Figure 8 Last step component assembly machine principle

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Rev: A Page 7 of 13

Reflow
The assembled board will be fed through the reflow oven. The oven consists of several zones with different temperature. This is to ensure even temperature distribution and minimise risk of component failure due to temperature stresses. A typical temperature profile is shown in figure 9. During the reflow process the flux content in the paste is evaporating while cleaning the joint surfaces, the small balls of tin (tin/lead) start to melt and the liquid metal pulled towards the clean metal surfaces (e.g. pads and posts) by surface tension. A solder mask on the board prevents the tin to creep out from the pads and remain creating solder balls. The conveyor speed in the oven is normally 500 to 1000 mm/min.
Temperature

Zone temperature On board measured temperature

200

100

Length (m)

Figure 9 Reflow oven temperature zones

Inspection, quality references

The most used quality standards published by IPC (The Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits), outline the acceptance of solder joints with minimum 75 % filling degree. The quality is mainly secured by process control. The main tools for controlling the process is x-ray and micro sectioning. For judging and approval of soldering in tuning the process parameters the filling degree at a micro sectioned soldering as expressed in figure 10 and 11 can be helpful. Quality/inspection criteria must be considered differently than for normal wave soldering. The most important is that the amount of solder paste is controlled by the process by specifying hole, post, paste, stencil aperture and paste applicator service parameters. The remaining inspection can be reduced to check proper assembly and wetting. Calculation 1 (for figure 10) (a+b)/2t 0,75 (for t less or equal to 2.4 mm) If voids are indicated, the whole filling shall be measured (b1) and the effective unsoldered high (b2) of the void deducted from the dimension as shown in figure xxx. Voids not touching any or only one of the sides (pin or hole) shall not be taken in account.

Figure 10 Filling degree calculation units

a b2
Figure 11 Filling degree with voids

b1

Calculation 2 (for figure 11) [a+(b1-b2)]/2t 0,75 (for t less or equal to 2.4 mm)

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Application guide

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Rev: A Page 8 of 13

Micro-sectioning of solder joints

The following figures from actual Pin-in paste soldering give some example of the results.

Figure 12 Solder joints in 1,7 mm thick board. Paste screen aperture 1,7x1,8 mm. 100% filling and approved wetting Filling degree according to calculation below gives the average filling as the soldering very seldom is symmetric (as shown in IPC-requirements) Board thickness t =2 mm (in this case equal to b). a = 1,2 mm b = 2 mm Filling degree(a+b)/2t (1,2+2)/4 = 0,8 (80%).

Figure 13 Solder joints with partial filling.

According to quality standard used in industry (IPC) it is not need for solder post to have protrusion on thicker boards than 2,3 mm. For thick boards, or in general if solder posts are shorter than the board thickness, soldering not necessary need to go through the hole as indicated in figure14. Filling degree could than be calculated as having a board thickness of 2,3 mm, or having the board thickness equal to solder post hole penetration. This issues is up to each user to evaluate and decide on.

Figure 14 Solder posts shorter than board thickness

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Application guide

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Pin-in paste connectors

General
Board connectors like Metral and Sofix brings some specific requirements for appropriate SMT-compatibility. These are: - Ability to carry forces - Position after assembly Vertical (board level related) Horizontal (board position related) Special attention has been taken in the development of SMT compatible connectors to fulfil these requirements.

Compliant locating pegs

HDF-plate (optional)

Figure 15 Hold-down and location features at Metral

Location and force retention peg

Ability to carry forces

The forces exposed to the connectors come from handling, mating and unmating. Normally the locating pegs and the solderings of the tails carry those forces well. In some cases depending on the connector design, additiononal features for force retention is used. On Metral connectors an optional hold-down feature (HDF) has been developed (see fig 15), for e.g. DIN and D-sub connectors a harpoon feature is used (figure 18). The HDF shall be soldered to a corresponding pad at the board, and the harpoon is soldered in the a plated through mounting hole.

Figure 16 Location and force retention peg at Metral TINT

Positioning
Normally SMT components are self-aligning to their pads by allowing them to float. For a connector with its references to the board pattern/surface, housing placed on the board surface and sometimes rather heavy, it is necessary to control the position. A compliant locating peg has been developed to cope with both limitations in mounting force (max 20 N) and to keep the connector in place after mounting prior to soldering (minimum 5 N). For positioning versus board surface, the recommended layout for Metral connectors with HDF are provided with 4 level reference pads (1x1 mm) touching the housing in each of the corners (see figure 17). These pads shall be surface treated (tin, gold, OSP etc) the same as the pads of the whole board, but no solder paste shall be applied. The reference pads bring the connector to the reference level of the board (primary side). This is important for co-planarity if the connector has a hold-down feature (HDF) as described above. Also in case of mixed Metral on same board edge it is recommended to have reference pads also on those not having HDF.
Hold down and retention pad

Reference pads

Figure 17 Hold down and reference pads at Metral connectors

Figure 18 Harpoon type hold down feature (DIN 41626-connector)

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Application guide

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Rev: A Page 10 of 13

Board layout
The recommended board layout is shown on the Customer Drawings of each product (If not available, ask for it from your local sales office or look into www.fciconnect.com). Pay attention to the hole size tolerances for the compliant locating pegs (often 1,55 +0/-0,05 mm) as the control of retention force at assembly is maintained by those holes.

Solder mask application

To avoid disturbance in the reference surface of connector/board it is recommended that solder mask is never printed on the reference pads underneath the housing. To achieve that the area can be without solder mask. See figure 19. (only applicable at Metral connectors when using reference pads). Solder mask has to be applied on all surfaces where solder paste is printed except on the solder pads.

Solder mask coverage near the connector housing area

2,2 minimum

Board edge

12,2 minimum
Figure 19 Recommended solder mask opening

Solder paste application

Solder paste at the hole grid is recommended as in figures 20 for 4 row Metral connectors. It is preferred to utilize the area with rectangular shaped pads, maximum sizes as shown. For other connector types see actual customer drawing.
0,3 Stencil aperture 2,1 1,7 Land diameter to be minimized

2,25

It is important that the paste pad configuration is adapted to actual connector, board thickness, hole size, paste applicator, stencil thickness etc. What is recommended below and/or at our customer drawing is general advice.

2,25

0,3

Board edge

Figure 20 Proposal for maximum amount of paste applied at the pin grid of the 4-row Metral connectors.

4,65

4,65

1,0

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Application guide

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Rev: A Page 11 of 13

Some caution needs to be taken if the aperture edge of the screen printing stencil is resting on the land of a hole; leakage is a risk. It is therefore recommended to minimise land diameter (Nominal hole diameter + 0,4 mm) . Apertures could also have a shape avoiding the land (see figure 21).

Figure 21 Screen printing stencil apertures to reduce paste leakage. Lands to be minimized (Nominal hole diameter + 0,4 mm)

Utilization of area for printing paste

In some cases, especially on connectors with few solder posts, the area can be utilized as much as possible, as long as the melting paste have a distance to be sucked into the hole less than 2 mm. In figure 22 the maximum paste printing is shown for Sofix Shielded I/O 8 pos connector.

Paste pads 2,70 x 1,95 mm Space between pads 0,3 mm

Housing

Figure 22 Maximum use for printing paste with unsymmetrically placed solder paste pads.

Paste application close to the connector

recess
Some of the connector housings is provided with a recess to allow for paste to be applied for soldering close to the housing. A recess is also normally present for a hole having a harpoon type mounting. The customer drawing is providing the actual information.

paste pad housing

board

Figure 23 Housing recess for solder paste

solder post centerline

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Application guide
Guiding wafer stand-offs

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Rev: A Page 12 of 13

0,6
Some connectors are equipped with a guiding wafer to ensure proper true position of the solder tails. To give space for solder paste to move and reflow correctly, such guiding wafer has standoffs placed in the space between the proposed solder paste pads. The position of the stand-offs can be found on the customer drawing of the connector. To avoid disturbance in the paste pads it is recommended to make small adjustments in the apertures as shown in figure 24 and 25. Figure 24 Reduction of paste pad in the intersection (recommended) due to wafer stand-off

0,6

Figure 25 Reduction of paste if stand-off is not fitting in the intersection

5,0

Hold down features

Hold down features (HDF) are in some cases shaped as seen in figure 15. A corresponding pad at the board for soldering to the HDF-plate is recommended in the actual customer drawing. The paste printing stencil apertures are recommended as in figure 26. In the case with a hole in size 2 mm it is not recommended to print over the hole, but make the apertures divided in smaller portions. It is however important that it will be soldered almost around the whole hole.

R 2,0

40

R 1,3

20

0,6 9,0

0,3

Reference pads (no paste)

Figure 26 Proposal for paste application on the hold-down feature area

For paste printing on harpoon holes, often of 2,5 mm diameter, it may be necessary to have a beam in the stencil to avoid too much leakage of paste through the hole.

1,9

2,6

Pin-in paste
Application guide
Repair/replacing
If a connector must be replaced, the following method can be used: 1 Cut off all terminals close to the guiding wafer with a cutting tool. 2 Warm up the visible part of the HDF (if present) solder plate underneath the connector. Use a flat iron or hot air. When solder joint is melted, lift off the connector body. 4 Clean up the terminal area by desoldering the remainings of the solder tails, and clean the holes from solder. Clean also the HDF pad. 5 Alternative 1 Apply new solder paste on the HDF-pad. Put a new SMT PIP connector on place. Make sure it is leaning on the 4 reference pads. Otherwise it can indicate that the old solder on the HDF pad is not fully removed. Reflow the paste w i t h hot air or an iron. Alternative 2 Use a connector with heat stake or press-peg mounting. 6 Solder the terminals with a solder iron 7 Inspect the connector with respect to placement and solder joints.

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Your own notes

Revision record: Rev A Page All Description New document EC# ECP H20129 Date 2002-07-0 1