Soldering technology — decade of developments

Abstract

Developments in soldering technology during the past ten years have mostly occurred in the electronics industry because of the need to ensure high reliability of soldered joints in such applications. This review covers in detail work concerned with the metallurgy of soft solders including mechanicalproperty studies, and also basic studies on the physical and chemical nature of the process by which solder wets the basis metals and the means of achieving rapid wetting. Fluxes are essential in the soldering process and more active formulations have been developed to improve wetting or overcome poor solderability of surfaces. Health and safety aspects of these and other materials used in the soldering process are discussed. New soldering techniques such as vapour phase soldering using solder creams are included and the question of the routine testing of incoming components for adequate solderability is discussed: the various solderability tests and their application are described. Attention is also given to methods of checking the quality of soldered joints in order to ensure reliability in service and standards relevant to the science of soldering technology are listed.