IPC recently revised and updated several of its manufacturing standards, including IPC-1752A – ‘Materials Declaration Management,’ IPC-A-610E – ‘Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies,’ IPC J-STD-001E – ‘Industry Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies’ and IPC-A-600H – ‘Acceptability of Printed Boards’.
These standards were developed through thousands of hours of effort by IPC and the electronic industry, and are well designed with hundreds of new pictures and illustrations. Southern African IPC distributor, Nkoka Training, believes that IPC has done an excellent job in making these standards as clear as possible to understand, and will soon be providing new training and certification programmes on these new standards.
IPC-A-610E – Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies
This is IPC’s most widely-used standard, which provides visual acceptance criteria for post-assembly mechanical and soldering assembly requirements. It now addresses additional technologies, including flexible circuits, board-in-board, package-on-package, depanelisation and additional SMT terminations.
The photos and drawings that show good and bad connections, considered one of the most important features of IPC-A-610, have also been upgraded. The E revision contains 165 new or updated illustrations, bringing the total to more than 800.
In addition, the standard has been revamped for ease of use and clarity. Sections have been reorganised so data and images are easier to find and to make it easier to use. Designers and manufacturers will appreciate criteria for package-on-package technologies, often used to boost solid-state memory capacity, and for board-in-board connections, where daughter boards can be mounted perpendicular to the assembly using a through-the-board method.
IPC J-STD-001E – Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies
Recognised worldwide as the sole industry-consensus standard for soldering processes and materials, IPC J-STD-001E encompasses advanced technologies and provides new and updated criteria for all three classes of construction, as well as expanded support for lead-free manufacturing.
The product of a four and a half year revision process involving more than 3500 meeting hours from dedicated volunteers worldwide, some of the significant changes are: new hole-fill criteria for Classes 1 and 2, new SMT termination criteria (flattened post/nail-head), expanded area array (non-collapsible balls and column grid array), expanded staking and adhesive criteria for bonding of through-hole and SMT components to PCBs, consolidated thermal management criteria and consolidated lead placement and soldering criteria for each terminal type.
In addition to the technical changes made to the standard, extensive enhancements were made to the organisation of the document to improve ease of use and clarity. New and updated, full-colour illustrations facilitate further understanding.
IPC-A-600H – Acceptability of Printed Boards
This is an invaluable resource for fabricators and assemblers, particularly inspectors and product developers. This release is accompanied by IPC-6012C – ‘Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards.’
IPC-A-600H features 95 new and updated photos and illustrations, pushing the total number of images to 326. These images go a long way in helping inspectors understand the difference between anomalies that can impact performance and lifetimes and those that are merely cosmetic blemishes. In addition to photos, the standard offers new and expanded coverage on topics such as solder mask coverage, etchback, plated-hole wall integrity, via fill and flexible circuits.
For developers who must determine plating thicknesses and other parameters, IPC-A-600H addresses complex issues like copper cap-plating of vias and sufficient copper-wrap plating. With this update, IPC-A-600H also expands its reach to help suppliers of flexible circuits. The new document also addresses coverlays that are sometimes used to protect flex circuits.
A document used for specifying circuit boards, IPC-6012 details frequency of inspection, instructing how many panels must be examined within a production lot for a given performance class to ensure quality. When OEMs request boards built to 6012 specifications, board manufacturers know precisely what to provide.
For more information contact Rian Venter, Nkoka Training, +27 (0)12 653 2629, training@nkoka.co.za, www.nkoka.co.za
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