6 Common Mistakes of BGA Rework
Ball Grid Array rework is one of the most challenging procedures performed at assembly facilities and repair depots. Let's look at the 6 most common mistakes in BGA rework and how you can avoid them.
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Agilent Adapter Rework
This procedure provides an overview of the process for installing Agilent DDR2 DRAM BGA Probes onto circuit board assemblies ...
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X-Ray Finds Shorts in Drilled Holes
Drilling boards in the post-production environment is tricky work. Certainly if the board is populated with components and other hardware the setup alone can be time consuming...
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Scrapes and Breaks Repaired
Millions of dollars are spent each year on the care and handling of circuit assemblies. Nevertheless, inevitably - and to the frustration of everyone involved - handling damage occurs ...
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The Most Essential Tool for Repair Techs
Microscopes have become essential tools in the rework and repair department. While there have been (and still are) many applications for other types of manually-operated vision systems, such as ...
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Masking the Solution for BGA Rework
Every now and then an error will occur at the most inopportune time; in this case it was in the design phase of the printed circuit board. When circuit boards are ...
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Beyond Repair... Think Again
All too often, valuable circuit boards are scrapped due to base material damage. Actually, boards with base material damage can be reliably repaired. Now that ...
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Jumper Wire Nightmare
Oops! Somebody goofed. Happens all the time. Surface mount connectors' connections were accidentally swapped. How in the world can that be corrected?
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Inner Layer Conductor Modification
In every industry there is a gap between conception and execution. It doesn't take much time in the business to learn that ideas are very important, but they are usually the easiest part of the
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Alternative to Dead Bug Rework
This is an example of a project where the solution was more reliable, less labor intensive and much more elegant that the alternative... dead bugging ...
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Unique Ground Plane Transplant Repair
In the world of rework and repair there can never be a standard procedure for every emergency. Things can happen too quickly and "on-the-spot" there can be an urgent ...
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Cutting Circuits and Conductors
Quite often, a rework department is confronted with the task of cutting, rather than establishing, connections. Often called etch cuts, such procedures involve breaking connections both ...
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BGA Component Site Modification
BGA rework is a topic about which volumes have been written, and in most cases the focus has been on component removal and replacement. However, equally important is ...
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Trimming Conductors In Very Tight Places
Anyone familiar with high-frequency and microwave printed circuits understands the sensitive design considerations each requires. Occasionally, you may encounter the need to reduce a circuit or conductor width when ...
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Exploding Solder Balls
Could such a thing occur? People are soldering tens of thousands of BGA components a day. Most of this activity occurs in the flow of manufacturing and some during ...
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How to Use a Solder Fountain
A complicated, time-consuming procedure is transformed into a quick and easy fix. Rework departments regularly encounter large through-hole components on ...
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Base Board Burn Repair - How and Why
Cosmetic surgery is big business today, but our discussion here is not about facelifts or tummy tucks. We're concerned with the cosmetic touch ups we must often apply to circuit boards...
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Flash Memory Card Rescue
What do you do when a Flash memory SD card containing photos of President George W. Bush and your client in the White House breaks into pieces, leaving you holding ...
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Restoring Gold Edge Connectors
From time to time, gold edge contacts become contaminated with solder. This most often occurs during reflow of an assembly, and may be caused by solder spatter, or solder paste contamination ...
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4 Techniques for Removing Solder Mask
Seems like a reasonable request. You've asked your board supplier to apply solder mask only where you want it. Now you're up against a deadline and you hear "we've got a problem". It could be
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How Reliable Is Your Rework?
Can you fix a broken corner on a circuit board reliably? Do you consider re-balling ball grid array (BGA) components to be a reliable procedure? Your opinion and ...
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Multi-Pin Connector Removal and Replacement
Quickly removing and replacing a large multi-pin connector seems a
daunting task, but it really isn't. Here's how it can be done ...
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Rework for Missing Ground Connections
This latest problem is a board with a series of plated through holes that are not connected to ground. It would seem easy enough to ...
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Solder Mask Touch-Up At BGA Sites
Solder mask is delicate and easily damaged or dislodged during
BGA rework. If it isn't repaired, the result often more rework, or rework
upon rework ...
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Rework for Pad and Component Mismatch
What industry standard applies to a pad / part size mismatch. Well, how's this for a mouthful, "IPC-J-STD-001D, Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies, Table 7-4, Dimensional Criteria- Chip Components - Rectangular or Square End
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Conductor Repair - When Appearance Counts
Repairing a damaged circuit with a wire is commonplace, but the repair will shout out "Look at me, I've been repaired!." When you want to repair a damaged circuit but don't want ...
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Review of Hot Air Component Rework
When using hot air units, the proper nozzles must be selected, and the circuit assembly must be positioned properly...
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Jumper Wires Basics
The twists and turns of working with jumper wires. The need to attach jumper wires to circuit board assemblies is inevitable...
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Broken Pin Repair
While working with an extremely expensive prototype component, a tech broke off one of the pins at the base near the component body. While this tech was very skilled, reworking this component was a challenge ...
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Choosing The Right Operator for BGA Rework
Can every operator handle your BGA rework equally well? In real life, in all but just a few situations, the answer is no. Why is this so? Many factors come into play, including ...
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Fixing Press-in Fastener Damage
Press-in Fasteners are a simple, yet very important element of printed circuit assembly. They are self-clinching fasteners that permit the mounting of heavy ...
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Tips and Tricks for Successful Rework
Although soldering, the process of joining two metals by the use of a solder alloy, is one of the oldest know joining techniques, manual or hand soldering is still a process highly dependent upon ...
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Edge Milling to Reduce Board Thickness
It's not unusual for circuit boards that have been fabricated with a thickness greater than .062" to require additional milling to reduce that thickness on certain ...
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2600 Pin BGA Rework
Can you imagine being confronted by this challenge? It's a dubious honor; being designated the company BGA rework guru, but it's your ...
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Damaged Mounting Hole Repair
Extra Strength! How often do you hear it in your everyday life? Extra strength medication, extra strength glue, extra strength (fill in the blanks)! It's ...
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Gold Contact Rework
Gold edge contacts can become worn, damaged or contaminated by solder and must be either repaired and restored, or replaced. Generally, two options are available to ...
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Solution for BGA Footprint Mismatch
You have a new board and the BGA component doesn't fit the board footprint. Is this a nightmare of a problem? It is one we see every other month or so. It seems to ...
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How to Select the Right Eyelet for Hole Repair
One of my favorite circuit board repair procedures is Plated Hole Repair. Even in today's high tech world there are still thousands of circuit boards being used made with through hole ...
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Challenging Gold Contact Repair
In the electronics industry, gold plating is ancient technology and the problems encountered in plating are just as ancient. Unfortunately that doesn't ...
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Questions to Ask When Salvaging Components
Have you heard this one before? A manager walks into a meeting and is told that there is one million dollars worth of circuit assemblies that are scrap because of... fill in the blank ...
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Adding A Via Hole
We've all heard of via in pad, blind vias, even buried vias, but have you ever experienced the "Via to nowhere" phenomena? Well, here's how it goes ...
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Engineering Changes at BGA Sites
Despite a thorough design review and initial prototype, a contractor found they had 100 circuit board assemblies and each board needed rework at several ball grid array (BGA) sites ...
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Options for BGA Rework
No matter how much we attempt to streamline and automate the process, BGA rework has been, and will likely always be, a mixture of art and science. The need for a predictable...
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Case of the Missing SMT Pads
Everyone loves a good mystery, unless, of course, that mystery has to do with something important that's missing from your valuable circuit boards! We often discuss methods of repairing ...
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Isolating a Plated Hole From Ground
Once involved in rework and repair, you quickly realize that all the tools you need to get the job done are just not always available. It occurs to you that unless you're prepared to ...
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BGA Conductor Path Re-design
This re-design centered around a 676 ball BGA component. A total of 23 of the balls on the BGA were not connected where they needed to be. It would have been easier if the pads
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X-Ray System Eye Opener
Some time ago we had the good fortune to obtain a Dage X-Ray machine. For years we had been using an older machine that has been an absolutely reliable workhorse ...
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Circuit Board Modification Review
Some of the odd twists and turns occasionally needed to modify assembled circuit boards can be surprising. Modifications that at first glance might seem almost ridiculous or jury-rigged, are often ...
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Big Time Damaged Conductor Repair
WOW! A batch of circuit boards were improperly and dramatically drilled in a spot they weren't supposed to be drilled in. That can be a tough error to recover from when applied to today's complex
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Preventing BGA Component Warp During Rework
Rework can result in BGA warpage - find out how it can be prevented. Most would agree, I'm sure, that BGA rework is nothing to chuckle about, but some of the antics performed by large
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Converting Tin/Lead BGA Pads to Gold Plated
Flexibility, the ability to change, is a valuable asset. Anyone can tell you it's easier conceived than executed. Take BGA devices for example. When engineers are developing or upgrading ...
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Backplane X-ray Analysis
This is one of those things that drive people in this business mad. A very expensive and difficult board, which once on the job has to endure in a harsh environment, was manufactured successfully. All
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As the Solder Flows
Soldering to gold has never been a flawless exercise. Concerns about the quality and quantity of gold finishes buzz around the soldering process like annoying ...
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Counterfeit Detection Part II
A while back we wrote an article about "Counterfeit Components", a hot button issue. Quite a few people responded with concerns about identifying counterfeits...
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Counterfeit Detection
Bogus, fake, false, forged, yes, counterfeit components. That's what I'm talkin about! Working in the electronics industry is like sailing on the broad sea. No matter how skillfully ...
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