Blogs

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 ... How to Use a Solder Fountain A complicated, time-consuming procedure is transformed into a quick and easy fix. Rework departments regularly encounter large ... Rework for Pad and Component Mismatch It's a wonder pad to part size mismatch doesn't happen more often, considering the thousands and thousands of opportunities on ... 4 Techniques for Removing Solder Mask There are several safe and reliable ways to remove solder mask from the circuit board surface. They all have advantages and disadvantages ... Tips For Through Hole Connector Rework 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 ... Trimming Conductors In Very Tight Places Anyone familiar with high-frequency and microwave printed circuits understands the sensitive design considerations each requires ... Changing a Conductor Path at a BGA Site This feature describes how to rework a BGA site. The rework involved changing the circuit paths at the BGA sites, which required ... How To Restore Damaged Gold Edge Contacts From time to time, gold edge contacts become contaminated with solder. This most often occurs during reflow of an assembly, and may ... Review of Hot Air Component Rework for SMT Components There are many hot air-based component rework tools and machines available today. Many are large, some small, but all have various means of ... Method for 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. We received a distress call from a ... Tips for Rework of Large Scale BGA Components You've just been given a board with a shorted BGA site. BGA rework is complicated enough, but in this case the challenge is magnified as this BGA has 2600 ... 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 ... Ten Rules for Jumper Wires The procedures for attaching jumper wires are fairly extensive. However, there are a number of general rules that should be ... A Solution for 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 ... Challenging Gold Contact Repair In the electronics industry, gold plating is ancient technology and the problems encountered in plating are just as ancient. Unfortunately ... Are Your BGA Rework Operators Experts? Can every operator handle your BGA rework equally well? In real life, in all but just a few situations, the answer is ... 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 ... How to Fix Press-in Fastener Damage Press-in fasteners provide a solution to various chassis, heat sink, stiffener, and other hardware mounting demands ... Tips and Tricks for Successful Rework Although soldering is one of the oldest know joining techniques, manual or hand soldering is still a process highly dependent upon individual ... 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 ... 3 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 ... Big Time Damaged Conductor Repair A batch of multi-layer circuit boards with a large hole drilled completely through by mistake. This can be a tough error to recover from when ... Rework Option Eliminates Jumper Wires A customer identified a design error involving two circuits that were incorrectly routed. Learn how this type of rework can be completed ... Potted QFP Rework Challenge Ordinarily removal and replacement of a QFP is a straightforward rework project. In this case however, the boards were completely ... Options for Gold Contact Rework Gold edge contacts can become worn, damaged or contaminated by solder and must be either repaired and restored, or replaced ... Damaged Mounting Hole Repair For this repair we're looking at the process to correct base board damage at an ejector handle location. The ejector handle is often ... Rework for Internal Conductor Mismatch The team at Circuit Technology Center was put to the test when a large OEM discovered a designed problem with 50 prototype ... BGA Component Site Modification - Is It Possible? BGA rework is a topic about which volumes have been written, and in most cases the focus has been on component removal and ... Converting Tin/Lead BGA Pads to Gold Plated The challenge with a rework that involves the removal of a soldered BGA to install a socket is most often the pads will need to be gold ... X-Ray System Eye Opener Feature displays various x-ray images of circuit boards and reviews how to analyze and pin-point defects ... 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 ... Solder Joint Opens - What To Do? Solder joint opens are often found through x-ray inspection or during the test. You may be inclined to re-heat and reflow the ... Preventing BGA Component Warp During Rework This article deals the occasional tendency of larger (and thinner) BGA components to warp during rework causing bridging and shorts ... Inner Layer Conductor Modification Feature covers need to restore a ground plane that should have served as a return path for signals between plated through holes in ... 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 ... Keysight Technologies Adapter Rework This procedure provides an overview of the process for installing Keysight Technologies DDR2 DRAM BGA Probes onto circuit board ... Reworking Internal Connection at a Via Hole This procedure was used to modify a batch of circuit boards that had a signal error at a via hole location ... 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 ... Jumper Wire Nightmare Feature covers the process to use a significant number of jumper wires to correct a major connector mismatch ... How To Restore Missing Internal Layer Connections Several multilayer backplanes were mistakenly manufactured with missing plating for 24 holes. Learn how this challenging problem ... 6 Common Mistakes of BGA Rework Procedures for BGA rework are well-defined and long established, but there are six common mistakes. These mistakes can be costly leading ... 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 ... 11 Rules for Circuit Board Mods Some of the odd twists and turns occasionally needed to modify assembled circuit boards can be surprising. This feature includes 11 ... 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 ... Scrapes and Breaks Repaired Millions of dollars are spent each year on the care and handling of circuit assemblies. Nevertheless, to the frustration of everyone ... 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 ... Rework for Missing Ground Connections This problem deals with a circuit board with a series of plated through holes that are not connected to ground. It would seem easy ... How to Select the Right Eyelet for Plated 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 ... Solder Mask Rework at a BGA Site What happens when a BGA socket is phased out, but the solder mask is not updated. Solder mask is not needed for sockets, but ... Cutting Circuits and Conductors Quite often, a rework department is confronted with the task of cutting, rather than establishing, connections. Often called etch cuts ... 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 ... Exploding Solder Balls Could such a thing occur? People solder tens of thousands of BGA components a day. Most of this activity occurs in the flow of ... Challenging Connector Rework This project involved rework of large connectors. The challenge was complicated due to the need to avoid overheating many jumpers wires ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 is often more rework ... Soldering Long Gold Plated Pins Soldering to gold has never been a flawless exercise. Concerns about the quality and quantity of gold finishes buzz around the ... The Repair Technician Hall Of Fame Is there a Repair Technician Hall of Fame? I don't know the answer, but I do know Dale Granger-Eckert would have to be a founding ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ...