An Efficient and Innovative Cleaning Solution with Low Environmental Impact

Abstract

Contamination of electronic assemblies can occur at any process steps and can be of different natures such as oxides, organic residues, or dusts. Those contaminations could reduce the reliability of PCBA through time. At the same time, miniaturization and new component typologies require ever-higher performances with ever-increasing functionality. Moreover, the industry is looking for solutions to improve cleaning efficiency, reduce costs and limit environmental impact. Thus, developing cleaning solutions become a challenge to guarantee the reliability of the electronics assemblies. This paper introduces a new technology of cleaning solution developed to be compatible in several processes. After a short description of co-solvent and aqueous process, the cleaning results concerning the new technology are shared. The cleaning efficiency is evaluated using IPC standards: visual inspection under microscope, ionic contamination, and SIR test. Surface tension is also measured. Then, a scoring method based on the GHS labelling system and REACH regulation is used to evaluate the environmental impact of this innovative cleaner technology. As a conclusion, the new cleaning solution does show promising results. For aqueous processes, this improvement allows to lower the cleaning time and/or the cleaning temperature. For co-solvent processes, the cleaning performance is similar with an improvement of the safety and the environmental footprint.