Effect of PCB Thickness and Height Position During Heat Level Type Vapour Phase Reflow Soldering

Abstract

The paper investigates specific factors, which may affect the heat transfer during the heat-level type Vapour Phase Soldering (VPS) process. Nowadays many electronics manufacturers rely on the VPS as reflow soldering method, a process based on condensation heating. The article describes the effect of the PCB thickness on the heat transfer and the impact of the PCB height level (vertical positioning) in the workspace of the oven (e.g. same thickness with different height, different thickness with same top PCB surface height). Also, the paper highlights the phenomena of the temperature fall at the start of the cooling process according to these factors. For the investigation, measurements were performed in a heat-level process based VPS oven to fixed parameters, to provide precise and consequent results within the confines of the specific control method. The measurement and calculation of the heating factor help to understand the outcome from both the time and the temperature side of the critical parts of the soldering profile.