A straddle mount connector system attach process

Over the past few years card connectors have progressed significantly from the 0.100" pitch gold tabs of the first PC's. New developments in card technology are driving higher connector pin count and denser, more unique connector packaging. Since more and more circuits must go from card to card, the card edge connectors have migrated to surface mount and are now straddling the card in order to achieve this higher number of required interconnections. A straddle mount connector system is evaluated in an electronic card assembly test facility for both material and process impacts. Emphasis is placed on the connector and associated process materials used. The contact integrity after successful solder attach has been evaluated. While in-depth details of the attach and subsequent repair process have been reported previously, the critical process parameters will be highlighted in this paper.