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The Taiyo Zone
EU Newsletter 
2010, May                                                                    Issue 8
In This Issue  

President's Message   

 
 
 
 
 
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TAIYO AMERICA, INC.
2675 Antler Drive
Carson City, NV 89701-1451
 USA
 
Phone: (775) 885-9959
Fax: (775) 885-9972
   
 
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President's Message:
 
You're Not Alone with Taiyo
 
 
DR B

As recently reported in Circuitree Magazine the global printed circuit board market is supposed to exceed $76 Billion by the year 2015. Wow, not bad for a product whose obsolescence has been predicted for the past twenty years. I think it's time to stop and paraphrase the great American humorist Mark Twain by saying that the demise of the printed circuit board has been grossly exaggerated. I have to say that I am not surprised by these predictions of grand growth in the near years to come. We at Taiyo have always believed in the sustainability of the printed circuit board. In fact it can be said that we have bet our lives on it.

While other supplier companies have left our industry to what they deem greener pastures, while even more suppliers have reduced their investment in the printed circuit board industry, Taiyo's belief has never faltered. While others have reduced their R&D efforts on behalf of PCB technology we have increased ours. While others have sought out the short term savings of reducing their support staff and thus leaving their customers without the proper product support we have consistently been there for our customers; our goal today and always is to be there for our customers.

We believe in you our customers as much as we believe in the printed circuit board industry. We feel strongly that our industry is the very backbone of electronics today; as it will be tomorrow. As PCB companies get stronger and more technologically advanced we will be there by your side, helping you with your coating issues; listening to you, finding out what you need and providing it. Looking to the future with you to discover just what kind of technology, support and products you are going to need to successfully face that future and then developing them for you.

Our focus on your future has never been more intense, our resolve has never been stronger and our outlook never been more optimistic. Just as in North America where we faced and overcame many challenges to become the number one Solder Mask supplier, we will exert our energies, our people and our resources to achieve that goal in Europe as well.

As always, thanks for reading The Taiyo Zone and thanks for your business.

 

David Rund
President of Taiyo America, Inc.
Facility Shot  
techHighlight a Technology
 

How to keep White LPI Solder Mask from Turning Purple

The LED market continues to grow due to significant interest in LED general lighting and flat panel display back lighting.  Taiyo has seen significant growth in high performance white solder mask products for these LED markets.  From time to time some customers have issues with their white solder mask turning purple after the solder mask has been through the ENIG process and the high temperature assembly process.  This purple discoloration has not occurred with final finishes other than ENIG.  To discover the root cause of this phenomenon Taiyo partnered with Umicore in Germany to determine what part of the ENIG process is causing the white solder mask to turn purple.
 
We did a quick literature search to see if there was something that could help us with our testing.  We found that titanium and gold can form a complex compound that when subjected to heat will first turn pink then purple then a deep purple/red.  The pigment used in our white solder mask products is titanium dioxide and the issue of the white mask turning purple has only occurred with panels that have been through the ENIG process.  So we designed a test to see what part of the ENIG plating bath has an effect on the white solder mask turning purple. We decided to start with the rinse immediately following the gold plating line. We measured the cleanliness in microsiemens (�S). We wanted to see if a clean rinse would prevent a titanium / gold complex from forming.
 
We prepared samples of our white solder mask products in our lab at Taiyo America that included PSR-4000 LEW1, LEW3, W8, W10 and HFX White.  Exposure energy was varied to see if this had any effect.  Curing was varied as well by adding a UV cure after thermal cure on some samples.  The samples were prepared as follows:
 
 Preclean - mechanical scrubber
 Solder Mask Application - hand screened
 Tack Dry - batch oven at 80�C for 30 minutes
 Exposure - varied (low, standard, high) energies
 Development - 1% sodium carbonate at 30�C for 60 seconds 
    (120 seconds for LEW1 and LEW3)
 Thermal Cure - batch oven at 150�C for 60 minutes
 UV Cure - varied energy (0 or 3 J/cm2)
 
The sample panels were then shipped to Umicore for ENIG plating.  Half of the panels were run through an ENIG plating line that had a very "clean" rinsing system after the Au plating.  The measurement of the "clean" rinse was < 10 �S.  The second set was run through an ENIG line where the rinse was considered "dirty" at ≥90 �S.  Both sets of panels were returned to Taiyo America for simulation of the high temperature assembly process.
 
Back at Taiyo the panels were first processed through an IR oven at 316�C.  None of the panels showed any discoloration.  A water based flux was applied to half of each panel and then they were solder floated at 300�C for 60 seconds and inspected for turning purple. All of the samples that been through the "clean" rinse remained extremely white.  However, it was noted that the samples that had been subjected to the UV cure had a slight yellowing.  For the samples that had been through the "dirty" rinse, all of them turned purple.  Exposure level and the addition of a UV cure step had no effect upon the purple discoloration.  Below are some photographs to show the effects.
 

 ENIG                  FLOAT CLEAN                          float dirty
 
    After ENIG "dirty" rinse                 After solder float "clean" rinse           After solder float "dirty" rinse
 

Conclusion:
From our testing it is apparent that a "clean" rinse will keep your white solder mask white after ENIG and high temperature assembly.  A "dirty" rinse clearly illustrates that gold residue is forming a complex compound with the titanium pigment and then turns purple in the high temperature assembly process.  For our testing we used a "clean" rinse of 10 �S and a "dirty" rinse of 90 �S.  Umicore recommends that the rinse needs to be below 50 �S.  This translates to about 150 - 300 liters/hour (0.66 - 1.32 gpm) of fresh water rinse or 100 - 200 liters/hour (0.44 - 0.88 gpm) of DI water.  In the future we will try to determine the breakpoint between a "clean" and "dirty" rinse.

 

 

team Meet the Taiyo Zone Team
Andreas Gross
European Sales Manager for
Taiyo Products Umicore 


Andreas obtained his B.Sc.degree in Surface Technology in 1993. From 1993 to 1995 he worked as a process engineer at Europe's first and biggest HDI PCB facility (this facility is now known as Wuerth / Germany). From 1995 to 1997 Andreas was part of the R&D team of the electroplating group of Ami / Doduco (product & process supplier of electroplating chemicals). Andreas joined Umicore in 1997 in the PCB field and worked for the R&D and Technical Service group for electroplating products until the end of 2008. Since 2009 Andreas has been responsible for sales & tech services activities of Taiyo and Uyemura products that have been introduced in the European PCB market. Andreas has been an important part of the Taiyo / Umicore team as we continue to increase our market share in Europe.
 
In his spare time, Andreas enjoys spending time with his family and he enjoys many sporting activities as well as the beautiful mountains (Alpes) on summer & winter weekends.

exc