Assessment of Solder Flux Corrosivity and Flux Residue Level in Clip Bonding Assembly

Abstract Most fluxes and their flux residue are corrosive, and their presence on the surface of assemblies may cause reliability concerns due to electrochemical migration. This study firstly refers to the test method IPC-TM-650 2.3.32D and 2.6.15C and the requirements in J-STD-004A to evaluate flux-induced corrosion and the corrosivity of their flux residue. Then thermogravimetric analysis is used to evaluate the flux residue level after soldering under identical conditions. These comparison data can be utilized to compare flux performance of solder pastes. For the cleanliness evaluation after flux cleaning, the qualitative analysis refers to IPC-A-610G and adopts optical inspection to observe the flux cleaning effect. The quantitative analysis refers to IPC-TM-650 2.3.28B ion chromatography test method to analyze the level of ionic species after flux cleaning. In addition to IPC-TM-650 2.3.28B ion chromatography method, the effectiveness of other methods has been well demonstrated to characterize the fluxes and their flux residue in clip bonding assembly.