Great ideas for the practitioner of high technology, high performance assembly. Looking at: PCB Assembly, Soldering & Surface Mount Selected for: News From the Leader in Dummy Components, Test PCBs and Kits New Amkor® Dummy LGA Packages The electronics industry´s tighter environmental requirements is fuelling a demand for Land Grid Array (LGA) components - they offer a practical solution for Pb-free soldering systems, where one component design fits into almost every solder alloy system. LGA is another term used for parts without solder balls. Dummy LGA parts are used to reduce package height, evaluate drop test performance in handheld applications, solder ball attach practice, socket insertion, pick & place evaluation, reflow profiling, enhance thermal cycle reliability and other purposes. The solder interconnect is formed solely by solder paste applied at board assembly because there are no solder balls attached to the LGA. This results in a lower stand-off height of approximately 0.06mm to 0.10mm, depending on solder paste volume and pcb geometry. LGA packages are gaining popularity in portable electronics, where the key drivers for the technology implementation are low cost, mechanical reliability, direct Pb-free assembly process compatibility, and their low profile on the pcb. LGA technology can be considered as an excellent choice for future environmental requirements in thin and compact products. The industry is still far from a common standard with Pb-free solders - compared to the situation with Pb-containing solders, special care is needed, when combining the soldering systems of component vendors and OEM's. The use of electronic components that are compatible with the higher temperatures used in a Pb-free assembly process requires extensive process evaluations which are prohibitively costly using "live" components. Dummy components from Practical Components are distributed in the UK by INTERTRONICS. The Amkor range of laminate ChipArray® packages are now available without solder balls in an LGA format. Packages available without solder balls include CABGA, CTBGA and CVBGA. 2007 Practical Catalogue Now Available Converting your process to lead-free can be complicated. Critical lead-free issues include new alloys and material evaluations, solder and reflow profile changes, inspection changes, tin whiskers, lead free on advanced packages like chip scale and flip chip, and all the various reliability issues. Practical Components' new 2007 catalogue is designed to help engineers quickly find the key products needed to qualify their technology, train and grow their business. The free Practical Dummy Component catalogue is organised by package type/category with each product accompanied by drawings, description, part number with special attention to lead-free availability and formulations including various SAC alloys. Included in the new 2007 catalogue are exciting new products such as a new body size PoP package on package board for Amkor Technology's stacked daisychain package, the Amkor tsCSP thin array plastic package, the CVBGA very thin ChipArray BGA; the DRMLF dual row MLF as well as several newly revised test boards and an expanded range of component body sizes and pin counts. Practical Components and Aegis Industrial Software, the leader in Manufacturing Information Management Systems, have partnered together to offer a traceability and control kit designed to validate your entire manufacturing process and provide the potential for rich product and process traceability detail. The PC009-40 Traceability & Control Validation Kit benefits from Aegis' methods of rating traceability which have been concurrently developed with, and adopted by, many of the leading manufacturers in the industry. The catalogue can be downloaded from our website, or you can request a FREE printed copy. Unit 17 Station Field Industrial Estate, Banbury Road, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, OX5 1JD, ENGLAND Tel: +44 (0)1865 842842     Fax: +44 (0)1865 842172 e-mail: info@intertronics.co.uk    www.intertronics.co.uk Read our latest news Please don't send any more of these great ideas, thanks!