Thru-Hole Conductivity and Durability – Printed circuits are exposed to high temperature during assembly and subjected to thermal cycling throughout their life. Daisy chain test boards processed by your PCB supplier are exposed to a series of screening tests to verify the durability of the supplier’s metallization. Daisy Chain Test Board

Cleanliness testing – The cleanliness of incoming PCB materials from your supplier is very important in order to assure that , after assembly, they will be resistant to metal and ionic migration in the final operating environment.  Our laboratory measures the surface ionic contamination level using Resistivity of Water Extract method (RWE) and reports contamination as  uG/cm2  of NaCl equivalent.

Surface Insulation Resistance, SIR and Internal Insulation Resistance – Test patterns are exposed to Tropical Humidity with applied DC voltage.  This allows for measurement of soldermask coverage, as well as the solderable coatings, resistance to electro-migration and dendrite growth.  Surface Insulation Resistance and Internal layer Insulation Resistance are reported following completion of the 7 day test.  Result is compared to industry expected value. Surface Insulation Resistance Test Pattern

Solder Mask Blistering or ink Adhesion – The degree of cure and chemistry of the soldermask is key to maintaining protection through the assembly process.  Solder Shock Testing with assembly flux will verify that the selected soldermask will be compatible with assembly technology used by your assembly manufacturer.

Silver Migration on STH technology – Silver paste in through holes is often used as a cost effective option for PTH metallization.  Our laboratory carries out migration tests to assure that the silver metallization and cover-coat soldermask processes used by your PCB supplier will provide sufficient coverage to prevent electro-migration of silver ions – and dendrite formation - during humid operation. Growth Rate of Dendrites

Flux Paste CORROSION TEST - This test exposes weighed coupons of solder to liquid or dried flux at an elevated temperature which approximates maximum-use temperature to estimate the corrosion rate of soldering flux on solder.  By measuring the weight loss over time, a prediction of the solder corrosion rate can be made.  This test may be used with any flux that is not intended to be completely removed, regardless of the amount of normal residue. Results of Flux Paste Corrosion Test

Coating/SMD paste HALT test - This technique uses specially designed components and test board to evaluate the interaction between PCB coatings and SMD solder pastes.  It quantifies the performance of solder joints as they are exposed to thermal cycling and vibration.  A modified HALT protocol is used and those results are reported as cumulative G-min for 9 different strain conditions.  This test procedure can be used to select the most reliable coating and solder paste for use in your application.