Reflow Soldering

By Brian Sloth Bentzen, SMT in FOCUS

REFLOW
In the reflow soldering process, solder paste printed onto PCBs re-melts and forms the solder joints.

REFLOW FACTORS
When reflow soldering a PCB printed with solder paste, there are a lot of factors to consider. In the listing
below the most essential factors are mentioned.

Equipment Method Materials Environment Operators

-Furnace -Soldering profile -Solder paste -Production area -Training
-Conveyor -Preheat -Flux -Dust & dirt -Knowledge
-Centre support -Soak -Alloy composition -Air circulation -Awareness
-Heating zones -Reflow -Alloy particle size
-Cooling zone -Cooling -Components
-Conveyor speed -PCB pad surface
-Soldering atmosph.

All the factors in the five groups are differently important but all plays a role in the final result and it is impor-
tant to consider all aspects to reach the quality needed in the products produced.

REFLOW EQUIPMENT
The must commonly used reflow furnace today is the
forced convection type. Hot air is forced into the pro-
cessing chamber through a high number of holes or
nozzles and onto the PCBs passing on the conveyor
system. The air then heats the PCBs. The photograph
to the right shows an example of a heating chamber
in a forced convection furnace. The blue arrows
show’s the airflow. Although air is a relatively poor
heat transfer media, the benefit of this type of system
is that the delta T measured on a PCB is quit low.

A few years ago Infrared (IR) furnaces were used

everywhere. There were two main types of IR furna-
ces. The IR tube and the IR ceramic mass type. The
weakness of these systems was the sensitivity to
shadow and different colours. Large components
blocked the IR light so heating the area around this
component was difficult. The different colours of the
components also caused problems. A white compo-
nent simply reflected some of the energy and black
components absorbed the energy a lot better. This resulted in some case delta Ts on a PCB as high as 40
degree Celsius. For all furnace types the processing chamber is divided into a number of zones. The zone
temperatures are carefully and individually set-up to reach the desired soldering profiles.

Vapour phase reflow systems was used in the early days of SMT. But due to a lot of problems, both in the
process, soldering quality and environment they were quickly replaced by the infrared ovens in the middle of
the 1980’s. However, it seem that a new type of vapour phase soldering machines are on the market place

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and could be a serious alternative to the forced convection furnaces. Especially in the coming lead-free sol-
dering process it might show its worth due to a very low delta Ts on the PCBs.

SOLDERING METHOD (PROFILE)

The soldering temperature profile consists of four phases. Preheat, soak, reflow and cooling. To set-up a sol-
dering profile, parameters like temperature settings for each zone, cooling speed, conveyor speed and fan
speed for each zone must be considered.

The so-called traditional temperature profile has been used for several years. The reason for this was the
use of the IR reflow ovens. To minimise the large delta Ts on the peak temperatures, it was necessary to
have a long soak period to equalise the temperatures on the PCB before going into the reflow zone.
However today when using modern convection ovens and newer types of no clean solder pastes the so-
called tent profile is used more often. The soak period is nearly eliminated and the temperature rises slowly
in a straight line until the reflow zone is reached. When setting up a tent profile, be aware that the delta T at
the peak can be increased somewhat compared with the traditional profile. Therefore it can be necessary to
compromise when setting up the profile.
This also depends on the number of temperature zones available in the furnace. Of the two profile types, the
tent like temperature profile is preferable, while it seems to minimise some of the soldering defects. For more
information on reflow failures and cause see; “List of failures related to reflow soldering”.

The four soldering phases are explained in the next four paragraphs. Be aware when setting up the soldering
profile, it is important to make it fit the composition of the used solder paste.

Pre-heat
During the pre-heat phase the solvents evaporates from the solder paste. If the temperature rises too rapid
during the pre-heat, two problems can occur. Firstly solder balls can be spread when the solvents burst
through the flux surface membrane. This is called solder balling. Furthermore the solder paste can slump,
because a too rapid temperature rise changes the viscosity of the solder paste. This will result in bridging.
Using a traditional soldering profile a typical delta T should be around 2 degree Celsius per second until
reaching 95 – 120 degree Celsius at the end of the pre-heat phase. For a tent profile the delta T should be
between 0.5 and 1 degree Celsius.

Soak
During the soak phase the temperature rises slowly. The purpose is to activate the flux and to equalise the
temperatures on the PCB. Most fluxes activate at around 145 degree Celsius. If this temperature is not
reached during the soak period only partial cleaning of the solder spots are performed and wetting problems
can occur.

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As mentioned the soak phase is also used to equalise the temperatures on the PCB. If the soak phase is to
short, the result can be cold joints or tomb stoning where chip components rises and stands up due to diffe-
rent melting time at the two solder spots. This was seen on older infrared furnace types. However in modern
convection furnaces the delta Ts on the PCB are much smaller. Therefore the equalising time can be shorter
depending on the solder paste, naturally. On the other hand if the soak time is to long, the flux has used all
its cleaning potential before the reflow zone is reached. The soak time for a traditional profile is usually
between 90 to 150 seconds and at the end of the soak phase the temperature will reach 150 - 170 degree
Celsius. For the tent profile a soak time of 30 seconds is considered to be adequate. And the end tempera-
ture should be around 180 degree Celsius.

Reflow
During the reflow phase the temperature is risen to melt the solder paste alloy and then form the solder
joints. To avoid a too thick intermetalic layer, the ideal solder temperature is 30 - 40 degrees Celsius above
the solder paste melting point. For solder paste composed of Sn62Pb36Ag2, this means 209 - 219 degree
Celsius. And for the eutectic Sn63Pb37 solder alloy 213 - 223 degrees Celsius. However to secure that all
solder joints are soldered correctly in practice a slightly higher temperature around 215 - 225 degree Celsius
is preferred. A to high peak temperature will result in a gritty and wrinkled surface of the solder joint due to
high oxidation. Time and high temperature increase the oxidation. A high temperature will also result in de-
lamination of the PCB laminate and the electrical characteristics will be altered. A third failure caused by a
too high peak temperature can be charring of the flux.

The dwell time (time above the solder paste melting point) for both traditional and tent temperature should be
30 – 90 seconds and preferable under 60 seconds. The temperature gradient should be within 2 - 3.5
degrees Celsius per second. The appropriate dwell time depends on the degree of population and mass of
the PCB. If the population and mass of the PCB is light the dwell
time can be shorter than for a heavy populated and high mass
PCB. If the dwell time is to short, it will result in poor wetting of the
solder pad due to lack of time for the solder alloy to wet the entire
solder pad. On the other hand if the dwell time is to long, typically
more than 120 seconds, the intermetalic layer in the solder joint
will grow thicker and result in a hard but brittle solder joint that
easily breaks.

A thin intermetalic layer gives a strong binding between the solder

pad metal and the solder alloy. Typical the
intermetalic layer consist of Cu6Sn5, Cu3Sn, AuSn, AuSn2 and
Ag3Sn depending on the solder pad metals and solder paste alloys
used. On the photograph to the right, the Intermetalic layer is seen
as the dark grey coloured bumpy line between Cu and Sn/Pb joint.

Cooling
The cooling phase is an equally important phase to the other three phases. The importance of the cooling is
often underestimated but the strength of the finished solder joint is depended on the speed of cooling. For
the solder joint to perform a strong bonding between the solder pad and the component terminal, the cooling
should be as fast as possible. Even though it looks like it, the tin and lead do not mix in the solder joint.
When cooling rapidly, the tin and lead areas in the solder joint will be smaller and there will be a larger bon-
ding surface between the two alloys.

A slow cool down will also result in an excessive intermetallic layer growth and thereby, as described under
the reflow paragraph, makes the joint hard but brittle. However, the maximum temperature decrease gradient
is set by the strengths of the components. The components simply crack if the temperature drops to rapidly.
The cooling should therefore be 3-4 degree Celsius per second down to around 130 degree Celsius. Below
130 degree Celsius the cooling rate is not important to the solder joint quality and can be less.

Conveyor speed
The combination of heating, cooling zone settings and the conveyor speed results in a soldering profile. If the
conveyor speed is lowered, the reflow temperature is risen and the ramp up delta T will be lowered. And vice
versa. This gives the possibility, to use only one temperature setting and then use the conveyor speed as the
only adjustment parameter. A large and heavy populated PCB can then be processed on a slower speed

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than a small and low populated PCB but still with approximately the same measured profile. Note that this
procedure can only be recommended on forced convection furnaces.

MATERIALS
Varies important materials are involved in the reflow process. E.g. solder paste, PCBs, components and the
soldering atmosphere.

Solder paste
Often there is very little information from the solder paste supplier indicating the best soldering profile. There-
fore, to be able to set-up a good soldering profile, it is important to know at least the solvents evaporation
temperature, time for evaporation, the flux activating temperature and the activation time.

PCB and components

The solder-ability of the PCB solder pads and the component terminals are very important in the reflow pro-
cess. Poor solder-ability can result in bad wetting of the surfaces and poor or open solder joints.

Soldering atmosphere
Reflow soldering can be done in air environment but since 1995 it has become more common to apply nitro-
gen to minimise the oxidation inside the process chamber. The use of nitrogen in the reflow process can be
a good help to minimise the soldering defects. But be aware, trees do not grow into the sky.

ENVIRONMENT
Dust and dirt on the PCBs can cause defects such as bridging and poor wettability. A small piece of fibre or
hair between two fine pitch solder pads can easily cause bridging.

Air draught in the production area and wrongly adjusted exhaust from the reflow furnace can result in an un-
stable reflow process.

OPERATOR
Since the modern reflow soldering process is a highly automated and computer controlled process, it is not
very operator sensitive. The operators basically should be able to switch the reflow furnace on / off and
secure that the correct soldering profile is being used for the given product.

LIST OF FAILURES RELATED TO REFLOW

Solder balling Spattering is the most common solder balling defect and is caused by explo-
sive evaporation of solvents. The evaporating solvents are encapsulated in
the solder paste, until the pressure increases and eventually the solvent bra-
kes through the flux surface membrane and spreads small solder particles all
over the PCB. The use of convection ovens seems to increase this problem,
while the large air circulation causes the membrane to appear on the flux
surface. This membrane makes it difficult for the solvents to evaporate slowly.
It can be solved by a slower temperature rise in the preheat zone (0.75 - 1.0
degree C) and a lower temperature in the soak zone (150 degree C).

Large solder ball next to the pad. If the screen-printing is done inaccurate
and some solder paste is printed outside the pad a large solder ball can be
formed next to the pad when the solder paste melts.

De-wetting and solder balling. Bad wetting and solder balling on the pad can

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 be caused by a too long soak phase. The activated flux cleans the solder spot
but the long soak time causes the solder spot to re-oxidise. This results in
poor wetting and a large solder ball can be formed. It is mostly seen when
using fine pitch solder paste, because the very small solder particles has a
large surface area that needs to be cleaned for oxides. The use of low residue
solder paste also increases this problem, since there will be less rosin to cover
and protect the solder paste and joint during the soldering. Also use of con-
vection ovens tend to increase this problem due to the high air circulation,
causing oxidation of the solder spots.

Solder beading (side balls) are often a result of a combination of to much

solder paste present at the pad, and out-gassing of solvents overriding the
solder paste cohesive force during the preheat phase. The out-gassing forms
a lump of paste underneath the chip components. And when melted, the
solder alloy is pressed out and forms a small or large solder ball at the side of
the chip component. This problem can be solved by reducing the amount of
solder paste, either by decrease the aperture size in the printing stencil or by
reducing the stencil thickness or by reducing the temperature ramp-up rate
during preheat.

Wicking Wicking appears when a pre-tinned component terminal absorbs the melted
solder alloy resulting in an open joint. This happens if there is a too large tem-
perature difference between the solder pad and the component terminal. If the
component terminal is hotter than the PCB solder land, the solder paste close
to the terminal melts first and float on to the component terminals.
The solutions to this problem are, to use components with a good lead co-
planarity and to prolong the soak time to ensure that the components and
PCB reaches the same temperature.

Poor wetting Poor wetting can be a result of excessive oxidation prior to the solder paste
melting. Time and temperature increase the oxidation. To solve this problem it
is important to minimise the heat impact on the solder paste. Either by redu-
cing the heating time or by decreasing the temperature rise delta T in the pre-
heat and soak zone.

De-wetting. Overheating when reflowing the solder paste also causes de-
wetting. The peak temperature must be lowered or the dwell time must be
shortened to solve this problem.

Tomb stoning & Tomb stoning can be caused by an unequal wetting at the two terminals of a
Skewing chip component. The surface tension, at the component terminal that floats
first, makes the component rise and stand up on its end.
The unequal wetting can be caused by a wrong solder pad design, bad solder-
ability of component or solder pad, unequal amount of solder pate present at
the two solder pads or unequal temperature at the two soldering spots. To
reduce the temperature difference, the temperature rise delta T in pre-heat
must be reduced and the soak time prolonged.
The use of nitrogen in reflow soldering can increase the tomb stoning effect
due to a higher surface tension of the melted solder alloy.

Skewing is caused by an unequal wetting at the two terminals of a chip

component. The surface tension, at the component terminal that floats first,
makes the component skew. For solutions see tomb stoning above.

Bridging Bridging is often seen on fine pitch components and is usually caused by in-
accurate or splashy screen-printing. But it can also be a result of solder paste
slumping caused by a too rapid temperature rise in the preheat zone. Dirt and
fibres on the PCB can also result in bridging. For instance, if a thin fibre from
paper, plastics or a hair lies across a row of pads, the small solder particles

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 tend to move along the fibre and when melted a bridge will form. The use of
nitrogen in reflow soldering also seems to increase this problem because of a
higher surface tension of the solder alloy. In this case it is important to have
full control of the screen printing process.

Cold joints Cold joints are a result of too low peak temperature. Increase the tempera-
ture to between 215 and 225 degree Celsius.

Voiding Voiding is a phenomenon primarily caused by out-gassing of solvents, encap-

sulated at non-wetted spots, between the solder joint and the pad or compo-
nent lead. But also flux can be encapsulated in the middle of the solder joint.
Voiding can be minimised by shortening of the soldering time or slowdown the
ramp-up rate in the pre-heat. Also the use of nitrogen can minimise the
problem.

Excessive Excessive intermetallics. Time and temperature increase the thickness of

intermetallics the intermetallic layer. A too thick intermetallic layer between the solder pad
and the solder joint will make the joint hard and brittle.
To minimise the build up of the intermetallic layer the peak temperature should
be lowered and the time above the solder melting point should be shortened.

Large grain size Large grain size in the solder joint is the result of a slow cooling rate. The
cooling rate should be 3-4 degree Celsius per second.

Cracks Component cracks can be caused by thermal stress inside the component.
This happens when heating or cooling the PCBs and components to rapidly.

Solder joint crack is rarely caused by wrong temperature profile but can
increase the risk. E.g. if the cooling rate is to slow and the tin and lead binding
surface is too small. Solder cracks is often caused by wrongly designed solder
pads (footprints), to much solder alloy at the solder spot or a later applied
mechanical stress.

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