Process development of 01005 assembly

The insatiable consumer demand for smaller, better and cheaper electronics has led to the recent advent of 01005 components. These extremely miniature sized components soon look to replace other passive components (e.g., 0402s, 0201s, etc.) within electronics assemblies in order to provide size reductions. The onus is on the electronics manufacturing industry to develop an assembly process for 01005 components.Studies have shown that stencil printing accounts for 50% or more of the overall defects found in printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies. The critical step towards miniaturizing electronics from larger passives to 01005s is to optimize stencil printing.This study presents detailed process development of assembly of 01005 components starting from stencil print optimization, to tracking defects by automatic inspection, to pick and place operation, and finally to the reflow process. This study employs a design of experiments (DOE) approach to develop guidelines for process development of 01005 component assembly.