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How To Prevent The Tombstone During The SMT Reflow Process
How To Prevent The Tombstone During The SMT Reflow Process
common soldering defect that can occur during the surface mount technology
(SMT) reflow process. It refers to when one side of a surface mount component
lifts from the PCB pad during reflow, resembling a tombstone. Tombstones can
lead to open solder joints, reduced reliability, and rework - so it's important to
If there is more solder paste under one pad than another for a particular
component, the pad with more solder will pull the component towards it
If one pad has a surface contamination that reduces solder wetting, the other
pad will pull the component towards it during reflow. This is common with
Differential Heating
If one pad heats up faster than the other, it can begin melting the solder first
and pull the component. This may happen with large thermal masses under
one pad, different pad sizes or thermal properties, or uneven heating during
reflow.
Warped components or PCBs can cause one pad to lose contact before the
other during reflow. There will be a weaker solder joint on the pad that lost
contact.
Other Factors
pad design, vibration during reflow, and other factors can also contribute to
tombstoning.
There are strategies both in design and in manufacturing to reduce the risk
of tombstoning:
Edge glues
Tacking points
Selective epoxy dots
conducted:
Here are some targeted solutions based on the suspected failure mechanism:
Warped Component
FAQs:
forces during solder liquefaction, resulting in one pad having a weaker solder
joint.
Evidence in x-ray inspection shows less solder connection on one side. Testing
typically. The more parallel to the board, the less solder paste was likely
deposited underneath.
In some cases, yes. If the lifted solder joints did not crack entirely, the
The easiest design solution is to ensure the PCB land pattern is symmetrical
underneath the part's two termination points. Equal pad sizes and thermal