Title :
Area-distributed-soldering of flexible and rigid printed circuit boards
Author :
Clark, W.A. ; Pelosi, W.
Author_Institution :
AT&T Bell Lab., Whippany, NJ, USA
Abstract :
A novel design/process is described which facilitates area-distributed soldering of a flexible-printed-circuit to a circuit pack in an inspectable and repairable manner. In the design, solder joints are formed between surface-mount pads on a rigid printed-circuit-board and plated-through-holes on a flexible-printed-circuit. The joints are formed by heating both the flexible-printed-circuit and the printed-circuit-board to reflow temperatures and then allowing solder which has been deposited on the surface mount pads to rise through the plated-through-holes. Because solder rises up through the plated-through-holes to the exterior surface of the flexible-printed-circuit, spherical solder caps are clearly visible and inspectable. Solder joints are also easily repaired since the flexible-printed-circuit can be reheated to reflow one or all the solder joints. Two connector designs being used in AT&T products which employ area-distributed soldering of flex are discussed
Keywords :
printed circuit accessories; printed circuit manufacture; soldering; AT&T; PCB connectors; PCBs; area-distributed soldering; circuit pack; connector designs; flexible PCB cables; flexible-printed-circuit; inspectable solder joints; plated-through-holes; reflow soldering; reflow temperatures; repairable solder joints; rigid printed circuit boards; solder joints; soldering of flex; soldering of flexible PCs; spherical solder caps; surface-mount pads; Assembly systems; Bandwidth; Connectors; Crosstalk; Flexible printed circuits; Integrated circuit interconnections; Lead; Reflection; Sockets; Soldering;
Conference_Titel :
Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 1990. ., 40th
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV
DOI :
10.1109/ECTC.1990.122219
