Cleaning in electronics: Understanding today's needs

Because of the phase out of CFC's and HCFC's, standard solder pastes and fluxes evolved from RA and RMA fluxes, to No-Clean, low residue No-Clean, and very low residue No-Clean. Many companies came out with their cleaning solutions, aqueous and semi-aqueous, with each product release being more innovative than the previous one. Unfortunately for most of the suppliers of cleaners, two other trends appeared; lead-free soldering and the progressive miniaturization of electronic devices. Traditional chemicals like CFC's, HCFC's, brominated solvents, detergents and glycols cannot do a good cleaning job anymore because most flux formulations have changed. Also, assembly processes have been modified due to smaller components and more compact board assemblies. The world is composed of two main things: organics and inorganics. Organics are made of resins and activators, whereas inorganics are made of salts, metallic salts and fillers. Cleaning performance is affected by three main criteria. The first involves the Hansen Parameters which is a characterization of a contaminant to be dissolved and can be simplified by the solvency power of a product also known as the Kauri Butanol Index (KB Index). The second is surface tension, expressed in mN/m. This parameter must be considered because when the cleaning product cannot make contact with the contaminants under or around components, the contaminants cannot be dissolved. The third criteria are the physical parameters like temperature, mechanical activities, and the process cyle. The mastery to manage all of these parameters while facing high-tech miniaturization and environmental regulations, like ROHS, REACH, etc. brings innovation to cleaning in this electronic world.