Simulation of temperature profiles in reflow ovens for soldering area array components

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations in the field of electronics manufacturing technology of area array components, namely a BGA, where the calculation of temperatures within the solder joint during a reflow soldering process are focused on. The CFD models were generated in the ANSYS Workbench and compute the flow field for the air, solder and solid structures such that the interaction between the air and solder are captured. The CFD models yielded the temporal progression of the temperature field and were furthermore capable of capturing the melting and solidification of the solder. The influence of the latent heat of the solder as a material property, enabled by the melting/solidification model, was studied in order to quantify its influence and, secondly, to verify that the latent heat was having the intended influence on the CFD model.