Technical Cleanliness in Electronics Manufacturing

The term technical cleanliness is most strongly associated with the automotive industry, but cleanliness testing in accordance with inspection standard VDA 19 is also used in other sectors such as hydraulics, mechanical engineering and medical technology. While frequently neglected, particle contamination is also being increasingly associated with PCBs in the electronics industry. The increasingly smaller gaps between contacts and higher power densities mean that the risk of failure can drastically skyrocket in the presence of even just a small quantity of particles, which means that customers’ expectations and demands concerning electronics products have risen yet further. The following article provides an overview of the risk of particles on electronic PCBs, how they are measured and existing standards as well as presenting a cleaning method for reducing particle loads.