Soldering of Electronics Components on 3D-Printed Conductive Substrates
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Experimental Procedure
2.1. Materials
2.2. Conductive Composite Fabrication
2.3. Soldering Methods
2.4. Composite Surface Preparation Methods
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Solder Wettability Test
3.2. Shear Test
3.3. Demonstrator Fabrication
4. Conclusions
- The surface preparation of conductive composite plays a significant role in forming high-quality solder joints. The influence of surface preparation was evaluated by measuring the contact angle of the melted solder alloy. It can be observed that the best results were obtained with the mechanical removing of a thin polymer layer, revealing a copper powder inside a composite structure, and using flux that allows the removal of oxides and other compounds from the soldered surfaces. After the surface preparation, the contact angle value was reduced to 55° for reflow soldering with low-temperature SnBiAg solder paste, which fits the criteria of acceptable wetting.
- The shear test results show that the maximum force value that could be applied before damaging soldered joints is strongly dependent on the polymer matrix used in the composite substrate. In general, maximum shear force values for reflow soldering are slightly higher than for hot iron soldering. Shear forces obtained for polymer composites as substrate are around 50% lower compared to a typical copper substrate.
- The highest average shear strength of the joint occurs on ABS/Cu substrates, then on PS/Cu, and the lowest results were obtained for the PLA/Cu substrate. The obtained results correlate directly with the thermal stability of the polymer matrixes used. The higher the thermal stability of the substrate material, the higher the maximum shear force of the soldered joints fabricated on that substrate.
- Hot iron soldering can be used to fabricate soldered joints on prepared composite composites. Still, it is recommended that this method only be used for rapid prototyping of individual structures because of its low repeatability.
- The soldering joints with the best properties were obtained using low-temperature SnBiAg solder paste and reflow soldering. This allows the fabrication of repeatable, high-quality solder joints without damaging the composite substrate. This method can be used for the mass production of structural electronics elements.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Surface Section Symbol | A | B | C | D | E |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A method of surface preparing | Surface mechanically cleaned with 400 grit sandpaper | RF800 flux applied on surface before soldering | Surface chemically cleaned with solvent | Surface mechanically cleaned with sandpaper and RF800 flux applied before soldering | No surface preparation before soldering |
Surface Section Symbol | A | B | C | D | E |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A Method of Surface Preparing | Surface mechanically cleaned with 400 grit sandpaper | RF800 flux applied on surface before soldering | Surface chemically cleaned with solvent | Surface mechanically cleaned with sandpaper and RF800 flux applied before soldering | No surface preparation before soldering |
Solder Ball | |||||
EdgeDetection | |||||
Measured ContactAngle | 57° | 74° | 78° | 50° | 83° |
Matrix Polymer | Surface Preparation Method | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | B | C | D | E | |
ABS | 57.82° ± 0.85° | 74.48° ± 0.82° | 78.07° ± 0.81° | 50.27° ± 0.95° | 83.74° ± 1.15° |
PLA | 57.24° ± 0.85° | 74.09° ± 0.98° | 78.18° ± 0.79° | 50.48° ± 0.91° | 84.02° ± 1.19° |
PS | 57.57° ± 1.11° | 74.34° ± 0.76° | 78.48° ± 0.77° | 50.55° ± 0.81° | 84.11° ± 1.18° |
Solder Alloy | Soldering Method | Description | Fit the Criteria of Acceptable Wetting (θ < 55°) |
---|---|---|---|
SnPb | Hot iron soldering | Possible to fabricate soldered joints on all tested composite substrates; the method of surface preparation does not affect the quality of joints; not possible to determine the wetting angle; irregular shape of the obtained soldered joints | yes |
SnPb | Reflow soldering | Not possible to fabricate soldered connections due to the high melting point of the soldering alloy (significantly exceeding the softening temperature of the polymer matrixes in all tested composites) | no |
SnBiAg | Hot iron soldering | Not possible to fabricate solder joints due to the significant difference in wettability between the composite substrates and the soldering tip; soldering alloy sticks to the soldering tip and does not deposit on the composite substrate | no |
SnBiAg | Reflow soldering | Possible to fabricate repeatable soldered joints; quality of soldered joints depends mainly on how the composite substrate’s surface is prepared; minor impact of the type of composite matrix on the quality of joints | yes |
Polymer | Glass Transition Temperature (Tg) [°C] | Average Shear Force (Reflow Soldering) [N] | Average Shear Force (Hot Iron Soldering) [N] |
---|---|---|---|
ABS | 105 | 48.1 | 45.5 |
PS | 100 | 46.7 | 35.4 |
PLA | 60 | 36.1 | 28.7 |
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Podsiadły, B.; Skalski, A.; Słoma, M. Soldering of Electronics Components on 3D-Printed Conductive Substrates. Materials 2021, 14, 3850. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143850
Podsiadły B, Skalski A, Słoma M. Soldering of Electronics Components on 3D-Printed Conductive Substrates. Materials. 2021; 14(14):3850. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143850
Chicago/Turabian StylePodsiadły, Bartłomiej, Andrzej Skalski, and Marcin Słoma. 2021. "Soldering of Electronics Components on 3D-Printed Conductive Substrates" Materials 14, no. 14: 3850. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143850