Reducing Solder Paste Inspection in Surface-Mount Assembly Through Mahalanobis-Taguchi Analysis

Increased functional density and reduced input/output (I/O) spacing are the market trends in the electronics manufacturing industry. Industry reports indicate that approximately 50%-70% of soldering defects are attributed to the solder paste printing process for printed circuit board (PCB) assembly. Hence, after the printing process, a solder paste inspection (SPI) system is generally used to examine the amount of solder paste deposition. Effective selection of components and bonding pads during solder inspection is extremely important in achieving desired process cycle times and ensuring assembly yield. This paper uses the Mahalanobis-Taguchi system to establish a systematic approach to determining guidelines for solder paste inspection. Among a total of 203 bonding pads on the board for a GPS product, the optimal model suggests that the solder deposition of 121 bonding pads be inspected. The reduction ratio is 40.4%, and the feasibility of the proposed model is verified. Also, for those bonding pads to be inspected for their solder paste deposition, this study uses empirical data to define the specifications to effectively distinguish acceptable PCB samples from defective. The threshold is within the 100% capability for judgment of solder paste printing quality in the surface mount assembly process.