Editorial

Citation

Goosey, M. (2010), "Editorial", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ssmt.2010.21922aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Volume 22, Issue 1

With this issue, we begin the 22nd volume of Soldering & Surface Mount Technology and I am pleased to be able to report that the number of papers being submitted for publication continues to grow. This of course, is good for the journal and its readers, as we are able to include more papers in each issue and to promote the excellent work of researchers and authors from around the world. However, because of the high acceptance standards for publication, this also means that there are, at any one time, more papers passing through our reviewing and revision process. Through this editorial, I would therefore like to invite new reviewers to join our team. If you have an interest in being part of our peer review process please feel free to contact me.

The subject matter of this issue covers a wide range and in total there are six papers and a technical note. The first three papers relate specifically to solders and solder joints with the opening paper, by J. Mittal and K.L. Lin, reporting the results of a study to visualise the activities of Sn-37Pb, Sn-9Zn and Sn-3.5Ag solders on copper substrates during reflow near their melting points and to relate them with reflow reactions between solder and substrate. There then follows a paper by Bo Wang, Fengshun Wu, Yiping Wu, Hui Liu, Longzao Zhou and Yuebo Fang which details an investigation into the effect of stand-off height on the microstructure and mechanical behaviour of solder joints in high density interconnection applications. The third paper of this group is by Patrick Zerrer, Andreas Fix, Matthias Hutter and Herbert Reichl, and covers the development of a new alloying method for solders which utilises a metal organic modified flux incorporated within solder pastes. The impact of six different metal organic compounds on the melting and solidification behaviour of the solders and their microstructures is reported.

The next paper, by Mihály Janóczki and László Jakab, reports the development of a novel automatic and accurate measurement technique for the volume of solder present in solder paste in pin-in-paste applications and a calculation algorithm for predicting solder joint quality.

There then follow two papers with a focus on adhesive materials and the first, by Kirsi Saarinen and Pekka Heino, discusses the effects of moisture on the adhesion of non-conductive adhesive attachments. The authors report that increased temperatures and levels of moisture induced stresses on the interface of the adhesive and the chip and that the adhesive strength decreased as a function of the time. In the second of these two papers, Guangbin Dou, David C. Whalley, Changqing Liu and Y.C. Chan continue the theme of adhesives with the description of an experimental methodology for determining the influence of co-planarity variation effects on electrical performance in anisotropic conductive adhesive assemblies.

These six papers are then followed by a short technical note from W.J. Plumbridge, who has provided an update on the situation relating to tin-pest in lead-containing solders. Despite the move to lead-free assembly, conventional lead-based solders are still widely used in many applications and for interconnections used in long-term applications. Irrespective of whether lead-free or lead-bearing solders are employed, performance and structural integrity considerations should not ignore the potentially serious issue of tin pest.

I trust that you will find the wide ranging subject matter of these papers of interest and, as always, I welcome your comments and feedback. Also, as mentioned at the start of this editorial, I would be pleased to hear from prospective new reviewers.

Martin Goosey