Improve your PCB Solderability

Good solderability of PCB pad is critical to make working PCB assembly. Solder joints are often used to make both electronic and mechanical connections. A pad with poor solderability cause cold soldering joints. A cold joint is prone to physical failure and also generally has poor electrical conductivity, which can effect the operation of the circuit or cause total failure.

After manufacturing, two common causes of solderability problems are long storage period and poor storage condition. Many companies try to lower per board cost by ordering in volume. The stockpile may keep boards on the shelf too long. The humidity, exposure to air and temperature cause oxidization to PCB boards. Board oxidation dooms the assembly process before solder even touches the PCB pad.

At MyroPCB, we provide low-cost just-in-time manufacturing to help you manage the shelf-life of your boards. We also pay particular attention to PCB solderability during the manufacturing process of resist residue cleaning, tinning and packaging.

Finished PCB vacuum packed with bubble wraps and silica gel

Finished PCB vacuum packed with bubble wraps and silica gel

Taking packaging as example, all finished boards are vacuum packed with bubble wraps and silica gel to reduce board’s exposure to air and humidity. This effectively prevents oxidization and surface scratches during transportation. The following are two images of finished PCB boards manufactured by MyroPCB.

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Make DIY PCB Professionally

Stuck in the mode of continuous improvement (what people at Toyota called Kaizen), I was always on the look out to see how others make PCB boards, hoping to learn something good. The following is a professionally made video on an admirable DIY PCB fabrication process.

One important point in the video is to use liquid tin coating to improve solderability and protect against oxidation. This significantly reduces the probability of making cold solder joints.

Meanwhile, a potential fatal flaw is soldering mask not being applied. When soldering a pad like this, you’ll have to be very careful with solder bridges forming between copper tracks.

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