TABLE OF CONTENTS Marc Apell
Speedline Electrovert
Ovens have been used in manufacturing processes for thousands of years, primarily for ceramics and metallurgy, and generally were referred to as furnaces. Early practitioners developed furnaces that could melt most metals, including gold, but these were simple systems with almost no control. Today s industrial ovens use high technology for precise monitoring and control. Electronic package manufacturing and component assembly are heavily dependent on ovens that can control both temperature and the atmosphere. Automatic monitoring and control are essential for high-yield manufacturing and efficiency.
Electronics may be viewed as the conversion of all types of materials into useful devices and systems by the application of chemistry, physics, and good engineering principles. Chemical reactions depend on energy to drive and regulate them. Electronics relies on many polymerization reactions to make and harden such things as laminates, solder masks, plating resists, encapsulants, and underfills. Assembly processes use ovens to melt solder and harden adhesives. Area array packaging manufacturing is even more dependent on ovens because solder balls are attached to ball grid arrays (BGAs) and chip scale packages (CSPs) by running the package through a reflow oven to melt the solder and thereby attach the array of balls or microspheres. This chapter briefly discusses industrial ovens used in electronics.
There are many ways of heating up electronic materials and components. Radiation (infrared), convection, and conduction can transfer heat. All three methods are used, and they are often combined. Ovens are designed...
