The use of ultrasonic bonding for components assembly in printed circuit boards

The lately developed method of electronic components attachment to solder pads in printed circuit boards is presented. The method employs ultrasonic vibration to the attachment process. Some 0402 electronic components were attached to the solder pads in the in printed circuit board. Shear force and joint electrical resistance were measured to assess the joints quality. The authors for the strongest joints reached shear force of 3N last year. The application of more powerful ultrasonic bonder let to reach shear force about 15N. This level of shear force is satisfactory but still lower than shear force for soldered components that reaches 20N. The method is not mature yet and it should be developed. The results of this research show that it is possible to reach better results by attachment process parameters optimisation.