Investigation of the effect of solder flux residues on RF signal integrity using real circuits

Purpose – Provide information on the effects of flux residues from surface mount assembly on radio frequency (RF) performance.Design/methodology/approach – A series of test vehicles designed to evaluate the RF performance on various test patterns and some simple circuits. Empirical testing is used in determining the data.Findings – Provides a methodology for checking the performance of flux residues as well as information on the performance of a few different flux residue types.Research limitations/implications – This is not an all encompassing project and the results may not extrapolate out to higher frequency ranges.Practical implications – A good source of reference that can be used to understand the impacts of the assembly process on RF performance.Originality/value – This paper shows the effect of assembly materials (flux residues) on a real circuit and not just test patterns. It can give a basic understanding to process engineers of the potential impact of the assembly process on a RF circuit.