KIC to Premier RPI at APEX 2009

(San Diego, CA -- January 14, 2009) : KIC, the leader of thermal process development and control products, and winner of multiple industry awards, announces that it will introduce Reflow Process Inspection (RPI) in booth 2258 at the APEX 2009 exhibition and conference, scheduled to take place March 31-April 2, 2009 in Las Vegas.

The RPI is an in-line process inspection system for SMT reflow ovens. The system is embedded inside the reflow oven and checks the profile for each and every product processed through the oven to verify whether the profile is in spec. On a daily basis, the system will generate two charts: DPMO and Process Yield for the thermal process.

The industry, to a very large degree, now relies on AOI systems to inspect their assemblies. The AOI system is not designed to look at joints hidden under the components body as in the case of BGA, PoP and other such components. Some companies use X-ray inspection on these components. The in-line systems tend to be extremely expensive while the more popular off-line systems suffer from the slow speed and batch mode used in today‘s highly automated in-line SPM factory. More importantly, however, neither of these systems detects defects associated with solder joints that have been processed out of spec. Examples include inadequate wetting, too large or too small grain structure, and even certain types of opens and cold soldered joints.

The RPI inspects the core of the issue that, to a large degree, determines the joint quality or defects: Were the products processed within the relevant thermal process parameters?

Finally, rather than overwhelming the manager or engineer with data, the RPI generates only two datapoints (DPMO and Yield) in a simple chart to tell if the thermal process is healthy or not.

KIC -- Headquarter Office
16120 W Bernardo Dr
San Diego, CA  92127
Tel: +1(858)673-6050
Fax: +1(858)673-0085

Company Contact:   Bjorn Dahle <bjorn@kicmail.com>
Editorial Contact: Allene Bailey <allene@kicmail.com>