Technical Articles From Northrop Grumman Corporation

Evaluation, Selection and Qualification of Replacement Reworkable Underfill Materials

Feb 27, 2019 | Jeffrey Colish, Luis Lopez, Carlo Viola

A study was performed to investigate, evaluate and qualify new reworkable underfill materials to be used primarily with ball grid arrays (BGAs), Leadless SMT devices, QFNs, connectors and passive devices to improve reliability. The supplier of the sole source, currently used underfill, has indicated they may discontinue its manufacture in the near future. The current underfill material is used on numerous circuit card assemblies (CCAs) at several sites and across multiple programs/business areas. In addition, it is used by several of our contract CCA suppliers.

The study objectives include evaluation of material properties for down select, dispensability and rework evaluation for further down select, accelerated life testing for final selection and qualification; and process development to implement into production and at our CCA suppliers. The paper will describe the approach used, material property test results and general findings relative to process characteristics and rework ability....

Counterfeit Electronic Components Identification: A Case Study

Sep 12, 2018 | Martin Goetz, Ramesh Varma

Counterfeit electronic components are finding their way into today’s defense electronics. The problem gets even more complex when procuring DMS (diminishing manufacturing source) parts. This paper will provide a brief introduction to counterfeit prevention and detection standards, particularly as they relate to the Aerospace and Defense sector. An analysis of industry information on the types and nature of counterfeit components will be discussed in order to illustrate those most likely to be counterfeited, followed a specific case at a major defense contractor....