Experimental Design and Processing (Electronics DOE)

STI helps customers understand their layout parameters, processing challenges, component selections, laminate materials, and enclosure materials. These decisions, in some cases, can be quite detailed and considered a multi-variable analysis. To this end, STI provides evaluation services combined with custom design of experiments (DOE) to help guide engineers to sound design and processing choices. STI creates a custom DOE that is co-developed with the customer’s design engineers to gather the data necessary to understand those multi-variable issues. STI’s approach is to create a DOE that gathers data to develop a full understanding of the interrelationship of the variables as well as the ability to replicate the variable sets. This ensures a full understanding of the impacts of a multi-variable problem.

The DOE is a custom designed test protocol to gather and quantify the data into a format that enables a decision to be reached on the problem at hand. STI utilizes the assets of its multi-disciplined departments to develop these unique DOEs that aid in defining and understanding the complex relationship between material choices, component selections, board design layout, processing materials (i.e. flux selection, alloy composition, etc), as well as their impact on the assembly process and reliability of the final product. These variables all play a role in the product’s performance and its ability to meet the design objective and warranty expectations. Examples of variables to be considered in a customized DOE are as follows:

• Flux type and alloy composition for solder interconnects
• Cleaning requirements
• Component selection
• Layout requirements
• Laminate choice and PCB layout design
• Processing requirements
• Processing aids
• Enclosure requirements
• Harsh environment design guidelines
• Reliability and warranty expectation