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

Provide information on the effects of flux residues from surface mount assembly on radio frequency (RF) performance.

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.

Provides a methodology for checking the performance of flux residues as well as information on the performance of a few different flux residue types.

This is not an all encompassing project and the results may not extrapolate out to higher frequency ranges.

A good source of reference that can be used to understand the impacts of the assembly process on RF performance.

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.