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New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Solder Could Revolutionize Chip Design
A new heat-reduced soldering technique using magnets may lead to some revolutionary changes in the way chips are manufactured. Details are scant since the inventor seems to be playing it close to the vest for now in hopes of attracting chipmaker interest. "The result is a tin-silver alloy that contains a dispersion of iron particles tens of micrometers in diameter. When a magnetic field is applied to the solders, two things happen. First, the iron particles heat up, locally melting the solder. This localized heating, which works on the same principle as inductive stoves, remains completely contained, keeping the surrounding area cool. And second, the iron particles line up with the direction of the magnetic field, squeezing and pushing the liquid in that direction. This alignment is retained when the solder solidifies, and the well-ordered particles provide mechanical reinforcement that's greater than that afforded by a regular dispersion of particles."
A way to solder those broken lobsters!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
...Using magnets to solder magnetic sensetive components? Ive got this great idea for a better wood glue! just expose it to fire and it holds 10x stronger and faster!
How much iron are we talking about? Is this tantamount to having ferrite beads on all connections now?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Will Microsoft install a magnetic field generator in the next Xbox to ensure the solder fails there, too?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
From the article:
A new type of solder can be melted and shaped in three dimensions under the force of a weak magnetic field
How weak are we talking about here? I wouldn't want my chips to become desoldered just because they were exposed to an electromagnetic field. The article didn't mention any thing about that.
The result is a tin-silver alloy that contains a dispersion of iron particles tens of micrometers in diameter.
Not saying it can't work, as the above is light on precise chemistry, but in an alloy like this, you're bound to have atoms floating around... say, to the surface of the deposition... where it will oxidize. And something like OSP (which yes, wouldn't bond to SnAg) only lasts so long in storage... Don't we already have ENOUGH problems with solder joint oxidation? I look forward to seeing how this issue is addressed.
If I had a nickel for every time I had a nickel, I'd be richcursive!
What happens if the finished product is exposed to a strong magnetic field? Does it all fall apart?
Trolling is a art,
I would prefer the iron particles to be exactly 10 microns in size, and not 10 micrometers, as it makes the process a whole lot cleaner....
Not to be pedantic, but this is the Internet... They are applying magnetic flux to their solder, not just a magnetic field. A field doesn't impart any energy.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
JB Weld contains so much iron particulate in suspension that it responds to a magnetic field. If it weren't for the fact that the particles are so much larger and get drawn out of suspension and toward the magnet, it might be possible to speed-cure the stuff with this same trick.
Solder is already conductive, so the eddy current losses won't be localized in the iron particles. Further, copper traces are even more conductive.
This must be based on the hysteresis losses in the iron B-H curves. That means he's probably got a very high frequency magnetic field generator that he's using to heat up the iron. Seems like a simple principle.
That said, I still don't want iron filings in my solder!
This sounds like this would use a very high intensity high frequency magnetic field tuned to make the iron particles resonate and heat the material. I suspect it would be like normal solder with some iron particles. As a bonus, small iron particles would act a a dispersion hardener in the alloy. It's also quite possible that the particles are actually nanoparticles of iron rather than micrometer sized ones as this size range works better as a dispersion hardener.
This may work in testing, but does the field that is required to make the solder melt going to have impact on the very delicate circuits in a CPU or other chip. That is why the details are closed, because there are other problems.
Viva la revolucion!
I also have to ask - what's with the revolutions today? It's Friday. Monday is the day for revolutions.
Anyone have any ideas as to what impact this may have on the formation of "tin whiskers"? Slashdot article on 6/15/08 re: Tin Whiskers
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I read that "New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Soldier..."
In soldering 101 I learned that if you put hot solder on cold metal, the solder doesn't really wet the joint, and you will get early or immediate failure of conductivity. You can even accidentally create a diode. So why will this work?
"When a magnetic field is applied to the solders, two things happen. First, the iron particles heat up, locally melting the solder. This localized heating, which works on the same principle as inductive stoves, remains completely contained, keeping the surrounding area cool."
Quote from ScuttleMonkey, the Slashdot editor: "Details are scant..."
Neither the Slashdot editor or the writer of the linked article understand the physics. Magnetic fields cause something to heat only if the field is rapidly changing. Then the magnetic field causes everything conductive to heat, including iron particles.
Is involved with the metcal hand solder station, with the twist that there are magnetic particles in the solder.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Well ok, if the iron particles heat up that's fine it melts the solder. But after that I can't see them adding anything in the way of strength since last I knew, a solder joint was a Covalent Bond, not a mechanical one.
Anyone know if you can get a covalent bond between iron and tin/silver? The whole connection is based on the covalent bond between copper and silver/lead/tin. Not being a chemist I am not sure if these things matter or not.
Now the other part is, how does one keep said iron particles from getting between the pad and the lead? You want the thinnest solder joint between the two actual surfaces so if the iron particles ( yes I know they are small ) get between would that not weaken the actual bond itself?
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
Tin whiskers only form in the presence of pure tin, as in a tinned PC board trace or component lead. Combine the tin with lead or silver or anything else, and the pure tin crystal structure won't happen, hence no whisker formation. Tin whiskers (dendrites) form when a layer of pure tin is mechanically stressed; the tin recrystallizes as dendrites in response to the strain on the crystal lattice. The recent increase in tin whiskering is due in part to hazmat-reduction regulations that discourage the use of lead solder, causing manufacturers to plate component leads in tin rather than lead-bearing solder.
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
When you bring a magnet near a PC, the damage is done to magnetic recording media, not the chips. Silicon is not generally sensitive to magnetic fields. This guy has managed to put a video game controllers, keyboards, and mice inside an MRI bore. If those integrated circuits can work in a 3T magnetic field, I'm pretty sure it can survive this new magnetic assembly technique.
:(){
Sounds like just the technology I need to speed up assembly of the new MRI machine I'm building... D'oh!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
But does it beat THIS!?.
The kdawson scripts posts the vapourware snake oil shill press releases. What's the ScuttleMonkey script doing muscling in?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This could be absolutely awesome for surface-mounted diodes, which are quite sensitive to heat, requiring reflux soldering techniques for now.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
AFAIR, a major problem before phase-change memory can become a flash memory replacement is its sensitivity to heat and the resulting modifications that producers would have to introduce to their manufacturing processes (e.g. putting data on the memory chips after, not before assembling).
Would this technology lift this requirement from them by lowering the tempeartures involved in the soldering process?
Gotz to know? Okay => http://www.newpath4.com/virginiahammercam.gif => Hammer Cam Gravity Wheels then.
Industrial Age 2 + How-to Stop Malignant Cancers.