Important issues in reflow soldering

For reflow soldering in today's changing component and soldering technology, requirements with respect to profiling to be difficult to determine and even harder to meet. State-of-the art reflow trackers can be of help here, but without some knowledge of the fundamentals in profiling, it will be easy to misunderstand measurements. The use of nitrogen as a protective gas for reflow soldering can be advantageous for fine pitch technology, bare copper boards and low residue solder pastes. However, because reflow solder defects are related to more than just the use of nitrogen, one may find different benefits for the use of nitrogen, depending on how the investigations are carried out. Wetting under nitrogen is certainly better and more reproducible, while the near absence of oxygen is beneficial to oxidation-related problems.