Apparatus and method for soldering electronic components to printed circuit boards

The investigation presents new kind of infrared equipment for wide utilization in electronic industry. It is suitable for electronic components soldering to printed circuit boards (PCB) using conventional and lead free solder pastes, different kinds of annealing and others. Conventional reflow furnaces have their own heating profiles. The heating profile of a certain furnace is uniquely determined by its design parameters, namely, it lacks flexibility. The upper and lower limits of heating and cooling temperatures can be adjusted by some degree, but time-dependent temperature control is practically impossible. By application of low inert heaters radiating in the middle IR region and microprocessor control of their operation versatile energy saving installation proper for all kinds of solder pastes is made. This equipment allows realizing precise control (in situ) of the temperature on the PCB during the soldering processes, possibility of individual temperature profile for every printed board during the soldering process in dependence of its size, electronic components density et al