Online-monitoring of electronic components under temperature stress test

In 2002 a new EU directive called 2002/95/EG (RoHS) caused the electronics industries to change their production lines to lead free soldering processes. However, in some cases they are still using the same electronic components which are not certified for the significant higher temperatures of the lead free soldering process. This causes junk that can only be reduced by placing and soldering critical components separately. Since this is mostly done manually the production costs increase. It is therefore necessary to find out all the critical components and to identify the probability of failure for each of them. Since this task cannot be accomplished by one single company the publicly funded project TDMA was started. The project aims to develop special measurement devices and knowledge about damage mechanisms on electronic components due to high soldering temperatures. In this work a device is presented by which specific properties of electronic components under temperature stress test can be monitored continuously. It features the measurement of resistance, capacitance and inductance of the respective components and forward voltage of LEDs. The device is placed outside of the climate cabinet and controlled by a PC via a RS232 connection.