Recently, a customer using BGA solder spheres in a semi-automatic BGA solder balls placement machine asked if it was ok to leave these solder spheres for several days in the tray, or they should be removed and placed back in the jar after the production cycle was complete.
Do BGA Solder Balls Oxidize?
The reason the customer asked this question was because our solder spheres come packed in Nitrogen (N2), which keeps them from oxidizing. The oxidation procedure is not instantaneous but builds up after a long time, ultimately making the solder joints less reliable. By keeping them in N2, the solder balls can be kept for a long time (minimum shelf-life of Nitrogen-stored solder spheres is 1 year) in ambient or room temperature without the need for special treatment before use. However the time that it takes to build up an oxidation layer that is thick enough to affect the solder joint reliability is quite long, think in terms of months, not hours, days or weeks. Therefore our answer was that it was not necessary to take the solder balls from the trays after a production run, and they can leave the solder spheres on the trays for several days without fear of oxidation affecting joint reliability.
BGA Solder Balls in Smaller Jars
Putting the solder spheres back into the jars would be pointless anyway as they arrive sealed with a layer of N2, and to simply put them back in the jar with the lid on does nothing to prevent oxidation. On the other hand, CAPLINQ realizes that smaller customers prefer smaller package sizes, and recently introduced a new packaging of 250,000 spheres per jar instead of our previous 1 million spheres per jar. This allows customers to keep packages sealed before they need them.
CAPLINQ supplies a range of solder spheres including Tin/Lead (Sn63Pb37) Solder Spheres or our Leadfree (Pb-free) Solder Spheres including SAC105, SAC125N, SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 or SAC405 and 4N Pure Tin Sn100 Solder Spheres.
We also now offer Bi58Sn42 Eutectic Leadfree Solder Spheres and Bi57Sn42Ag1 Near-Eutectic Leadfree Solder Spheres. You can also contact us if you have further questions on buying BGA solder balls.
Copper spheres are used in BGA applications and attached to the chip with a high-melting alloy. This properties of copper make these spheres ideal for replacing traditional tin/lead alloys for lead-free applications.