A Conservation with Tim O’Neill and Fred Dimock

Welcome to episode 64 of the Reliability Matters podcast. On this episode, we’ll have a conversation with two industry experts on the subject of solder voiding mitigation and oven profiling, two subjects which influence solder voiding. This will be a two part episode. Today, we’ll dive into void mitigation and how vacuum reflow technology can help reduce or eliminate voiding. Part two, on episode 65 (in two weeks), we’ll discuss profiling best practices.

My guests today, and one the next episode are Tim O’Neill from AIM Solder and Fred Dimock of BTU. Tim will discuss voiding mitigation from a materials standpoint while Fred will bring cover equipment and profiling stragities.

Timothy O’Neill is the Technical Marketing Manager for AIM Solder. Operating out of AIM’s U.S. Headquarters, Tim is responsible for developing and optimizing product and technical information, collaborating with complimentary suppliers and equipment manufacturers and ensuring AIM’s products exceed expectations and meet market requirements.
Tim is also a technical writer and presenter for industry trade publications and events. He has co-authored several papers on PCB assembly subjects.

Tim is also an IPC-A-610 Certified IPC Specialist.

Fred Dimock is the Manager of Process Technology at BTU International and recently started a consulting business, FCD-Global services.

Fred holds an Associate Degree in Mechanical Design from Wentworth in Boston and a Bachelors Degree in Ceramic Engineering from the State University of New York.

Fred has authored numerous articles on lead free solder, process control, and the operation of continuous furnaces. His papers have been published in English, Chinese, and German.

He has taught numerous SMTA solder reflow classes and participated in the 5-45 Subcommittee for the development of IPC-7801 Reflow Oven Process Control Standard.
Additionally, he wrote the chapter on solder reflow for the Handbook of Electronic Assembly and A Guide to SMTA Certification by Dr Lasky and Jim Hall.

He received Distinguished Speaker status at SMTA Guadalajara Mexico and is a key presenter for the SMTA Jump Start program for new engineers.

Tim O’Neill may be contacted here:
toneill@aimsolder.com

Fred Dimock may be contacted here:
fdimock@btu.com

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A Conversation with and a Presentation by Reliability Expert Dock Brown

Welcome to episode 63 of the Reliability Matters Podcast. Today, I’ll be speaking with Dock Brown.

Dock Brown brings his more than 30 years of electronics reliability experience to clients of Ansys. Prior to joining Ansys, he spent 20 years at Medtronic where he most recently concentrated on cross business unit implementation of reliability initiatives for Class III medical devices. He was also responsible for supplier assessment and approval, on-going supplier audits, failure analysis, corrective actions, MRB, sampling, and ultimately full accountability for quality and reliability of commercial off-the-shelf and custom parts and assemblies from a worldwide supplier base. Earlier in his career, Mr. Brown also spent time at Sundstrand Data Control where he led the implementation of Boeing’s Advanced Quality System program and with Olin Aerospace.

As a volunteer, he has been involved with ASQ, IEEE, IPC, and SMTA. He was the keynote speaker at the SMTA Cleaning Conference and won the best paper award at the SMTA Microelectronics Conference. He has taught on the subjects of design for reliability, tin whiskers, statistics, design of experiments, and contributed to standards development.

Today’s episode is a little different than others. Dock will be sharing a very interesting presentation on the subject of reliability. If you’re listening to the audio-only version of this episode, you may want to view the video version so you can see Dock’s slide-deck. The video version of this episode, and several others are available on the Reliability Matters YouTube channel.

Dock Brown may be reached here:
dock.brown@ansys.com

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