Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Camnhung T Tran

Michael C Cilia

Lance E Terry

The present invention relates to an apparatus that proactively ensures alignment (parallelism) of the connectors on the circuit board during the solder assembly of the connectors to the circuit board. The apparatus includes an alignment fixture that has been specifically designed to ensure parallelism of straddle-mounted connectors during the solder reflow assembly process. The fixture has connector slots and a circuit board slot. The slots help to detect whether the connectors meet the X- and Y-axis alignment requirements after the insertion process (after the connectors have been placed onto the circuit board). That is, if the X- and Y-axis alignment specifications are met, the circuit board with its attached connectors can be completely fitted into the slots of the alignment fixture. The fixture also contains a claw to control unintended connector displacements in the Z-axis, which may be caused by a circuit board warping under high temperature during the reflow process (the process to solder the connectors onto the circuit board). Thus, this apparatus provides a proactive approach for ensuring connectors alignment to the circuit board and reduces yield loss (and the number of reactive circuit board inspections); as a result, manufacturing costs are reduced.

Apparatus for aligning and soldering connectors to a printed board

A flow control nozzle for hot gases includes an input end to receive a hot gas. An output end of the flow control nozzle delivers the hot gas to a surface mount device attached with solder to a printed circuit board. A gas distribution mechanism is positioned between the input end and the output end. A gas flow control mechanism is positioned in the gas distribution mechanism to selectively alter the flow of the hot gas through the gas distribution mechanism such that the gas distribution mechanism and the gas flow control mechanism operate to deliver the hot gas to the output end in a substantially uniform manner that facilitates substantially uniform melting of the solder.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Camnhung T Tran