BAKING & DRY PACKING

Baking & Dry Packing Component Services

The plastic used in integrated circuits and other electronic components absorbs a certain amount of moisture. The components may then be subjected to high temperatures during the solder reflow process. The high temperature causes the moisture to turn to steam, which “pops” and may cause cracking or de-lamination of the component.

Because of this, moisture-sensitive components must be kept dry up to the time of assembly of the PC board. If they are exposed to moisture in a humid atmosphere, they need to be dried out again and packaged to keep them dry. NuWay offers Baking and Dry Packing Service to meet this need.

The components are packaged in hi-temperature containers (usually trays), and placed in an oven and baked at 125° C for 24 hours. After baking, the components may be re-packaged into Tape and Reel, or left in their original containers. Then the reel or tray is placed in a moisture barrier bag, along with a desiccant and indicator card. A vacuum-sealing machine pulls out the air, flushes the bag with nitrogen, and seals the bag. A product label is then placed on the outside of the bag along with a “Caution—Moisture-Sensitive Devices” label.

We are often asked “Can you bake components while in tape and reel?”. Unfortunately, the answer is “No”. The packaging materials—the reel, the carrier tape, and the cover tape—cannot withstand the baking temperature. Instead, we will remove the components from tape, bake them, and return them to the original carrier tape and reels after baking.

NuWay observes the IPC/JEDEC industry standard J-STD-033A for handling moisture-sensitive devices.