At a glance
| Booth | X0018 |
| Country | TW |
| Website | www.zestron.com |
Company profile
Zestron Taiwan Ltd. supports customers in power and signal electronics on assembly-surface topics that include moisture robustness, corrosion, insulation coordination, technical cleanliness and solderability. From damage analysis through implemented remedies, ZESTRON provides solutions for no-clean production and can integrate customized cleaning processes when cleaning is required. For more than 30 years, ZESTRON has supported electronics manufacturers around the world in increasing product reliability, making production processes more robust and maximizing yield for assembled PCBs and power electronics. Its expertise combines precision cleaning, analytics and AVT of functional surfaces with long-standing partnerships with more than 3,000 companies worldwide. The company performs root-cause analyses for validation and field failures and implements measures intended to prevent recurring damage, with or without cleaning. ZESTRON's stated scale includes eight technical centers worldwide, more than 2,500 customers served globally, more than 3,000 installed cleaning processes and more than 800 customer cases involving risk assessment and failure assistance. The company combines cleaning-process development, analytical services, risk assessment and failure assistance with international technical infrastructure and long-term involvement in research, standardization and specialist committees. ZESTRON was founded in 1992, establishing the starting point for a business that later expanded beyond precision cleaning into electronic-surface reliability, analysis, consulting and solution development. In 1994, the company opened a technical center in Ingolstadt and launched its first water-based cleaner, VIGON®, as an early milestone in its cleaning-technology development. From the mid-2000s, ZESTRON expanded into new markets and built an international presence across three continents. Its current fields of activity include precision cleaning, consulting, analysis and solution development for electronic surfaces, together with knowledge transfer through training courses, workshops and white papers. The company lists local operations for Europe, the Americas, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Shenzhen, Shanghai and India, where process engineers support electronics manufacturers with cleaning, analytics and functional-surface expertise. As a business division of the WACK GROUP, the German site states certifications for ISO 9001 quality management and ISO/IEC 27001 information-security management. The same management-system information also describes TISAX® assessment activities based on the VDA ISA information-security questionnaire and notes that TISAX results are retrievable through the ENX portal rather than intended for the general public. ZESTRON also describes many years of precision-cleaning experience, detailed surface analytics and downstream-process knowledge as the basis for its specialization in functional surfaces and process interfaces. Its social-responsibility activities include the Anni Hofmann Foundation, which supports glioblastoma research and scientific exchange with 300,000 € in research funding each year.
Exhibits
In high-quality power-module manufacturing, ZESTRON identifies yield as a critical factor for overall cost efficiency because numerous material interfaces and boundary layers are exposed to significant thermomechanical stress during production and later field use. These interfaces can be difficult to specify across the supply chain and can vary within process tolerances, which may reduce yield and create both cost and quality disadvantages. For humidity robustness, ZESTRON identifies root causes of failures in assembled PCBs and develops corrective actions, often in connection with coating processes, and has supported companies seeking to reduce or eliminate cleaning processes for more than ten years. The company applies high-end analytics and, when required, wet-chemical surface modification to support robust interconnection processes, wider process windows, high yields and optimized overall costs. For Technical Cleanliness, ZESTRON implements preventive measures, provides active support when requested and conducts risk assessments intended to avoid costly long-term failures. When a power module fails during validation or field operation, electrical and microscopic methods are used to analyze surface defects, identify root causes and derive targeted corrective actions. European manufacturers of high-reliability electronics are supported with qualified and reproducible cleaning processes designed to scale for long-term industrial partnerships. Process control, analytics and tailored cleaning media are combined to support manufacturing quality and establish reliable production processes, while process-optimization products are intended to achieve cost-efficient cleaning quality for long-term assembly reliability. ZESTRON analyzes the surfaces of SMT assemblies and power modules as well as cleaning and rinsing baths, using analytical methods to safeguard process quality and optimize products. The cleaning-agent portfolio is intended for SMT assemblies, power modules, stencils, solder frames, tooling and maintenance components, with selection based on application, contamination and process requirements. Application categories in the Product Finder include PCBA (FR4/SMT), Power Electronics (DCB/AMB/Leadframe), Advanced Packaging, Stencils & Screens, Solder Pallets & Condensation Traps, Underside Wiping for SMT printers, Solder Oven, Wafer, Tools, Misprints and Coating frames. Users can further narrow products by neutral or alkaline pH, by technologies such as MPC®, FAST® and HYDRON®, and by water-based, solvent or HFE/CoSolvent chemistry. Cleaning-process options listed by ZESTRON include Spray-in-Air, ultrasonic, bubbling or air-assisted cleaning, Spray-under-Immersion, SMT-printer cleaning and manual methods. Contamination categories include flux residues, unsoldered solder paste, SMT or conductive adhesives, salts, conservation or silicon oil, cooling lubricants, coatings, oxidation and organic contamination such as residues from sintering. The product portfolio includes water-based, solvent-free, alcohol-based and application-specific cleaning agents designed for different contamination types, material-compatibility requirements, process windows and manufacturing conditions. ZESTRON combines cleaning chemistry with process-control products and analytical services for evaluating surfaces, cleaning and rinsing baths, potential residues and overall process stability. The company states that it invests more than 10% of turnover each year in research and development and links that investment to innovations in cleaning technology, analytics and bath monitoring, including MPC®, HYDRON®, FAST® and modern solvents. FAST® technology is designed to improve surface wetting so cleaners can remove residues of lead-containing and lead-free NoClean solder pastes effectively and quickly, especially in spraying processes. FAST® surfactant cleaners use fewer active cleaning components to remove more residues than conventional surfactants, and the ATRON product group lists longer bath life, reduced cleaner consumption and lower maintenance and overall costs as advantages. MPC® means Micro Phase Cleaning and is a water-based cleaning technology developed by ZESTRON, with aspects of the technology protected internationally by patents. MPC® technology combines characteristics of traditional solvents and surfactant cleaners, and cleaners for electronics cleaning, power electronics and MRO are based on this technology. Because MPC® media combine polar and non-polar components, they are described as capable of removing a broad range of organic and inorganic contaminants. MPC® cleaner advantages listed by ZESTRON include water-based operation with no flash point, very low VOC values, strong filterability, surfactant-free surfaces, good material compatibility and achievable surface tensions above 50 mN/m. HYDRON® is a water-based, single-phase cleaning technology recommended for flux removal from assemblies, power electronics, packages and wafers as well as stencil cleaning. HYDRON® products use a stable single-phase formulation that does not require agitation or mixing for activation, temporarily binds contaminants for easier filtration and supports long bath life and low costs. The single-phase approach is also intended to provide stable concentrations between cleaning tank and chamber, simple bath sampling and re-dosing, and strong rinsability that can leave substrates residue-free and stencils streak-free in the stated applications. ZESTRON's modern solvent cleaners are based on modified alcohols and are described as providing better cleaning performance and higher bath loading capacity than simple alcohols such as IPA or acetone, together with a higher flash point for machine use. These solvent cleaners are intended for flux removal from electronic assemblies, ceramic substrates, power modules and leadframes and can also remove solder paste and SMT adhesives from stencils or screens. The solvent products are formulated without halogenated compounds and without surfactants and can be used in completely water-free or semi-aqueous cleaning processes. For power-module interconnection technologies, ZESTRON uses high-precision analytics to help customers understand component surfaces and can apply wet-chemical surface modification when needed to enable robust and reliable interconnections. The power-module interfaces addressed by this work include wire bonding, terminal bonding, transfer molding, large-area sintering and baseplate sintering, all of which place thermomechanical stress on component boundary surfaces. Wet-chemical surface modification conditions component surfaces with specialized chemical treatments so properties can be adjusted for a given process step, including surface characteristics used to support mold adhesion. ZESTRON states that relevant surface properties can be optimized in a single integrated process as part of its approach to assembly and interconnection reliability. Its Assistance Module for sintering in power electronics combines theory with tailored practical sessions to help users evaluate the quality of sintered power modules and optimize processes over time.
Capabilities and products
- no-clean production process solutions
- customized electronics cleaning-process integration
- assembled-PCB failure root-cause analysis
- surface analysis of SMT assemblies and power modules
- wet-chemical surface modification for power modules
- cleaning agents for electronic assemblies and power electronics