Integral heater assembly and method for carrier or host board of electronic package assembly
AssigneeIntegrated Microwave Corporation
InventorJeffrey Sloane
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A multilayer printed circuit board has an embedded heater layer having at least one elongated heater element trace of copper which is densely arranged in a predetermined circuitous path over at least part of the area of the board. The heater element has inputs configured for connection to a standard high current, low voltage power supply, and may also have ground connections for selective connection to a ground layer. The heater layer may be embedded in a carrier board of a surface mount module close to the lower solder interface layer, or may be embedded in a host board of an electronics assembly close to the mounting surface.
Claims22
A carrier board of a surface mount module, comprising:
- one or more upper layers, at least one upper layer carrying electronic components;
- a lower, solder interface layer comprising a metallized mounting plane configured for soldering on a host board;
- a heater layer embedded in the board between the upper and lower layers, the heater layer being closer to the lower layer than the upper layer;
- a first dielectric layer between the heater layer and solder interface layer;
- a second dielectric layer between the heater layer and said one or more upper layers;
- the heater layer having at least one elongated heater element of copper material, the heater element extending in a circuitous path across the entire area of the heater layer;
- and
- a pair of inputs connected to the heater element and configured for connection to a high current, low voltage power supply.
A method of removing a selected surface mount module from a host board of an electronics package assembly, comprising:
- energizing an elongate, copper trace heater element which is arranged in a circuitous path across at least part of the area of a heater layer embedded in the carrier board of a selected surface mount module, the heater layer being located in a lower portion of the carrier board above a lower solder interface layer of the carrier board, the solder interface layer being soldered to the host board of an electronics package assembly;
- the step of energizing the heater element comprising connecting the element to a high current, low voltage power supply of at least three amps, whereby the power output of the heater element is at least ten watts;
- heating the lower solder interface layer of the surface mount module with the heater element to the reflow temperature of the solder material forming the solder interface layer;
- removing the surface mount module from the host board;
- and
- disconnecting the heater element from the power supply.
A multi-layer host board configured for carrying a plurality of electronic modules in an electronics package assembly, comprising:
- an upper mounting surface having mounting areas configured for surface mounting of a plurality of surface mount modules having lower solder interface layers of solder material;
- and
- a heater layer embedded in the host board beneath the upper mounting surface, the heater layer having a plurality of heater zones at predetermined locations beneath the mounting areas of the upper layer, each heater zone being of dielectric material with a single elongate heater element of conductive material having a pair of spaced inputs for connection to a high current, low voltage power supply and extending between the inputs in a predetermined circuitous path across the heater zone.
A method of removing a selected surface mount module of a plurality of surface mount modules attached to a mounting surface of a host board of an electronics package assembly, comprising:
- connecting a high current, low voltage power supply to a highly conductive, elongate heater element extending in a circuitous path across the area of a selected heater zone of a heater layer of the host board, the selected heater zone being located below the host board mounting surface and aligned beneath the selected surface mount module to be removed from the board;
- heating the lower solder interface layer of the selected surface mount module with the heater element to the reflow temperature of the solder material forming the solder interface layer;
- removing the selected surface mount module from the host board;
- and
- disconnecting the heater element from the power supply.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.