Method and apparatus for obtaining reflow oven settings for soldering a PCB

A method for determining a reflow oven temperature profile for soldering a printed circuit board (PCB), comprising the steps of:

• configuring said oven with a predetermined number of temperature zones, and range of associated conveyor belt speeds for conveying PCB's through said oven;
• determining thermal characteristics for each one of a representative plurality of different samples of printed circuit boards typical of a range of printed circuit boards that may be run through said reflow oven;
• combining said thermal characteristics for each sample PCB with identifiable physical characteristics thereof, for obtaining identifying and distinguishing input features for each sample PCB;
• determining for each sample PCB the belt speed, and temperatures of said temperature zones, respectively, for obtaining acceptable soldering, said temperatures and belt speed being designated as output features for each associated sample PCB board;
• training a neural network by sequentially and iteratively applying said input features to input nodes of said neural network, respectively, and applying said output features to output nodes of said neural network, respectively, for each sample PCB;
• and
• applying input features of a non-sample PCB to said trained neural network, for obtaining as outputs from said neural network a desired belt speed, and temperature settings for each zone of said oven, for setting up said oven to solder said non-sample PCB.