🎃 TechnologyThursday meets Halloween: The Tombstoning Effect in SMD Components 👻
🎃Happy Halloween to all PCB enthusiasts and PCB designers!🎃
What could be more fitting on this spooky day than a phenomenon that makes tiny components stand up as if moved by a ghostly hand?
👻 We’re talking about the tombstoning. In PCB assembly, this term refers to the one-sided uprighting of small or lightweight two-pole SMD parts during the soldering process. These then resemble tombstones in an old cemetery. The result: the lifted side of the part has no electrical contact and the circuit is open.
🔍How does tombstoning happen? Not by magic, of course, but by physics. The surface tension of the molten solder on a solder pad attracts the part and can raise it up to 90° from the opposite solder pad.
💡How can the ‘tombstone effect’ be avoided? In addition to the soldering process, the PCB layout, the geometry of the connection pads, placement of the components, vias or labelling have a major influence on this soldering defect.
🛠️To ensure that tombstoning remains just a Halloween joke, here is our guide with useful tips and a video for production-orientated design: https://www.eurocircuits.com/pcb-assembly…/tombstoning/
 
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