How to choose the power electronics cleaning process?

ZESTRON process engineers often receive inquiries like: Can your cleaning agent clean copper substrates? Will it corrode the IGBT chip? What processes can be used to clean power modules?

The use of power electronic components is continuously increasing. Any function that requires power conversion, conversion or control requires the use of various forms of power electronic components. Power electronic components are used in a wide variety of industries, such as the automotive industry (electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles), the renewable energy industry (photovoltaic inverters, wind turbines, solar power plants, satellite solar panels), railway installations (engines components, traction control systems), and high-end motor drives. High-power devices need to deal with the adverse effects of increased packaging density and the mixing of multiple metal materials while achieving better performance. In addition, they are often subject to elevated temperature and power cycling environments, extremely high currents, and extreme heat transfer requirements. As a result, even the tiniest contaminants remaining on surfaces can prevent these critical and highly sensitive products from meeting reliability requirements.

Two basic requirements for cleaning power electronics are: (1) Complete removal of flux residue, especially flux spatter on the substrate and chip; (2) Visual inspection of the substrate and chip to be flawless. If you compare these two items and go to the market to find cleaning products, they are actually readily available. However, ZESTRON's goals are more than just "washing". We believe that an excellent power electronics cleaning agent should have excellent cleaning performance and material compatibility, such as sensitive metals, bare chips and passivation layers. It should also have excellent deoxidation ability for copper substrates, so as to provide better cleaning performance for subsequent applications. Provides optimal process conditions for wire bonding or molding.

ZESTRON has an early involvement and research in the field of power electronic cleaning. Since the launch of its first product for power electronics in 2008, it has focused on collecting the pain points encountered by customers during on-site use. Through years of experience in cleaning applications, we dig deep into customer needs, not only focusing on what can be washed away with suitable cleaning agents, but also on what cannot be washed away. ZESTRON continues to iterate products and develop a rich product portfolio specifically designed to remove flux residues on components such as power modules/DCB/IGBTs, lead frames/discrete devices, and high-power LEDs.

Cleaning power electronic components is a systematic project. To get perfect cleaning results, the choice of cleaning system is equally important. Proper cleaning equipment must provide effective mechanical force while ensuring that components are not damaged. The ZESTRON Technology Center houses a wide range of cleaning equipment from the world's leading equipment manufacturers. It can help customers learn about all applications of power electronic device cleaning within one day, and can conduct free cleaning tests for customers using different types of cleaning equipment. ZESTRON has accumulated more than 3,000 successful cleaning process cases around the world, making it your best choice to improve cleanliness and reliability. In order to help industry professionals supplement relevant knowledge, ZESTRON will hold a cleaning technology online lecture "Power Electronics Cleaning Process" on September 13. A process engineer with more than 15 years of experience in cleaning technology will explain in detail the necessity and countermeasures for cleaning power electronics. Solutions to the challenge, stay tuned!