During PCB assembly and manufacturing, Ball Grid Arrays (BGAs) may need to be re-balled, from time to time. Sometimes a BGA may get damaged or a cold solder or bridge is created, which require depopulating the BGA for BGA Rework. The EMS provider should have certain capabilities and experience to deal with this issue. Those capabilities involve printed circuit board materials, BGA placement systems, and specific BGA rework systems.

If a particular BGA-populated application requires considerable rework, it’s a good idea to select a high-temperature FR4 material like FR408 or FR406 due to their tolerance for high temperature re-flows. BGA assembly, BGA inspection, removing and populating systems play a major role in manufacturing. Of particular importance is BGA placement system with bottom heaters that provides uniform temperature across the entire PCB, on top PCB surface as well as on bottom PCB surface. Lastly, the OEM should expect the EMS provider to perform BGA rework on a standalone system for testing purposes, as well as installing BGAs as part of SMT applications.