New KIC Pilot Automates Reflow Oven Setup

(San Diego, CA -- April 6, 2000) : KIC Thermal Profiling introduces the KIC Pilot™, a technological breakthrough in automated thermal management for reflow ovens. The Pilot incorporates an animated operator interface that functions as an overlay program, communicating with both the existing oven controller software and the installed KIC 2000 profiling software.

The innovative Pilot program allows operators to set up ovens for production using only the easy-to-follow animated interface, rather than the oven control software. The Pilot minimizes the amount of training and knowledge required for an operator to prepare an oven for production and optimize the reflow process.

In addition to allowing inexperienced operators to run production successfully on any oven equipped with the Pilot, the program also selects the optimum oven recipe, rather than an acceptable one, and sets oven parameters to achieve it. The Pilot usually selects a more productive oven recipe than do highly experienced profiling personnel. A total of four patents are pending on this revolutionary new product.

To activate the KIC Pilot, a reflow oven operator selects the name of the solder paste being used from a drop-down menu. The operator is not required to enter, or even to understand, concepts such as zone setpoints or conveyor speed. Minimal data entry decreases the potential for incorrect measurements or keying errors.

The Pilot selects a starting recipe and guides the operator through the profiling process with animated video instructions. Using a complex mathematical model and the installed database of Pilot profiles, the program takes less than a minute to analyze the results and select a new profile.

The Pilot functions as an expert system that eliminates the need to conduct repeated profiling runs and minimizes the experience necessary to optimize a reflow process profile. The software also includes profiling tools that engineers may access as required, but virtually eliminates the need for engineering input in the vast majority of oven setups.

The optimized profile selected by the Pilot for each product is centered in the process window to ensure high-yield reflow with minimal defects. Each product‘s oven recipe is associated with a Process Window Index (PWI) number. The operator needs to know only that numbers below 100 indicate that the process is within specifications. The lower the PWI number, the more productive the process will be. The Pilot accommodates both lead-bearing solder pastes and emerging lead-free solder pastes, which have significantly smaller process windows than conventional pastes.

All KIC products and programs are designed to enable manufacturers to maintain production within specifications, ensuring the consistency of first-pass yields as well as the long-term quality of end products.

KIC Thermal Profiling
15950 Bernardo Center Drive, Suite E
San Diego, CA 92127

Company Contact:    Bjorn Dahle
                    (858) 673-6050
                    sales@kicmail.com

Editorial Contact:  Kathryn Cramer
                    Reese, Tomases & Ellick
                    (904) 280-1240