Strategies for micro-handling of solder balls for the automated reballing of BGA packages

Recently, the remanufacturing of electronic products has become of great interest for both the industrial and research fields, for the several benefits deriving from the recovery of high added value elements at their end of life. In particular, the reballing of BGA (Ball Grid Array) packages is an important process in the rework of PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards). In this context, this paper presents two methods for the automated reballing and the corresponding tools able to operate different solder spheres. The tasks implemented for the reballing of a target BGA matrix will be described and discussed to underline their characteristics and applicability.