evaporating solvents from the
solder paste. The reflow zone
briefly elevates the temperature
sufficiently to produce a reflow
of the solder.
board and components should
only be exposed to the minimum
temperatures and times the
necessary to achieve a uniform
reflow of solder.
The rates of change of tempera-
ture for the ramp-up and cool-
down zones are chosen to be low
enough to not cause deformation
of board or damage to compo-
nents due to thermal shock. The
maximum temperature in the
reflow zone (Tmax) should not
exceed 235° C for leaded solder.
These parameters are typical for
a surface mount assembly
process for the ATF-331M4. As a
general guideline, the circuit
The recommended lead-free
reflow profile is shown in
Figure 25.
Electrostatic Sensitivity
FETs and RFICs are electrostatic
discharge (ESD) sensitive de-
vices. Agilent devices are manu-
factured using a very robust and
reliable PHEMT process, however,
permanent damage may occur to
these devices if they are sub-
jected to high-energy electrostatic
discharges. Electrostatic charges
250
TMAX
200
150
Reflow
Zone
100
Preheat
Zone
Cool Down
Zone
50
0
0
60
120
180
TIME (seconds)
Figure 24. Leaded Solder Reflow Profile.
240
300
350
Peak Temperature
300
Min. 240°C
Max. 255°C
250
221
200
Reflow Time
Min. 60s
150
Max. 90s
as high as several thousand volts
(which readily accumulate on the
human body and on test equip-
ment) can discharge without
detection and may result in
failure or degradation in perfor-
mance and reliability.
Electronic devices may be
subjected to ESD damage in any
of the following areas:
• Storage & handling
• Inspection
• Assembly & testing
• In-circuit use
The ATF-331M4 is an ESD
Class 1 device. Therefore, proper
ESD precautions are recom-
mended when handling, inspect-
ing, testing, and assembling these
devices to avoid damage.
Any user-accessible points in
wireless equipment (e.g. antenna
or battery terminals) provide an
opportunity for ESD damage.
For circuit applications in which
the ATF-331M4 is used as an
input or output stage with close
coupling to an external antenna,
the device should be protected
from high voltage spikes due to
human contact with the antenna.
A good practice, illustrated in
Figure 26, is to place a shunt
inductor or RF choke at the
antenna connection to protect
the receiver and transmitter
circuits. It is often advantageous
to integrate the RF choke into the
design of the diplexer or T/R
switch control circuitry.
100
Preheat 130 – 170°C
Min. 60s
50
Max. 150s
0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
TIME (seconds)
Figure 25. Lead-free Solder Reflow Profile.
Figure 26. In-circuit ESD Protection.
12