Design and production in Germany vs Asia
Deutschland
Asien
Perfect solder cone formation according to IPC-A-610C - Chapter: 12.2.2.6 Class 3
Very good wetting even in difficult areas
Perfect solder joints, solder paste only on pads required in the assembly variant
Correct design of all component pads
Use of the best possible solder paste, error-free paste handling.
Massive volume variance of the solder paste due to incorrectly set processes.
Clearly visible on the SOT-23_5 housings.
This often leads to short circuits in fine-pitch housings.
Poor wetting behavior due to low-cost operating materials and soldering without a protective gas atmosphere.
Foreign material on the PCB.
Can lead to defects such as short circuits and fault currents.
Amber discoloration of the flux indicates an incorrect temperature profile of the reflow process.
Frequent defects due to missing parts caused by incorrect board handling.
Incorrect pad geometry prevents the solder cone from forming according to IPC standards.
This prevents reliable solder joint inspection by “automatic optical inspection” (AOI).
Massive flux residues
- Can lead to leakage currents due to oxidation
- 3D detection in “automatic optical inspection” (AOI) is negatively affected.
Frequent “solder balling defects” due to incorrect paste volume and pad geometry. Can lead to short circuits.
Conclusion
 Germany |
Asia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Design | Design competence | high to very high | ++ | - - | low, many component pads too small for selected component size | |
| A-brand components, MTBF > 1 million hours | ++ | – | no-name components | |||
| Component fidelity | high | ++ | - - | low, frequently changing components (e.g., DDR4 / eMMC) | ||
| Manufacturing competence | Solder paste application | Jet printer, no stencil handling errors | ++ | - - | stencil printing, error-prone due to insufficient paste (late or poorly cleaned stencil) or excess paste (bad squeegee) | |
| Solder paste | correct paste for each task | ++ | - - | cheap solder paste | ||
| Shielding gas soldering | yes | ++ | – | no | ||
| IPC-compliant manufacturing | yes | ++ | - - | wrong soldering temperature | ||
| Flux residues | none | ++ | - - | flux residues obstruct 3D AOI (automatic optical inspection) | ||
| Rejected components | none | ++ | – | rejected components on PCB | ||
| Broken components | none | ++ | – | missing or damaged components | ||
| Manufacturing depth | quality control via 2D and 3D AOI | ++ | – | flux residues obstruct 3D AOI | ||
| Machine park | new machines, pre-placement component measurement | ++ | - - | old machines, frequent rejected parts, no pre-placement testing | ||
| Costs | Production costs | medium | - - | ++ | cheap | |
| Development costs | medium to high | - - | ++ | cheap | ||
| Module cost | medium | – | ++ | cheap | ||
| After-sales costs | low | ++ | - - | high | ||
| Failure rate | very low | ++ | - - | high failure rate in the field, very high costs | ||