More than 350 engineers who attended last week's IPC webinar, Soldering and Assembly Defects, were polled on their biggest headaches with printed boards, PCB components and PCB assembly process failures.

The survey results identified solder finish, ball grid array (BGA) components and reflow soldering as the greatest challenges.

The results indicate that among components, BGAs stir up the most problems for 29 percent of engineers with a close second of 27 percent voting for quad flat no-lead (QFN)/land grid array (LGA) components.

In problems associated with printed board manufacturing, 39 percent chose finish solderability as most troubling with 27 percent selecting electrical shorts/opens. In assembly process failures, 27 percent point the finger at reflow soldering while 20 percent credit paste printing for their headaches.

"The survey shows where we need to concentrate our efforts in design, specification and process control," said webinar instructor Bob Willis, an international technology expert who helps companies solve their most perplexing process-related issues.