IPC has released IPC-6012F, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards. This document is the base standard for addendums covering military and space requirements, medical requirements, and automotive requirements.

IPC-6012 provides requirements for the qualification and performance of rigid printed boards based on constructions and /or technologies such as; single-sided, double-sided printed boards with and without plated-through holes (PTH), multilayer printed boards with PTHs with or without buried/blind vias/microvias, active/passive embedded circuitry printed boards with distributive capacitive planes and/or capacitive or resistive components and metal core printed boards with or without an external metal heat frame, which may be active or non-active.

Among the many additions to IPC-6012F, are expanded requirements in the following areas: printed board cavities, copper wrap plating, “Intermediate” target lands, solderability testing, dewetting, microsection evaluation, internal plated layers, dielelctric spacing and reliability issues with microvia structures.

“The hard work put in by the IPC D-33a Rigid Printed Board Performance Specifications Task Group over the past three years has resulted in a substantial revision to IPC-6012,” said John Perry, IPC’s director of printed board standards and technologies. Perry also stated, “IPC-6012F incorporates test coupon designs well suited to evaluate complex, interconnected via structures as part of an overall effort to address microvia reliability. Add to that new criterion for printed board cavities, hole registration, internal plated layers and dielectric spacings and you have a performance specification that addresses advances in rigid printed board fabrication processes.”

IPC-6012F is available for purchase in the IPC Store. For more information, visit www.ipc.org/ipc-standards.