IPC CID UPDATED ACTUAL EXAM QUESTIONS AND CORRECT ANSWERS |LATEST UPDATED 2026/2027 (GRADED A+)
The board material has significant influence on the electrical performance of the circuit from what two effects? ✔️dielectric constant and the
loss tangent
What are the 4 types of build-up multilayers? ✔️Piercing post, Sequentially built-up multilayer, Passive substrate, Filled via sequential co-
laminated substrate
The temperature at which anamorphous polymer changes from being a hard and relatively-brittle condition to be in a viscous or rubbery state
✔️Glass transition temperature (Tg)
Affects dimensional stability and changes the electrical characteristic in the material which can cause potential difficulties in assembly
✔️Moisture absorption
What are the 3 general methods of plating material on PCBs? ✔️Immersion, electroless, and electrolytic
What are the benefits of metallic coatings / final(surface) finish? ✔️Corrosion prevention, Improved long-term solderability
Simplest of the wet processes; involves a simple galvanic replacement reaction; the more noble metal in the solution picks up electrons from
the less noble metal immersed in the solution and plates out ✔️Immersion Plating
Why would you use immersion plating? ✔️The thickness is limited to a very thin coating as it is a simple replacement reaction
Why is Immersion finishes more beneficial than HASL? ✔️Immersion has a flatter base for attachment
What are the assembly challenges/problems with HASL process? ✔️Coplanarity / solder thickness varies, solder crowning, less uniformity
Stencil fits flat on pad, opening is smaller than the land pattern in all dimensions ✔️Gasketing
What is the problem with gasketing in HASL? ✔️Uneven surfaces cause leakage of paste underneath the stencil
What other surface finishes are better/flatter than HASL? ✔️Gray tin, nickel/gold, nickel/palladium gold, immersion "white" tin, immersion
silver, ENIG
What surface finish is good for BGAs and surface mount? ✔️ENIG
Why would you use a washable solder mask / what is the advantage? ✔️Washable masks are removable; they come off in a cleaning operation
What is plugging? ✔️Process to ensure that plated through holes are prevent from being contaminated by the assembly cleaning and plating
process chemistries
For liquid photo imageable masks, what via process does IPC recommend? ✔️Plugging
For dry film masks, what via process does IPC recommend? ✔️Tenting
What will manufacturers do to get proper flow characteristics of the prepreg material and gain better performance of the multilayer structure?
✔️Manufacturers will mix and match the various prepreg products
For surface mount and for the outer layers to be heat-resistant, what can the manufacturer do to help this? ✔️Polyimide material can be used
for the outer layers of a multilayer while inner layers are standard epoxy-grade product
In terms of material performance capability, how do you achieve homogenous construction? ✔️Same material is used/only slight variations
occur between different material properties. Resin flow of the prepreg must be consistent between the layers
What variation in construction change the physical and electrical performance of pcbs? ✔️Differences in overall resin content and the use of
different styles of glass cloth; more resin/glass content can produce the same external thickness
Integral part of the manufacturing and testing process; considered in all aspects during the manufaturing process and NOT confined to an
evaluation at the end of the line ✔️SPC (Statistical Process Control)
What is an example of an SPC? ✔️In-process coupon evaluation may be cross-sectioned and evaluated; first article inspection may be performed
to ensure the remainder of the lot would be in conformance
, These specimens are representative of a the product produced and must represent the process ✔️Test coupons / specimens
What is the purpose of in-process test coupons? ✔️Provides a systematic path for continuous improvement, identifies root causes of problems,
reduces the number of evaluations that need to be made at the end of the production cycle
Hole solderability, thermal stress, plating thickness, layer registration, anything related to hole condition within a 2-sided/multilayer board
✔️Test coupon AB/R evaluation
Ability of a product to function under given conditions and for a specified period of time without exceeding acceptable failure limits ✔️Reliability
What is the importance of reliability? ✔️Determine the functionality of equipment and the environment in which it is to operate
Stress testing to failure, focuses on reliability ✔️HAST
Eliminate infant mortality ✔️Burn-in
Identifies mechanical, physical, visual and electrical test normally required by a customer in order to ensure that the quality life-cycle tracking
data is available; specified on applicable performance specification ✔️Product Quality Life-Cycle Tracking
Frequency of examination; identify if a production lot meets specific requirements ✔️Sampling plan
What does IPC recommend in term of sampling plans ✔️Zero-base (no defects in the sampled lot)
No defects in the sample lots; if defects are found, the entire lot must be examined ✔️zero-base
What should every manufacturer have as an important measurement tool that is simple and easy for the operators to enter data? ✔️Quality
documentation plan
Easy method in the form of labels for operators to record documentation ✔️Bar codes
Regulations focused on materials or substances that are contained in products ✔️ROHS and REACH
3 nodes of solder joint failure ✔️Fatigue caused by thermal cycles, sudden shock (drop) or stress, long-term stress
Most common form of solder joint failure ✔️Fatigue caused by thermal cycles
What is the best part for risk to solder cracking due to thermal mismatch? ✔️Leadless components and castellation-type leads
What are key cost drivers for bare board manufacturing? ✔️Laminate materials/mixed dielectrics, number of layers, total number of holes,
minimum hole size, panel utilization, lamination cycles, co-planar, plated via-in-pad epoxy filled, back-drilling, impedance control
DRC's for fabricators and assemblers often do not take into account what type of DRCs ✔️electrical DRC's such as controlled signal lengths for
timing
Rectangular sheet of base material that is used for the processing of 1+ printed boards, and when required, one or more test coupons
✔️Fabrication Panel
Printed board image/patterns plus the additional contiguous deliverable material from the panel (+ tabs, fiducials, tooling holes, etc...)
✔️Assembly Array
What is the most common size panel? ✔️18x24in, 460x610mm
Stencil manufacturer work to what location/ ✔️Nominal positioning location between two-dimensional variations
What should the designer consider adding to help the stencil manufacturers? ✔️Alignment fiducials
What ratio should you never go beyond in terms of the length-to-width ratio? ✔️12:!
How do long, thin boards jeopardize conductor routability? ✔️Routing is primarily on the longitudinal axis and may cause crosstalk and signal
integrity problems
What is the benefit of copper balancing? ✔️Uniform exposure to the etching solutions
Addition areas of copper foil intended to draw copper in the plating bath away from the fine conductor images; uniform plating distribution
✔️Plating Thief
The board material has significant influence on the electrical performance of the circuit from what two effects? ✔️dielectric constant and the
loss tangent
What are the 4 types of build-up multilayers? ✔️Piercing post, Sequentially built-up multilayer, Passive substrate, Filled via sequential co-
laminated substrate
The temperature at which anamorphous polymer changes from being a hard and relatively-brittle condition to be in a viscous or rubbery state
✔️Glass transition temperature (Tg)
Affects dimensional stability and changes the electrical characteristic in the material which can cause potential difficulties in assembly
✔️Moisture absorption
What are the 3 general methods of plating material on PCBs? ✔️Immersion, electroless, and electrolytic
What are the benefits of metallic coatings / final(surface) finish? ✔️Corrosion prevention, Improved long-term solderability
Simplest of the wet processes; involves a simple galvanic replacement reaction; the more noble metal in the solution picks up electrons from
the less noble metal immersed in the solution and plates out ✔️Immersion Plating
Why would you use immersion plating? ✔️The thickness is limited to a very thin coating as it is a simple replacement reaction
Why is Immersion finishes more beneficial than HASL? ✔️Immersion has a flatter base for attachment
What are the assembly challenges/problems with HASL process? ✔️Coplanarity / solder thickness varies, solder crowning, less uniformity
Stencil fits flat on pad, opening is smaller than the land pattern in all dimensions ✔️Gasketing
What is the problem with gasketing in HASL? ✔️Uneven surfaces cause leakage of paste underneath the stencil
What other surface finishes are better/flatter than HASL? ✔️Gray tin, nickel/gold, nickel/palladium gold, immersion "white" tin, immersion
silver, ENIG
What surface finish is good for BGAs and surface mount? ✔️ENIG
Why would you use a washable solder mask / what is the advantage? ✔️Washable masks are removable; they come off in a cleaning operation
What is plugging? ✔️Process to ensure that plated through holes are prevent from being contaminated by the assembly cleaning and plating
process chemistries
For liquid photo imageable masks, what via process does IPC recommend? ✔️Plugging
For dry film masks, what via process does IPC recommend? ✔️Tenting
What will manufacturers do to get proper flow characteristics of the prepreg material and gain better performance of the multilayer structure?
✔️Manufacturers will mix and match the various prepreg products
For surface mount and for the outer layers to be heat-resistant, what can the manufacturer do to help this? ✔️Polyimide material can be used
for the outer layers of a multilayer while inner layers are standard epoxy-grade product
In terms of material performance capability, how do you achieve homogenous construction? ✔️Same material is used/only slight variations
occur between different material properties. Resin flow of the prepreg must be consistent between the layers
What variation in construction change the physical and electrical performance of pcbs? ✔️Differences in overall resin content and the use of
different styles of glass cloth; more resin/glass content can produce the same external thickness
Integral part of the manufacturing and testing process; considered in all aspects during the manufaturing process and NOT confined to an
evaluation at the end of the line ✔️SPC (Statistical Process Control)
What is an example of an SPC? ✔️In-process coupon evaluation may be cross-sectioned and evaluated; first article inspection may be performed
to ensure the remainder of the lot would be in conformance
, These specimens are representative of a the product produced and must represent the process ✔️Test coupons / specimens
What is the purpose of in-process test coupons? ✔️Provides a systematic path for continuous improvement, identifies root causes of problems,
reduces the number of evaluations that need to be made at the end of the production cycle
Hole solderability, thermal stress, plating thickness, layer registration, anything related to hole condition within a 2-sided/multilayer board
✔️Test coupon AB/R evaluation
Ability of a product to function under given conditions and for a specified period of time without exceeding acceptable failure limits ✔️Reliability
What is the importance of reliability? ✔️Determine the functionality of equipment and the environment in which it is to operate
Stress testing to failure, focuses on reliability ✔️HAST
Eliminate infant mortality ✔️Burn-in
Identifies mechanical, physical, visual and electrical test normally required by a customer in order to ensure that the quality life-cycle tracking
data is available; specified on applicable performance specification ✔️Product Quality Life-Cycle Tracking
Frequency of examination; identify if a production lot meets specific requirements ✔️Sampling plan
What does IPC recommend in term of sampling plans ✔️Zero-base (no defects in the sampled lot)
No defects in the sample lots; if defects are found, the entire lot must be examined ✔️zero-base
What should every manufacturer have as an important measurement tool that is simple and easy for the operators to enter data? ✔️Quality
documentation plan
Easy method in the form of labels for operators to record documentation ✔️Bar codes
Regulations focused on materials or substances that are contained in products ✔️ROHS and REACH
3 nodes of solder joint failure ✔️Fatigue caused by thermal cycles, sudden shock (drop) or stress, long-term stress
Most common form of solder joint failure ✔️Fatigue caused by thermal cycles
What is the best part for risk to solder cracking due to thermal mismatch? ✔️Leadless components and castellation-type leads
What are key cost drivers for bare board manufacturing? ✔️Laminate materials/mixed dielectrics, number of layers, total number of holes,
minimum hole size, panel utilization, lamination cycles, co-planar, plated via-in-pad epoxy filled, back-drilling, impedance control
DRC's for fabricators and assemblers often do not take into account what type of DRCs ✔️electrical DRC's such as controlled signal lengths for
timing
Rectangular sheet of base material that is used for the processing of 1+ printed boards, and when required, one or more test coupons
✔️Fabrication Panel
Printed board image/patterns plus the additional contiguous deliverable material from the panel (+ tabs, fiducials, tooling holes, etc...)
✔️Assembly Array
What is the most common size panel? ✔️18x24in, 460x610mm
Stencil manufacturer work to what location/ ✔️Nominal positioning location between two-dimensional variations
What should the designer consider adding to help the stencil manufacturers? ✔️Alignment fiducials
What ratio should you never go beyond in terms of the length-to-width ratio? ✔️12:!
How do long, thin boards jeopardize conductor routability? ✔️Routing is primarily on the longitudinal axis and may cause crosstalk and signal
integrity problems
What is the benefit of copper balancing? ✔️Uniform exposure to the etching solutions
Addition areas of copper foil intended to draw copper in the plating bath away from the fine conductor images; uniform plating distribution
✔️Plating Thief
