The Importance of Drying in PCB Cleaning - Technical Article

The Importance of Drying in PCB Cleaning, emphasizes the critical final step in the four-stage PCB cleaning process—drying. While wetting, scrubbing, and rinsing remove surface contamination, any leftover moisture can lead to corrosion, dendrite growth, electrochemical migration, and conformal coating failure. The article explores multiple drying techniques, including vapor degreasing with low-surface-tension fluids, convection ovens, lint-free wipes, and ESD-safe dusters. It provides best practices for benchtop and batch drying, highlights risks of improper drying under low-clearance components, and stresses proper moisture management before and after cleaning to ensure high reliability and long-term PCB performance.