IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033D

Handling, Packing,
Shipping and Use of
Moisture, Reflow, and
Process Sensitive Devices

A joint standard developed by the JEDEC JC-14.1 Committee on

Reliability Test Methods for Packaged Devices and the B-10a Plastic
Chip Carrier Cracking Task Group of IPC

Supersedes:
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033C-1 -
August 2014
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033C -
February 2012 Users of this publication are encouraged to participate in the
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033B.1 development of future revisions.
includes Amendment 1 -
January 2007
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033B - Contact:
October 2005
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033A - JEDEC IPC
July 2002
Solid State Technology Association 3000 Lakeside Drive, Suite 105 N
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033 -
April 1999 3103 North 10th Street, Suite 240-S Bannockburn, Illinois
JEDEC JEP124 Arlington, VA 22201-2107 60015-1249
IPC-SM-786A -January 1995 Tel 703 907.0026 Tel 847 615.7100
IPC-SM-786 - December 1990 Fax 703 907.7501 Fax 847 615.7105
April 2018 IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033D

Table of Contents
1 FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.2 Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.3 Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Assembly Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.4 Moisture Barrier Bag Sealing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.1 Mass Reflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.5 Dry-Pack Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.2 Localized Heating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3.3.6 Shelf Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.3 Socketed Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4 DRYING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.4 Point-to-Point Soldering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4.1 Post Exposure to Factory Ambient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.5 Aqueous Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
4.1.1 Any Duration Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.1.2 Short Duration Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 Terms and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2 General Considerations for Baking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.1 Active Desiccant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.1 High Temperature Carriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.2 Bar Code Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.2 Low Temperature Carriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.3 Bulk Reflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.3 Paper and Plastic Container Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.4 Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.4 Bakeout Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.5 Desiccant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.5 ESD Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.6 Floor Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.6 Reuse of Carriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.7 Humidity Indicator Card (HIC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
4.2.7 Solderability Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.8 Manufacturer’s Exposure Time (MET) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5.9 Moisture-Barrier Bag (MBB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 USE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.5.10 Moisture-Sensitive Identification (MSID) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.1 Incoming Bag Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.5.11 Moisture-Sensitivity Level (MSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.1.1 Upon Receipt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

1.5.12 Rework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.1.2 Device Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.13 Process-Sensitivity Level (PSL) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.2 Floor Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.14 Shelf Life (of a device in a sealed MBB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5.3 Safe Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.15 SMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.3.1 Dry Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.16 Solder Reflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.3.2 Shelf Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5.17 Water Vapor Transmission Rate (WVTR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.3.3 Dry Atmosphere Cabinet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.4 Reflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS (Normative) . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.4.1 Opened MBB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1 American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) . . . . . 3
5.4.2 Reflow Temperature Extremes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Electronic Industries Alliance (ECIA, JEDEC) . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.4.3 Additional Thermal Profile Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 IPC Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.4.4 Multiple Reflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 Joint Industry Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.4.5 Maximum Reflow Passes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Department of Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
5.5 Drying Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 DRY PACKING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.5.1 Excess Humidity in Dry Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1 Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5.5.2 Floor Life or Ambient Temperature/Humidity Exceeded . . 13
3.2 Drying of SMD Packages and Carrier Materials Before 5.5.3 Level 6 SMD Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Being Sealed in MBBs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6 BOARD REWORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.1 Drying Requirements - Levels 2a - 5a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1 Device Removal, Rework and Remount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2.2 Drying Requirements for Carrier Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1.1 Removal for Failure Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.3 Drying Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.1.2 Removal and Remount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.4 Excess Time Between Bake and Bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6.2 Baking of Populated Boards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3 Dry Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

v
IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033D April 2018

7 DERATING DUE TO FACTORY Tables

ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Table 3-1 Dry-Packing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
APPENDIX A Test Method for Reversible (Type 1) Table 3-2 Typical Reversible (Type 1) HIC Spot
RH Spots on a Humidity Indictor Card Compliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
(HIC) used with Electronic Device
Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Table 4-1 Reference Conditions for Drying Mounted or
APPENDIX B Derivation of Bake Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Unmounted SMD Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
APPENDIX C Desiccant Unit Absorption Capacity Table 4-2 Supplier Bake: Default Baking Times Used
Test Method for Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Prior to Dry Pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
APPENDIX D Changes in J-STD-033D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Table 4-3 Resetting or Pausing the Floor-Life Clock
at User Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figures
Table 5-1 Moisture Classification Level (MSL) and
Figure 3-1 Typical Dry-Pack Configuration for Moisture- Floor Life per J-STD-020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Sensitive SMD Packages in Shipping Tubes . . . . 4
Table 7-1 Recommended Equivalent Total Floor
Figure 3-2A Humidity Indicator Card (HIC) – Type 1 . . . . . . 5 Life (days) @ 20 °C, 25 °C & 30 °C, 35 °C
For ICs with Novolac, Biphenyl and
Figure 3-2B Humidity Indicator Card (HIC) – Type 2 . . . . . . 5 Multifunctional Epoxies (Reflow at same
temperature at which the device was classified)
Figure 3-3 Moisture-Sensitive Identification Label Maximum Percent Relative Humidity . . . . . . . . 15
(Examples) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Figure 3-4A Caution Label (Examples with MSL only) . . . . . 7

Figure 3-4B Caution Label (Examples with MSL and PSL) . . 7

Figure 3-5 MBB with No Evacuation (Example) . . . . . . . . . 8

Figure 3-6 MBB with Recommended Light Air Evacuation

(Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Figure 3-7 MBB with Too Much (Full) Evacuation

(Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Figure A-1 Photo of Testing Apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

vi
April 2018 IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033D

Handling, Packing, Shipping and Use of Moisture, Reflow,

and Process Sensitive Devices

1 FOREWORD

The advent of surface mount devices (SMDs) introduced a new class of quality and reliability concerns regarding damage such as
‘‘cracks and delamination’’ from the solder reflow process. This document describes the standardized levels of floor-life exposure
for moisture/reflow sensitive SMDs along with the handling, packing and shipping requirements necessary to avoid moisture/
reflow related failures. Companion documents J-STD-020, J-STD-075 and JEP113 define the classification procedure and the
labeling requirements, respectively.
For moisture sensitivity, moisture from atmospheric humidity enters permeable packaging materials by diffusion. Assembly
processes used to solder SMDs to printed circuit boards (PCBs) expose the entire package body to temperatures higher than
200 °C. During solder reflow, the combination of rapid moisture expansion, materials mismatch, and material interface degradation
can result in cracking and/or delamination of critical interfaces within the device.
Typical solder reflow processes of concern for all devices are convection, convection/IR, infrared (IR), vapor phase (VPR), hot air
rework tools, and wave solder, including full immersion.
Non-semiconductor devices may exhibit additional process sensitivities beyond moisture sensitivity such as thermal sensitivity,
flux sensitivity or cleaning process sensitivity.

1.1 Purpose The purpose of this document is to provide manufacturers and users with standardized methods for handling, packing,
shipping, and use of moisture/reflow and process sensitive devices that have been classified to the levels defined in J-STD-020 or
J-STD-075. These methods are provided to avoid damage from moisture absorption and exposure to solder reflow temperatures
that can result in yield and reliability degradation. By using these procedures, safe and damage-free reflow can be achieved. The
dry-packing process defined herein provides a minimum shelf life of 12 months from the seal date.

1.2 Scope This standard applies to all devices subjected to bulk solder reflow processes during PCB assembly, including plastic
encapsulated packages, process sensitive devices and other moisture sensitive devices made with moisture-permeable materials
(epoxies, silicones, etc.) that are exposed to the ambient air.
1.3 Assembly Processes

1.3.1 Mass Reflow This standard applies to bulk solder reflow assembly by convection, convection/IR, infrared (IR), and vapor
phase (VPR) processes. It does not apply to bulk solder reflow processes that immerse the device bodies in molten solder (e.g.,
wave soldering bottom mounted devices). Such processes are not allowed for many SMDs and are not covered by the device
qualifications standards used as a basis for this document.
1.3.2 Localized Heating This standard also applies to moisture/reflow sensitive SMD packages that are removed or attached
singly by local ambient heating, i.e., ‘‘hot air rework.’’ See Clause 6.
1.3.3 Socketed Devices

This standard does not apply to SMD packages that are socketed and not exposed to solder reflow temperatures during either bulk
reflow or rework of adjacent devices. Such SMD packages are not at risk and do not require moisture precautionary handling.
1.3.4 Point-to-Point Soldering This standard does not apply to SMD packages in which only the leads are heated to reflow the
solder, e.g., hand-soldering, hot bar attach of gull wing leads, and through hole by wave soldering. The heat absorbed by the
package body from such operations is typically much lower than for bulk surface mount reflow or hot air rework and moisture
precautionary measures are typically not needed.
1.3.5 Aqueous Cleaning For non-cavity SMDs typical short term aqueous cleaning processes will not impact the floor life
(internal moisture content). Special consideration should be given to non-hermetic cavity packages.