Temporary soldering aid for manufacture of printed wiring assemblies

Claim 1

Method of attaching a surface mount component to a printed wiring board having a multiplicity of solder pads positioned thereon to receive the terminations on the component, comprising the steps of: providing a mask blank coextensive with the printed wiring board, comprising a base layer material coated on both top and a bottom sides with an adhesive layer and protected by a coextensive backing on both top and bottom sides thereof, the combined thickness of the base layer and the adhesive layers being equal to desired standoff distance between said printed wiring board and said component; selectively forming openings through the mask blank, sized and positioned to correspond to the locations of selected ones of the solder pads; removing said backing from the bottom side of said mask blank to expose the underlying bottom adhesive layer; applying said mask blank with said exposed adhesive layer to said printed wiring board, positioned with the openings therein in registry with said solder pads; filling said holes with solder paste; removing said backing from the top side of said mask blank to expose the top underlying adhesive layer; positioning said surface mount component onto said exposed top adhesive layer with its terminations over said paste filled holes to form a printed wiring board assembly; heating said printed wiring board assembly to melt said solder paste into a solder mass; and cooling said printed wiring board assembly to solidify said solder mass.