The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the accuracy of the finite element (FE) smeared properties approach for the determination of the mode shapes and frequencies of a printed wiring board (PWB) populated with electronic modules. Smearing of the material and/or structural properties is a recognized means of reducing a complicated structure to a less complicated approximation. Comparisons of both the natural frequencies and mode shapes are made between the smeared FE model and those obtained from vibration testing. The extent of correlation between the mode shapes is characterized by the modal assurance criterion (MAC). Since the intent of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the smearing technique, free boundary conditions are assumed. It is shown that the smearing technique can produce good correlation of both natural frequencies and mode shapes of PWBs populated with modules. A case study of a PWB with both surface mount technology (SMT) and pin-in-hole (PIH) components is presented.
In this work, a sinusoidal vibration test method with resonance tracking is employed for reliability testing of circuit assemblies. The system continuously monitors for changes in the resonant frequency of the circuit board and adjusts the excitation frequency to match the resonant frequency. The test setup includes an electrodynamic shaker with a real-time vibration control, resistance monitoring for identifying electrical failures of interconnects, and vibration logging for monitoring changes in the dynamic response of the assembly over time. Reliability tests were performed using the resonance tracking sinusoidal test method for assemblies, each consisting of a centrally mounted ball grid array (BGA) device assembled with 63Sn37Pb and SAC105 solder alloys. These tests show that the resonance tracking method gives more consistent failure times. Failure analysis for the tested devices shows the primary failure mode is “input” trace crack first, followed by fatigue through the solder for complete failure. A finite element (FE) model, correlated with experimental modal analysis, is shown to accurately estimate the circuit board deflection estimated from the harmonic vibration data. This provides a means of estimating the stresses in the electronic interconnections while accounting for the variability between test parts. These fine-tuned vibration measurement techniques and related FE models provide the building blocks for high cycle solder fatigue plots (i.e., S–N curves).
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