Investigation of critical factors effect to predict leakage current and time to failure due to ECM on PCB under humidity

Abstract

Experiments using the Design of Experiment (DoE) methodology were carried out to investigate the effects of pitch distance (P), temperature (T), voltage (V), and contamination (C) on the leak current measured on surface insulation resistance (SIR) test boards. A 2 4 full factorial design with eight replications was performed, and the response was measured continuously over a 20 hour period for each experiment. Current measured over time exhibited a clear pattern of an initial low and stable current, followed by a transition to a much higher current. Microscopic analysis of the boards indicates that the transition is due to dendrite formation due to electrochemical migration (ECM). The time at the start of this transition phase was identified as the time to failure (TTF) for each experiment. Leakage current (LC) was also calculated as the mean current prior to failure. Analysis of Variance methods were used to model both TTF and LC. Both TTF and LC were found to be significantly affected by P, T, and C. However, the effect of V was found to be significant only for TTF. The general current behavior over the prolonged experimental period and the resulting statistical models give new insight into the failure process related to ECM.

Using machine learning algorithms to predict failure on the PCB surface under corrosive conditions

“…The various demand and the remarkable tendency to miniaturize electronic devices cause reducing the space of PCB and high component density [4]. Hence, the pitch distance is a significant factor in PCB failure due to the special effect on increasing the electric field power and making it easy for dendrite formation during ECM [47].…”

“…Main reason for the corrosion failure is due to the formation of water film on PCB surface under exposure to humid conditions, which acts as connecting electrolyte layer between biased components triggering electrochemical failure modes. Multiple factors are involved in such corrosion failures, which involve different failure modes caused by electrochemical process resulting from water film formation on the PCB surface due to atmospheric humidity and condensation [3,4]. Electrochemical failure modes leads to malfunction of the electronic devices as the stray currents caused by the electrochemical process interfere with PCB functionality [5,6].…”

Prediction of the electrochemical migration induced failure on power PCBs under humidity condition — A case study

“…To use Buttler-Volmer equation (10), the related parameters of the euations need to be obtained. The α a and α c of the electrochemical reactions (1-4) are given in Table 1.…”

“…Moreover, the simulation results should be validated by experiments. So far, most of the published models have been focused on simple PCBs with surface insulation resistance (SIR) pattern [2,9,10,11,12]. However, studying real PCBs in the presence of condensation is inevitable for the robustness analysis of circuits.…”

Analysis of Climate Change Induced Parameters of South-Eastern Coastal Islands of Bangladesh: Comparison from 1977 to 2017

“…Relative humidity (RH) is another important climatic factor and is also responsible for the formation of any kind of unsteady condition. Study on this parameter is also important because temperature and RH relate good influence on the formation of the cyclone [26]- [28].…”