Physics of Failure (PoF) Based Lifetime Prediction of Power Electronics at the Printed Circuit Board Level

Abstract

This paper presents the use of physics of failure (PoF) methodology to infer fast and accurate lifetime predictions for power electronics at the printed circuit board (PCB) level in early design stages. It is shown that the ability to accurately model silicon–metal layers, semiconductor packaging, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and assemblies allows, for instance, the prediction of solder fatigue failure due to thermal, mechanical, and manufacturing conditions. The technique allows a life-cycle prognosis of the PCB, taking into account the environmental stresses it will encounter during the period of operation. Primarily, it involves converting an electronic computer aided design (eCAD) circuit layout into computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) models with accurate geometries. From this, stressors, such as thermal cycling, mechanical shock, natural frequency, and harmonic and random vibrations, are applied to understand PCB degradation, and semiconductor and capacitor wear, and accordingly provide a method for high-fidelity power PCB modelling, which can be subsequently used to facilitate virtual testing and digital twinning for aircraft systems and sub-systems.

An Overview of Lifetime Management of Power Electronic Converters

“…The purpose of this part of the analysis is to identify the most critical components in a power electronic system, their major failure modes, mechanisms, indicators, and their corresponding stressors causing the failure. [22,23]. Fig.…”

“…Gate oxide degradation failure is primarily caused by the tunneling current into the gate oxide layer [28]. High electric field stress and high-temperature stress also contribute to gate oxide degradation [23]. The gate leakage current 𝑖 𝑔𝑠𝑠 would increase.…”

“…Moreover, analyzing novel converter topologies, switching schemes, redundant operation, control schemes, and evaluating the effect of operating conditions on the long-term performance of converters needs a proper lifetime model of the converter. Hence, the lifetime prediction of power converters is of great importance to be carried out [23]. The lifetime estimation of a system is first made by using the component-level models to estimate the failure rate of each component.…”

“…Model-driven lifetime models describe degradation processes through building mathematical models based on accelerated tests using parameterization as empirical methods or based on the failure mechanisms and materials as PoF methods [83]. In theory, all model-based lifetime models have some parameters to be determined and module geometry and material properties are necessary to determine the unknown parameters.…”

Analysis of Typical PCB Vibration Characteristics Based on Modal Simulation and Experiment

“…Xu [10] provides a theoretical basis for chip layout optimization through modal analysis by finite element software. Some scholars have studied the vibration characteristics of circuit boards and studied their reliability life [11][12][13][14][15][16]. The existing research has analyzed the structure of specific structure circuit boards through experimental simulation and combination, and the modal research for small complex circuit boards is still insufficient.…”