CALCE Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering

No-fault-found and intermittent failures in electronic products

Dec 05, 2022 | Haiyu Qi , Sanka Ganesan, Michael Pecht

This paper reviews the possible causes and effects for no-fault-found observations and intermittent fail- ures in electronic products and summarizes them into cause and effect diagrams. Several types of inter- mittent hardware failures of electronic assemblies are investigated, and their characteristics and mechanisms are explored. One solder joint intermittent failure case study is presented. The paper then discusses when no-fault-found observations should be considered as failures. Guidelines for assessment of intermittent failures are then provided in the discussion and conclusions....

Microstructure and Intermetallic Formation in SnAgCu BGA Components Attached With SnPb Solder Under Isothermal Aging

Oct 31, 2022 | Anupam Choubey, Michael Osterman, and Michael Pecht

The global transition to lead-free (Pb-free) electronics has led component and equipment manufacturers to transform their tin–lead (SnPb) processes to Pb-free. At the same time, Pb-free legislation has granted exemptions for some products whose applications require high long-term reliability. However, due to a reduction in the availability of SnPb components, compatibility concerns can arise if Pb-free components have to be utilized in a SnPb assembly. This compatibility situation of attaching a Pb-free component in a SnPb assembly is generally termed "backward compatibility." This paper presents the results of microstructural analysis of mixed solder joints which are formed by attaching Pb-free solder balls (SnAgCu) of a ball-grid-array component using SnPb paste. The experiment evaluates the Pb phase coarsening in bulk solder microstructure and the study of intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between the solder and the copper pad....

Adhesion and Puncture Strength of Polyurethane Coating Used to Mitigate Tin Whisker Growth

Jan 26, 2022 | Kenny Mahan, Yong Sun, Bongtae Han1, Sungwon Han, Mike Osterman

Reliability of conformal coatings used to mitigate tin whisker growth depends on their ability to contain tin whiskers. Two key material properties required to assess the reliability of a polyurethane coating are documented experimentally: adhesion strength and puncture strength. A modified blister test using a predefined blister area is employed to assess the adhesion strength and a puncture test is employed to evaluate the puncture strength of the coating. After measuring the properties at time zero, the coatings are subjected to accelerated testing conditions (high temperature/humidity storage and temperature cycling) and the degradations of the coating properties are documented....

Using Simulation to Optimize Microvia Placement and Materials to Avoid Failure During Reflow

Dec 21, 2021 | Dr. Kourosh Kalayeh, Dr. Nathan Blattau

This paper cover the following points: - Objective 01: Preprocessing, - Introduction, - Objective 02: Automated FE Scripting, - Objective 03: Postprocessing, Reliability Analysis of PTHs, - Objective 03: Postprocessing, Manufacturability of Microvias...

Reliability Evaluation of One-Pass and Two-Pass Techniques of Assembly for Package on Packages under Torsion Loads

Dec 16, 2021 | Vikram Srinivas, Michael Osterman, Robert Farrell

Package on Packages (PoP) find use in applications that require high performance with increased memory density. One of the greatest benefits of PoP technology is the elimination of the expensive and challenging task of routing high-speed memory lines from under the processor chip out to memory chip in separate packages. Instead, the memory sits on top of the processor and the connections are automatically made during assembly. For this reason PoP technology has gained wide acceptance in cell phones and other mobile applications. PoP technology can be assembled using one-pass and two-pass assembly processes. In the one-pass technique the processor is first mounted to the board, the memory is mounted to the processor and the finished board is then run through the reflow oven in a single pass. The two-pass technique has an intermediate step in which the memory is first mounted onto the processor....

Modeling Temperature Cycle Fatigue Life of Select SAC Solders

Sep 08, 2021 | Michael Osterman

While the presence of silver in SAC solder provided excellent temperature cycling durability, the silver in high silver SAC alloy also made the solders susceptible to failures under drop/shock loading. To improve the drop/shock reliability, the silver content in SAC alloys was reduced from three percent, to as low as no silver. Solder dopants, also known as microalloy additions, are elements (typically 0.1% or lower) other than the main constituents of the alloy that have been shown to improve solder performance. Commonly used microalloy additions include nickel (Ni), bismuth (Bi), manganese (Mn), and antimony (Sb)....

Controlling Moisture in Printed Circuit Boards

May 01, 2019 | Bhanu Sood, Michael Pecht

Moisture can accelerate various failure mechanisms in printed circuit board assemblies. Moisture can be initially present in the epoxy glass prepreg, absorbed during the wet processes in printed circuit board manufacturing, or diffuse into the printed circuit board during storage. Moisture can reside in the resin, resin/glass interfaces, and micro-cracks or voids due to defects. Higher reflow temperatures associated with lead-free processing increase the vapor pressure, which can lead to higher amounts of moisture uptake compared to eutectic tin-lead reflow processes. In addition to cohesive or adhesive failures within the printed circuit board that lead to cracking and delamination, moisture can also lead to the creation of low impedance paths due to metal migration, interfacial degradation resulting in conductive filament formation, and changes in dimensional stability. Studies have shown that moisture can also reduce the glass-transition temperature and increase the dielectric constant, leading to a reduction in circuit switching speeds and an increase in propagation delay times.

This paper provides an overview of printed circuit board fabrication, followed by a brief discussion of moisture diffusion processes, governing models, and dependent variables. We then present guidelines for printed circuit board handling and storage during various stages of production and fabrication so as to mitigate moisture-induced failures....

Analysis of Laminate Material Properties for Correlation to Pad Cratering

Oct 20, 2016 | Carlos Morillo, Yan Ning, Michael H. Azarian, Julie Silk, Michael Pecht.

Pad cratering failure has emerged due to the transition from traditional SnPb to SnAgCu alloys in soldering of printed circuit assemblies. Pb-free-compatible laminate materials in the printed circuit board tend to fracture under ball grid array pads when subjected to high strain mechanical loads. In this study, two Pb-free-compatible laminates were tested, plus one dicycure non-Pb-free-compatible as control. One set of these samples were as-received and another was subjected to five reflows. It is assumed that mechanical properties of different materials have an influence on the susceptibility of laminates to fracture. However, the pad cratering phenomenon occurs at the layer of resin between the exterior copper and the first glass in the weave. Bulk mechanical properties have not been a good indicator of pad crater susceptibility.

In this study, mechanical characterization of hardness and Young’s modulus was carried out in the critical area where pad cratering occurs using nano-indentation at the surface and in a cross-section. The measurements show higher modulus and hardness in the Pb-free compatible laminates than in the dicy-cured laminate. Few changes are seen after reflow – which is known to have an effect -- indicating that these properties do not provide a complete prediction. Measurements of the copper pad showed significant material property changes after reflow....

Influence of Plating Quality on Reliability of Microvias

May 12, 2016 | Yan Ning, Michael H. Azarian, Michael Pecht

Advances in miniaturized electronic devices have led to the evolution of microvias in high density interconnect (HDI) circuit boards from single-level to stacked structures that intersect multiple HDI layers. Stacked microvias are usually filled with electroplated copper. Challenges for fabricating reliable microvias include creating strong interface between the base of the microvia and the target pad, and generating no voids in the electrodeposited copper structures. Interface delamination is the most common microvia failure due to inferior quality of electroless copper, while microvia fatigue life can be reduced by over 90% as a result of large voids, according to the authors’ finite element analysis and fatigue life prediction. This paper addresses the influence of voids on reliability of microvias, as well as the interface delamination issue. ...

Reliability of Embedded Planar Capacitors under Temperature and Voltage Stress

May 21, 2015 | Mohammed A. Alam, Michael H. Azarian, Michael Osterman and Michael Pecht

In this work the reliability of an embedded planar capacitor laminate under temperature and voltage stress is investigated. The capacitor laminate consisted of an epoxy-BaTiO3 composite sandwiched between two layers of copper. The test vehicle with the embedded capacitors was subjected to a temperature of 125oC and a voltage bias of 200 V for 1000 hours. Capacitance, dissipation factor, and insulation resistance were monitored in-situ. Failed capacitors exhibited a sharp drop in insulation resistance, indicating avalanche breakdown. The decrease in the capacitance after 1000 hours was no more than 8% for any of the devices monitored. The decrease in the capacitance was attributed to delamination in the embedded capacitor laminate and an increase in the spacing between the copper layers....