Vibration and thermo-mechanical durability assessments in advanced electronic package interconnects

The objective of this article is to overview the applications of vibration and thermo-mechanical analyses in advanced electronic packaging design. The methodologies, combined with analytical work and experimental validation, to determine the reliability/durability in various configurations of electronic interconnects are developed. These interconnects include the solder joints of various types of ball grid array (BGA), leaded, and leadless packages, the micro-via in printed wiring board, and the leads of electronic modules. Various configurations of test vehicles (TVs), into which the daisy-chained components are incorporated, are designed, fabricated, and tested over military thermal or/and vibration environments. A destructive physical analysis (DPA) is then conducted to further isolate the failure locations and determine the failure mechanisms. Vibration and thermal cycling fatigue life prediction models are established and validated by test data from TVs. During model validation processes, linear and non-linear finite element analyses are used to calculate the stresses, strains, or/and strain energy of the electronic interconnects. All the above experimentally validated life prediction models have served as effective tools to determine the integrities of the studied electronic interconnects.