Vibration reliability characterization of PBGA assemblies

Generally, the low-cycle fatigue induced by thermal cycling is the major concern in the reliability of surface mount technology for electronic packaging, but the high-cycle fatigue induced by vibration can also contribute significant effect, especially for applications in automobile, military, and avionic industries. To assess vibration induced fatigue failures, the dynamic properties of printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies play a very important role. In this paper, the dynamic properties of a plastic ball grid array (PBGA) assembly were characterized by using experimental modal testing and finite element analysis. The bare PCB and PCB assembly with PBGA modules mounted were tested and analyzed separately, so that the influence of PBGA modules on the PCB’s dynamic properties could be identified. It was found that mounting PBGA modules to PCB increased the stiffness of the PCB. Results of constant-amplitude vibration reliability testing of the PBGA assembly are also reported. It was found that the PBGA assembly was vulnerable to vibration, and fatigue failure always occurred at the corner solder balls of the PBGA module.