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Microelectronics Reliability 48 (2008) 638644 www.elsevier.com/locate/microrel

Combining vibration test with nite element analysis for the fatigue life estimation of PBGA components
Y.S. Chen *, C.S. Wang, Y.J. Yang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yuan Ze University, 135, Yuan-tung Road, Chung-li, Taoyuan, Taiwan Received 8 November 2007 Available online 31 December 2007

Abstract The study develops a methodology that combines the vibration failure test, nite element analysis (FEA), and theoretical formulation for the calculation of the electronic components fatigue life under vibration loading. A specially designed plastic ball grid array (PBGA) component with built-in daisy chain circuits is mounted on a printed wiring board (PWB) as the test vehicle for the vibration test. It is then excited by a sinusoidal vibration whose frequency equals the fundamental frequency of the test vehicle and tested until the component fails. Because the solder balls are too small for direct measurement of their stresses, FEA is used for obtaining the stresses instead. Thus, the real displacements in the vibration test are then inputted to the FEA model when performing the stress analysis. Consequently, the stress versus failure cycles (SN) curve is constructed by correlating both the obtained stresses on the solder balls and the number of failure cycles in the vibration test. Furthermore, the Miners rule is applied in calculating the fatigue damage index for those test components when failed. Finally, a formula for the prediction of the component failure cycle is deduced from all these procedures studied. It is also examined later by rstly predicting the fatigue failure cycle of a component and then conducting a vibration test for the same component for the verication purposes. The eld test results have proven to be consistent with predicted results. It is then believed that the methodology is eective in predicting components life and may be applied further in improving the reliability of electronic systems. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The ball grid array (BGA) package has become a major packaging type in recent years, due to its high capacity for the input/output (I/O) counts. Connections with outside circuits for these packages are normally through either the solder balls or pins under the package. This results in reliability issues, since there is a higher overall risk of failure given the large number of solder balls and pins. This problem has attracted much attention from researchers into the BGA component reliability in the past few years. The majority of research has focused on the thermal stress induced reliability issues because large quantities of heat are generated in such complicated high I/O
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 3 4638800x2473; fax: +886 3 451 7113. E-mail address: yschen@saturn.yzu.edu.tw (Y.S. Chen). 0026-2714/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2007.11.006
*

circuit designs. This situation is uncontroversial for electronic devices used in motionless environments. However, for many real world applications, in addition to thermal stress, electronic systems are often subjected to dynamic loadings. The most familiar case is the vibration that is always encountered when the electronic product is transported from one place to another. However, for applications involving vehicles such as automobiles, ships, and aircrafts, vibration induced stresses are the dominant stresses and may not be ignored. In general, long term vibration loadings typically will cause IC component failure, and will denitely impact the reliability of electronic systems. Much experience with tracing the root causes of failure has shown that the solder joints are probably the most stressed area and are the major failure locations in components under such dynamic loadings. In BGA components with tens, hundreds, or even thousands of solder balls, a disastrous failure may occur

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even when only one of these solder joints fails. This kind of problem is not unusual from our perspective, such as electronic module failures that leads to catastrophic loss of life and property in the avionics industry. Assuring the reliability of these solder balls is thus a critical concern especially for electronic devices used in the dynamic environment. Most electronic systems used in vibration environments are subjected to random instead of harmonic excitations. As a result, quality assurance of electronic devices usually uses random vibration as the test specication for acceptance tests, screening tests, and reliability qualication tests. Generally, this kind of test can be conducted only after the prototype is manufactured. This is generally feasible only after a period of time has passed, and is often seen as uneconomic in todays fast-paced electronic technology markets. Thus, the establishment of an accurate and eective methodology for estimating of the fatigue life of components under vibration loading has become an urgent demand. Previous research has already attempted to establish such a methodology. Wang [13] applied Mansons work [4] on solder material fatigue properties to investigate the BGA solder joint fatigue life in a random vibration environment. Wangs results indicated that the validated model is eective in determining the integrity of the PBGA solder joints during random vibration loading. In addition to validating models, understanding failure mechanisms for the components under vibration loading is also crucial. This includes both nding the failure location and further improvement of weak areas in electronic components. Yang [5,6] used the out-of-plane sweep sinusoidal vibration test to assess the reliability of the PBGA assembly against vibration fatigue. Examination of cross-sections of the failed PBGA modules showed that fatigue failure always occurred at the corner solder balls of the PBGA module under the vibration loading. Wang [7] conducted a series of vibration fatigue tests both with a PBGA assembly and an FCBGA assembly and then observed the dierences in their failure modes. However, with the realistic loading, a vibration fatigue failure test will always take time to complete before the failure on the component is observed. In experimental studies, it is impractical to use such eld vibration loadings for a long period of time. Therefore, to obtain the results within an acceptable period, the study utilized the most severe situation of vibration resonance loading in examining the fatigue life of all PBGA test components. Additionally, a widely used fatigue model, Miners rule, is also used to estimate the fatigue life of the PBGA components. In any examination of fatigue failure for solder balls, stress and cycles to failure data must be recorded. Unfortunately, most solder balls are too small for accurate measurement of their stresses during vibration tests. Instead, this data is obtained indirectly from nite element analysis (FEA) by taking the real displacements in the vibration test as the input for the analysis. To perform the reliability assessment, these analyzed stresses on the solder balls are

then correlated with the number of failure cycles in the vibration test. 2. Experimental set-ups In order to trace when the component has been failed, a specially designed PBGA component with a built-in daisy chain circuit is used in the vibration test. The component and the corresponding daisy chain circuits are shown in Fig. 1. The PBGA component, 35 mm 35 mm, is mounted with 0.6 mm diameter solder balls of eutectic solder in 1 mm pitch. The PCB is made of FR4 and is 203 mm in length, 63 mm in width, and has a thickness of 1.6 mm. The daisy chain circuit connects all the solder balls on the PBGA in series with a certain resulting resistance that is monitored constantly throughout the test. Once a crack is initiated in one of the solder balls during the vibration test, the resistance will increase. The failure criterion as set in the study follows the IPC standard [8] by checking the daisy chain resistance when it exceeds the initial resistance by 20%, and occurring consecutively ve times. A data acquisition system is used to record and calculate the instantaneous daisy chain resistance. When the resistance exceeds the dened failure resistance, and ve occurrences have been recorded consecutively, the component is then considered as having failed and the test is stopped. To perform the vibration fatigue life test, the PBGA component and PWB assembly is mounted on the shaker with one of the two opposite edges clamped while the other is kept free. It is then excited with a harmonic displacement of 131 Hz, that is, the rst natural frequency of the test vehicle. The set-up of the test component on the vibration shaker is shown in Fig. 2. 3. Stress analysis As described previously, the vibration test is used primarily to check the time to failure for the component under a specied excitation. However, it is also necessary to check the stresses on the solder balls when conducting a fatigue life assessment of the components. In this study, FEA is used for the stress analysis of the solder balls on the PBGA components, with boundary condition settings identical to those used in the vibration test. The FEA model as presented in Fig. 3 is constructed with the commercial computer software ANSYS 10.0. The symmetric FEA model of the test board is utilized because of the symmetry both in the geometry and the corresponding boundary conditions. Also, the boundary conditions for one of the two opposite edges are set as clamped and the other is left free to reect the real edge conditions of the test vehicle. The material properties used in this FEA model, including those of the PWB, solder balls, substrate, chip and molding compound are listed in Table 1. It is also noted that the mesh density will have a strong impact on the FEA results.

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Fig. 1. The PBGA component and the layout of the daisy chain circuit.

Fig. 2. Test component mounted on the vibration shaker with a xture.

Consequently, variations in mesh densities are applied in the model in order to examine the convergence of the

analyzed frequency results. Fig. 4 shows that the results have already converged with a total mesh of 1152 elements on a single solder ball. For verication of the FEA model, the natural frequencies of the test vehicle are examined experimentally with the modal testing method and the results are then compared with those from the FEA. Fig. 5 shows the test set-up of the modal testing method where the test sample is xed by its two opposite edges and its frequency response function is acquired with the attached accelerometer. Fig. 6 depicts the frequency response function (FRF) of the clamped test board as obtained through the modal testing. The rst three peaks on the FRF indicate that the rst three natural frequencies of the test vehicle are at 131 Hz, 398 Hz, and 769 Hz, respectively. Table 2 gives the comparison of the natural frequencies as found both in the modal testing and FEA. As listed in the last column of the table for the error percentages relative to those of modal testing results, all the rst three natural frequencies are all within 3%.

Fig. 3. The FEA model for the test sample.

Y.S. Chen et al. / Microelectronics Reliability 48 (2008) 638644 Table 1 Material properties used in the FEA model Material PWB Solder ball Substrate Chip Molding compound E (GPa) 17 32 16 160 12 D (kg/m3) 1900 8400 1520 2300 1880 m 0.3 0.38 0.3 0.3 0.3

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time on the test. The corresponding modal shape of the rst mode is shown in Fig. 7. 4. Discussions 4.1. Developing the SN curve In order to build the stress versus fatigue failure cycles curve (SN curve) for the eutectic solder ball, the vibration test was conducted for a total of six dierent exciting specications by varying the excitation displacement each time. All the test components are tested until their daisy chain circuits have been failed, and the resulting failure cycles are recorded. The corresponding stresses on the failed solder balls are then calculated through the harmonic excitation analysis in FEA. Table 3 lists the number of experimental failure cycles and the corresponding maximum stresses on the solder balls. The relating accelerations and equivalent displacements inputted to the shaker are also listed in the table. The SN curve as listed in Eq. (3) can be worked out though the curve tting of these experimental data. Eqs. (1) and (2) are the SN curves of the eutectic solder as oered by Manson [4] and Steinberg [9], respectively.

Fig. 4. The FEA mesh of the solder balls.

r 66:3 N 0:12 r 109:6 N r 75:1 N

0:10 0:12

1 2 3

Fig. 5. Modal testing conguration.

Once the FEA model is veried, further analysis with the model is then carried out to investigate the responses of the PBGA component under vibration excitation. As shown in Fig. 7 for the side view of the FEA model, the harmonic displacements as listed in Table 3 are imposed on both sides of the clamped edges with an exciting frequency of 131 Hz so that resonance will occur. This will accelerate the occurrence of component failure and save

When all these three curves are plotted together in Fig. 8, it is observed that the curve of the current study is located between the curves of Steinbergs and Mansons. Interesting ndings on this gure include: with a certain fatigue cycle, the stress for Steinbergs curve is located almost twice as those of the other two. Further, the curves both for Mansons and the current study are closer to each other than they are to Steinbergs. It is important to note that the two curves as listed in the literatures all result from analyzing the solder material itself. However, the solder balls tested in current study are located on actual components. As noted both in Eq. (1) and Eq. (3), the relationship between the stresses and failure cycles is r = 66.3 N0.12 in Mansons, and is r = 75.1 N0.12 in the current study. When comparing these two formulae, it is apparent that the quotient which represents the descent rate of the curve are nearly identical, diering only marginally in their respective constants of 75.1 and 66.3. This narrow dierence explains why these two results are so close. By contrast, the corresponding equation as deduced from Steinberg is r = 109.6 N0.10 as listed in Eq. (2). It has a constant coecient of 109.6, much larger than Masons or the current study. This implies that the calculated fatigue cycles of Eq. (2) are invariably the highest among all the three studies when under the same stress level. Additionally, the slightly smaller quotient of 0.10 also helps explain why this curve is not as steep as the other two.

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Fig. 6. The frequency response function of the test board.

Table 2 Comparison of natural frequencies as obtained from modal testing and FEA Natural frequencies FEA (Hz) Experiment (Hz) Error (%) First mode 130.7 131 0.2 Second mode 392.6 398 1.4 Third mode 747.1 769 2.9

Table 3 Cycles to failure and corresponding maximum stresses Set 1 2 3 4 5 6 Failure cycles (cycle) N 312,173 381,341 484,307 522,166 950,909 1,660,230 Acceleration ( G) 2.77 2.55 2.26 2.24 2.13 2.08 Displacement (mm) 0.125 0.115 0.102 0.101 0.099 0.094 Stress (MPa) S 17.3 16.7 15.3 15.0 14.8 13.8

4.2. Stress distribution of the solder balls under vibration loading Based on the FEA analysis, the stresses of the solder balls on the component when under vibration loading are shown in Fig. 9, which also displays the corresponding physical layout of the solder balls around the component. As shown in the FEA results, the local maximum stresses on each of the solder balls can also be examined. In addition, the global maximum stress is located on the corner solder balls in each of the column and row-directions on the PBGA component. That is to say, the solder ball at this location undergoes the most stressed condition and should be used for the

failure determination. The stresses for each of the columns and rows of the solder balls are shown in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively. As shown in Fig. 9, the local maximum stresses on the solder balls in column one are much higher than those of column two. For example, the largest stress is 13.79 MPa on the rst solder ball of column 1, but is only 7.73 MPa on the rst solder ball on column 2. These stress dierences are almost doubled (Fig. 10) among all the thirteen solder balls. Similarly, the local maximum stresses for each of the solder balls in row 1 and row 2 are shown in

Fig. 7. The FEA model under a harmonic vibration excitation.

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40 35 30
Current Study Curve Fitted Result Manson's Steinberg's

16 13.79 14 12.41 12

Stress (MPa)

Stress (MPa)

25 20 15 10 5

10 8 6 7.73

Column1 Column2

4.03
4

0 0.0

4.0x10

8.0x10

1.2x10

1.6x10

2.0x10

2.4x10

10

12

14

Life (cycles)
Fig. 8. SN curves for the eutectic solder material.

Solder Ball Number

Fig. 10. Stress distributions in column-direction on the PBGA component.

Fig. 11. The overall maximum stresses in each of these two rows are 13.79 MPa and 11.78 MPa, respectively. However, the stress variations between rows are much greater than those between the columns. For example, the rst two solder balls have much higher stresses than the rest of the solder balls in the same row. The stresses on the third solder ball and thereafter do not appear to vary signicantly, with the exception of the last solder ball. This is due to the contribution of the component body itself to the reinforcement of the strength of the whole package assembly. 4.3. Estimation of the cumulative damage index (CDI) The Miners cumulative damage index is widely used to estimate component life under dierent loading conditions. The equation can be listed as:

CDI

n1 n2 ... N1 N2

where ni is the actual number of stress cycles accumulated, Ni is the number of cycles required for a failure, and CDI stands for the cumulative damage index. When CDI is equal to one, failure will occur. In order to check whether the SN curve as derived previously from the test data with the combination of the Miners rule together are applicable for the prediction of the component life under the vibration loading, two sets of specially designed experiments are conducted for verication purposes. The experimental specications are summarized in Table 4. As the same in the previous experiments, the vibration shaker is excited again here by a sinusoidal displacement. The last three lower stress levels

Fig. 9. Stress distributions on solder balls of the PBGA component.

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16 14 12 Row1 13.79 Row2 11.78

5. Conclusions The study seeks to predict the vibration fatigue life of electronic components by combining both empirical and simulation tests. The major diculty in conducting this kind of investigation is the measurement of failure stresses on the solder balls. A further problem encountered is the determination of proper material properties for the analysis purposes. However, the presented methodology oers an alternative method to overcome these diculties. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that: 1. By using a series of simulation and experimental processes, the SN curve for the solder balls of PBGA component may be obtained. The accuracy of the derived stress-failure cycle relations is compared with data from the literatures and even veried further in the failure tests. The results have shown that the model is accurate enough for fatigue life prediction. 2. Examination of the stress distribution among all the solder balls shows that the maximum stress occurs on the solder ball located at the corner of the PBGA component. Detailed inspection shows that the local maximum stress on each of the solder balls is located at the interface between the solder balls and the printed circuit board. References

Stress (MPa)

10 8 6 4 2 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 5.0 3.0

Solder Ball Number

Fig. 11. Stress distributions in row-direction on the PBGA component.

Table 4 Stress cycles and the cumulative damage index (CDI) Set 1 2 Stress (MPa) 13.8 15 14.8 15 ni (Cycles) 702,003 268,322 468,912 307,841 Ni (Cycles) 1,356,891 677,293 757,454 677,293 ni/Ni 0.517 0.396 0.619 0.455 CDI 0.913 1.074

as shown in Table 3, i.e. 13.8 MPa, 14.8 MPa, and 15 MPa, are selected for the vibration test again so that the components will last longer for a certain period of time before nally failing. Corresponding to these three stress levels, the excitation displacements required for inputs to the PWB are 0.094 mm, 0.099 mm, and 0.101 mm, respectively. The details of the experiments and corresponding CDI results can be summarized in Table 4. As shown in the table, stress levels equal to 13.8 MPa and 15 MPa were used for test set 1. While in test set 2, stress levels are set as 14.8 MPa and 15 MPa, respectively. To determine the component failure through CDI calculation as listed in Eq. (4), it is necessary to check the failure cycle (Ni) from Eq. (3) for each of these three designated stress levels, and the actual test cycle (ni) in each of the eld tests. The corresponding results are listed in the last column of Table 4. It is noteworthy that both of the two calculated CDIs are happened to be roughly equal to one. This agrees with the fact that the component damage has been induced during the physical test. These verication tests have shown that the SN curve as derived in Eq. (3) is reliable in predicting the fatigue life of PBGA components.

[1] Wong TE, Reed BA, Cohen HM, Chu DW. Development of BGA solder joints vibration fatigue life prediction model. In: IEEE electronic components and technology conference; 1999. p. 14954. [2] Wong TE, Palmieri FW, Reed BA, Fenger HS, Cohen HM, Teshiba KT. Durability/reliability of BGA solder joints under vibration environment. In: IEEE electronic components and technology conference; 2000. p. 10838. [3] Wong TE, Palmieri FW, Fenger HS. Under-lled BGA solder joints vibration fatigue damage. In: Proceedings of 2002 inter society conference on thermal phenomena in electronic systems (ITHERM 2002); 2002. p. 9616. [4] Manson SS. Fatigue: a complex subject some simple approximations. Exp Mech 1965;5:2023. [5] Yang QJ, Pang HLJ, Wang ZP, Lim GH, Yap FF, Lin RM. Vibration reliability characterization of PBGA assembly. Microelectron Reliab 2000;16:1097107. [6] Yang QJ, Wang ZP, Lim GH, John AA, Pang HL, Yap FF, et al. Reliability of PBGA assemblies under out-of-plane vibration excitation. IEEE Trans Compon Packag Technol 2002;25:293300. [7] Hongfang Wang, Mei Zhao, Qiang Guo. Vibration fatigue experiments of SMT solder joint. Microelectron Reliab 2004;44:114356. [8] IPC Test Standards, IPC-9701. Performance test methods and qualication requirements for surface mount solder attachments. IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries; 2002. p. 13. [9] Steinberg DS. Vibration analysis for electronic equipment. 3rd ed. New York: Wiley; 1988. p. 414.