Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64

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Microelectronics Reliability
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/microrel

Comparison of fatigue life prediction methods for solder joints under T

random vibration loading
Jiang Xiaa, Lin Yanga, Qunxing Liua, Qi Penga, LanXian Chengb, GuoYuan Lic,
⁎

a
China Electronic Product Reliability and Environmental Testing Research Institute, Guangzhou 510610, People's Republic of China
b
College of Electronic Engineering, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510610, People's Republic of China
c
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510610, People's Republic of China

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: The fatigue life prediction of solder joints under random vibration load is one of the most important aspect in
Frequency-domain design of packaging. A fatigue-life estimation in the frequency domain is proved to have advantages in com-
Fatigue life prediction parison to the time-domain estimation. This paper presents a comparison of the fatigue life prediction of solder
Solder joints joints under random vibration load by several popular frequency domain methods, including the narrow-band,
the Wirsching–Light, the single-moment, the Empirical α0.75, the Tovo–Benasciutti, the Zhao–Baker, and the
Dirlik methods. The comparison between these selected frequency domain methods and the traditional Steinberg
method was investigated with the help of the relative error. Results indicate that most spectral methods are
accurate than the Steinberg method, the Tovo–Benasciutti method is proved to be the best method for the life
estimation of solder joints suited not only to the BGA package but also to the PoP package.

1. Introduction
With the development of wearable electronic devices, electronic
products are more often subjected to vibration loading in the process of
production, transportation and use. The vibration-induced failure of
electronic devices is one of the most important reliability issues and has
been widely studied by many researchers [1–3]. Since solder joints are
the critical part for the packages under random vibration [4,5], the
most challenging issue in the packaging industry is to estimate the fa-
tigue life of the critical solder joints more rapidly and effectively during
the design process [6,7].
The fatigue-life prediction methods under random vibration loading
can be broadly divided into two types: the time-domain method based
on the stress or strain time history and the frequency-domain method
based on the power spectral density function (PSD) of stress or strain
process. In the time domain many stress time histories obtained by
experimental measurements or numerical simulations have been ana-
lyzed, and the cumulative fatigue damage is obtained by combining
cycle-counting methods and linear damage accumulation models. This
makes the time domain approaches, even if easy from a theoretical
point of view, clearly costly and time-consuming. Only a few people use
the time-domain method to predict the fatigue life of solder joints under
random vibration. Da. Yu et al. [8] investigated the high cycle fatigue
reliability of Pb-free BGA with different Ag content under random
vibration, in their studies, the respond stress power spectral density
(PSD) of the critical solder joints was calculated by finite element
analysis (FEA) and then was transformed into time-history data by
using the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) method. A unit sample of
2 s time-history data was generated, and then rainflow cycle counting
[9] and Miner's rule [10] were applied to estimate cumulative damage
to obtain the fatigue life.
Alternatively, the frequency-domain method based on spectral
analysis provides a direct connection between the PSD and the cumu-
lative damage, and can make use of analytical formulae to correlate the
fatigue cycle distribution and the fatigue damage by means of numer-
ical simulation from the PSD data, so fatigue counting can be performed
in the frequency domain using empirical or semi-empirical formulae.
Compared to the time-domain method, the frequency-domain method is
simpler and faster. Several efforts [11–13] were made to estimate the
fatigue life of solder joints in practice PCB system by the frequency-
domain method, and most approaches are based on Steinberg's three-
band technology [14] which is a semi-empirical formula through many
years of practical experience. Dave S. Steinberg assumes that the
random vibration loading follows Gaussian distribution and the re-
sponse stresses or strains of 1σ, 2σ and 3σ will occur at 68.31%, 27.1%
and 4.33% of the time, respectively. By combining the Miner's rule and
the S-N curve of the solder joints, the cumulative damage index can be
written as follows:

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: phgyli@scut.edu.cn (G. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2019.02.008
Received 26 April 2018; Received in revised form 28 January 2019; Accepted 21 February 2019
0026-2714/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Xia, et al. Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64

3 mi
ni 1 b i =
CDI = = (0.683 + 0.27 2b + 0.0433 3b) fn t 1 m 0 m2i (5)
i=1
Ni C (1)
The αi bandwidth parameters are dimensionless numbers, and it
where Niσib = C is the Basquin's relationship [15], σi is the i-σ level takes range value from 0 to 1. For a narrow-band process, αi tends to 1,
stress and Ni is the failure cycles at σi, b is fatigue strength exponent, C is and for a wide-band process it approaches 0. The most commonly used
a constant, fn is the natural frequency and t is the applied time of parameters [25,26] are:
random vibration.
m1 m2 m 0.75
Actually, in other fields subjected to random loading, such as 1 = , 2 = , 0.75 =
bridges, vehicles and aircraft, several methods based on frequency
m 0 m2 m 0 m4 m 0 m1.5 (6)
domain analysis, such as the narrow-band approximation method or According to the Palmgren-Miner's rule, the accumulated damage
Dirlik's approximate formula, have been proposed to predict fatigue life per unit of time under the random variable stress amplitude loading is
under random vibration loading. These methods are the same in essence defined as:
– but only adopt different empirical or semi-empirical formulas that
directly relate the statistics of the fatigue cycles to the PSD. However, n (S ) VP p (S )
D = dS = dS
no body uses these formulas in the field of microelectronics packaging, 0
N (S ) 0
N (S ) (7)
and the best frequency-domain method based on empirical or semi-
here Vp is given by Eq. (4), S is the stress amplitude, n(S) is the actual
empirical formulas is not certain for the fatigue prediction of solder
number of cycles at S, N(S) is the fatigue number of cycles at S, and p(S)
joints under random vibration.
is the stress cycle amplitude probability density function (PDF) at S. The
In this paper, a brief review of the theoretical background of fre-
function p(S) is unknown and it is a key factor considered by the fre-
quency-domain method is firstly given, and several popular spectral
quency domain methods for fatigue analyses. As the S-N curve equation
methods for the fatigue analysis, including the narrow-band approx-
can be written as the following form:
imation method (NB) [16], the Wirsching–Light correction formula
(WL) [17], the single-moment method (SM) [18], the Empirical α0.75 N (S ) = CS k (8)
method (EM) [19], the Tovo–Benasciutti's method (TB) [20], the
where C and k are both material constants determined by fatigue test or
Zhao–Baker's model method (ZB) [21], and Dirlik's approximate for-
the manual, the accumulated damage per unit of time can be simplified
mula (DK) [22] are selected and reviewed. Then, the first attempt to
by plugging Eq. (8) into Eq. (7):
predict the fatigue life of solder joints under random vibration is exe-
cuted by these selected spectral methods and the Steinberg method (ST)
D = C 1VP S kp (S ) dS
[14]. A theoretical and experimental comparison study between these (9)
0
selected spectral methods and the Steinberg's three-band technology
method is presented to optimize the fatigue life prediction method of and the fatigue life estimation T obtained from the damage intensity per
solder joints under random vibration load. Some of those methods are unit of time D can be expressed as:
for the first time compared side-by-side. The aim of this paper is to find 1 C
T= =
the most accurate method for the fatigue life prediction of solder joints D
VP S kp (S ) dS
by using these frequency domain methods and the Steinberg method to (10)
0
deal with two typical package structures (ball grid array (BGA) and
Package-on-Package (PoP)) under random vibration.
2.2. Frequency-domain methods

2. Theoretical background
The fatigue life estimation can be performed in the frequency do-
main by using empirical or semi-empirical methods to describe p(S)
2.1. Random processes and spectral density
according to Eq. (10). Typical frequency-domain methods for the fa-
tigue prediction to deal with Gaussian random loadings are presented in
In the frequency domain the one-sided stress PSD G(f) is customa-
this section. These are the narrow-band method, the Wirsching–Light
rily used to describe the random stress loading, with f denoting the
method, the single-moment method, the Empirical α0.75 method, the
frequency. Most of statistical properties of a random stress process can
Tovo–Benasciutti method, the Zhao–Baker method, and the Dirlik
be depicted by the spectral moment mi of the PSD. Note that index i can
method.
take also non-integer values. The ith spectral moment mi has the general
form:
(1) Narrow-band approximation [16]. In the case of narrow band
processes peaks and valleys are almost symmetrically placed with
mi = f i G (f ) df respect to the mean level of the process, it is reasonable to assume
0 (2) that the p(S) tends to Rayleigh distribution:
For example, the variance σs2 of the random stress process is given S S2
by [23]: p (S ) = 2
exp
s 2 s2 (11)
2
s = m0 = G (f ) df here σs2
is determined by Eq. (3). Combining Eqs. (9) and (11), the
0 (3) narrow-band accumulated damage expression per unit of time can be
expressed as:
For a fatigue analysis, the spectral moment m2 and m4 are often used
in the analysis process, the expected peak occurrence frequency VP and
the expected positive zero-crossing frequency V0 are defined with [24]:
DNB = Vp C 1 ( 2m 0 ) k (1 + k 2 ) (12)

m4 m2 where m0 is 0th spectral moment determined by Eq. (2), Γ(⋅) is the well-
VP = V0 = known Euler gamma function, and VP is very close to the peak intensity
m2 m0 (4)
V0 for a narrow-band process. Notice that the narrow-band approx-
The spectral width of the process is described by bandwidth para- imation is appropriate for narrow-band processes, the fatigue life will
meters, where the ith parameter is defined as [25]: get a conservative value if the narrow-band approximation method is

59
J. Xia, et al. Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64

carried out in wide-band processes. from only two spectral properties [21]:
Z2
(2) Wirsching–Light method [17]. In order to improve the reliability PZB (Z ) = w ZB Z 1e Z + (1 w ) Ze 2 (24)
and accuracy of the narrow-band approximation method for the
where αZB and β are the Weibull parameters:
wide-band processes, Wirsching and Light developed the empirical
correction factor λWL to correct the narrow-band approximation 1.1; 2 < 0.9
ZB =8 7 2, =
method: 1.1 + 9( 2 0.9); 2 0.9 (25)
WL = a (k ) + [1 a (k )](1 ) b (k ) (13) and Z is the normalized amplitude defined by:
where the spectral width parameter ε is defined as: S
Z=
2
m0 (26)
= 1 2 (14)
The weighting factor w is given as:
and the fitting parameters a(k) and b(k) are dependent on the S-N slope
k: 1 2
w= 1

a (k ) = 0.926 0.033k, b (k ) = 1.587k 2.323 (15) 1 2

( 1+
1
) ZB (27)
The accumulated damage per unit of time may be estimated from Combining Eqs. (9) and (24), the damage expression per unit of time
the narrowband damage as: can be expressed as [21]:
DWL = WL DNB (16) k
VP k2 k k k
DZB = m0 w ZB 1+ + (1 w )2 2 1+
C 2 (28)
(3) Single-moment method [18]. This approximation does depend on
only one moment of the power spectral density curve, and the
correlation coefficient for the narrow-band approximation is given (7) Dirlik method [22]. The Dirlik method is one of the most widely
as: used frequency-domain methods and often cited as an accurate
k
method in the fatigue analysis. This method is based on a combi-
m2/ k 2 nation of one exponential and two Rayleigh probability densities
SM = VP 1
m0 (17) (one for the low-frequency and the other for the high-frequency
band). The empirically formula for the probability density function
where m2/k is a spectral moment evaluated by using i = 2/k in Eq. (2),
is obtained by analyzing a large number of stress histories where
and k is the material constant described by Eq. (8). The accumulated
the damage has been calculated using rainflow counting method
damage per unit of time can be expressed as:
and linear damage accumulation rule. The probability density
1 1 function is given by [22]:
DSM = SM DNB =C (2 2 ) k (m2/ k ) k /2 k+1
2 (18)
1 G1 Z G2 Z Z2 Z2
pD (S ) = e Q + e 2R2 + G3 Ze 2
(4) Empirical α0.75 method [19]. By combining theoretical assumptions m0 Q R2 (29)
and simulation results, Benasciutti and Tovo present an empirical
where Z is the normalized amplitude defined by Eq. (26), and the
correction factor based on the spectral parameter α0.75, and is given
parameters are defined as [22]:
as:
2
2(xm 2) 1 2 G1 + G12
= 2
0.75 (19) G1 = 2
, G2 = , G3 = 1 G1 G2,
1+ 2 1 R
where α0.75 is a spectral parameters defined by Eq. (6), and the accu- 2 xm G12 1.25( 2 G3 G2 R)
mulated damage may be estimated from the narrowband damage as: R= , Q=
1 2 G1 + G12 G1
D = 2
0.75 DNB (20) (30)
where xm is the mean frequency defined by:
(5) Tovo–Benasciutti method [20]. In 2005, Benasciutti and Tovo first
1
proposed a correction factor for the narrow-band approximation m1 m2 2
xm =
based on a linear combination of the upper and lower fatigue-da- m 0 m4 (31)
mage intensity limits, and the final expression for the correction
factor from is: Using the Eq. (9), the damage expression per unit of time has been
derived in the Form [22]:
TB = [b + (1 b) k 1
2 ] 2 (21)
k k
DDK = C 1VP m02 G1 Q k (1 + k ) + ( 2 ) k 1+ (G2 |R|k + G3)
where α2 is the spectral width parameter defined by Eq. (6), and the 2
parameter b is defined as:
(32)
( 2.11 2
1 2 )[1.112(1 + 1 2 ( 1+ 2 )) e +( 1 2 )]
b=
( 2 1)2 (22) 3. Case studies
where α1 is also the spectral width parameter described by Eq. (6), and
the accumulated damage may be estimated from the narrowband da- An ideal method for use in the fatigue life prediction of the solder
mage as: joints should be consistent across different packaging formats with
different slopes of the S-N curve, so two typical packaging formats have
DTB = TB DNB (23) been used for the comparison in this study: one is obtained from a
traditional 2-D packaging (BGA); another is obtained from a popular 3-
(6) Zhao–Baker method [21]. Zhao and Baker present an empirical D packaging (PoP). The typical stress response PSDs for the solder joints
model for the probability distribution function based on a mixed- under random vibration loading were shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The stress
distribution Weibull model whose parameters can be evaluated response PSD shown in Fig. 1 comes from Da Yu's study [8], and the

60
J. Xia, et al.
Fig. 1. Typical stress response PSD at critical solder joint of the BGA.
Fig. 2. Typical stress response PSD at critical solder joint of the PoP.
stress response PSD at critical solder joint of the PoP comes from our
previous studies [27].
The technical details on how to get the stress response PSD of the
PoP are described in detail in our previous article [27]. In our previous
research, the test PCB is made of FR4 with 200 mm × 56 mm × 1 mm,
and the PoP used in our study is a two-tier stacking assembly with
14 mm × 14 mm. The bottom package body of the PoP is a Package
Stackable very thin fine pitch BGA (PSvfBGA) with 152 solder joints,
and the top package body is a Fine-Pitch Ball Grid Array (FBGA) with
353 solder joints. The package architecture for the PoP is shown in
Fig. 3, and the dimension parameters of the components are shown in
Table 1.
In order to execute the vibration tests, the PCB assembly is fixed on
Fig. 3. The package architecture for the PoP: (a) the top package; (b) the bottom package.
61
Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64
Table 1
The dimension parameters of the PoP.
Components Top package (mm) Bottom package (mm)
Solder ball diameter 0.45 0.3
Solder ball pitch 0.65 0.5
The thickness of Cu pad 0.02 0.02
Mold compound 14 × 14 × 0.45 10.9 × 10.9 × 0.2
Substrate 14 × 14 × 0.21 14 × 14 × 0.3
the shake by four corner screw holes to get an out-of-plane excitation
from a uniaxial electrodynamic shaker, as shown in Fig. 4. The random
vibration durability tests with the wide-band and constant amplitude
white noise input excitation. The power spectral density (PSD) levels for
the input white noses is 0.2 g2/Hz acceleration amplitudes, over a fre-
quency range between 20 Hz and 500 Hz. In above tests, the event
detector was used to continuously monitor the resistance of the daisy
chain circuits to record the failure times. The initial resistances of daisy
chain circuits were measured to be around 1.9–3.6 Ω. When a crack is
initiated in the solder joint during the vibration test, the resistance will
increase. A failure of the solder joint is assumed to occur when total
resistance is greater than 1000 Ω for 0.21 μs. Once the event detector
has considered a daisy chain failed, failed times are recorded in the
WinDatalog software.
The resulting damage and fatigue life for each PSD was calculated
and compared by different selected methods side-by-side as shown in
Fig. 5. Eight methods including the Steinberg's method were chosen as
the selected methods used in this study. In these methods, it is noted
that four methods (including the Wirsching–Light method, the single-
moment method, the Empirical α0.75 method, and the Tovo–Benasciutti
method) are based on the narrow-band method, and the narrow-band
method was optimized by introducing a correction factor in these four
methods.
Since the S-N slope k has a noticeable impact on the accuracy of the
fatigue-life estimation, it should be noted that the S-N curve of the
solder depends on the package formats, the fitting constants C and k
have different values for the different package formats [8,27–29]. For
the BGA, the composition of the solder joint is the Pb-free SAC305 al-
loys, and the values of C and k are 3.58 × 1012 Mpa and 6.93, re-
spectively [8]. And for the PoP, the values of C and k are 5.53 × 1013
Mpa and 8.62, respectively [27]. The data is presented in Table 2.
The real fatigue-life obtained from the vibration tests are compared
to the life estimate in the frequency-domain computed by a combina-
tion of the Miner's rule and the S-N curve of solder joints. The relative
error Terr, which is introduced to evaluate the correctness of these life
prediction methods, is calculated using:
Tpre Ttes
Terr =
Ttes (33)
where Ttes is the real fatigue-life obtained by the vibration tests, and Tpre
is an estimate fatigue-life, as predicted using one of the frequency-do-
main methods. The narrow-band approximation method, the
Wirsching–Light correction formula, the single-moment method, the
Empirical α0.75 method, the Tovo–Benasciutti method, the Zhao–Baker's
J. Xia, et al. Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64

Fig. 4. Experiment set-up of vibration tests.

method, the Dirlik method and the Steinberg method were selected for Table 2
a detailed analysis to each group of the samples. Material parameters of solder joints with different packaging structures.
Package structures C (Mpa) k Packaging formats
4. Discussion 12
BGA 3.58 × 10 6.93 2-D packaging
PoP 5.53 × 1013 8.62 3-D packaging
A reasonable fatigue life prediction method would give result that
are equal or close to the real fatigue-life obtained from the real ex-
periment approach, and preferably be conservative when not accurate. groups of loads) were experimentally compared. They found that the
Table 3 shows the relative error of the selected methods compared to Tovo–Benasciutti is found to be the best method, followed by the im-
the real fatigue-life for the BGA. From Table 3 it can be seen that most proved Zhao–Baker and Dirlik methods.
selected spectral methods are more accurate than the Steinberg method The trend of the relative errors for the PoP are similar to the BGA,
except for one case of the narrow-band method. Only two methods (the and most spectral methods are also more accurate than the Steinberg
Tovo–Benasciutti method and the Zhao–Baker method) exhibit less than method, as shown in Table 4. Overall, the average absolute value of
10% absolute error, which indicates that the Tovo–Benasciutti method relative errors for the PoP are less than the BGA, both the Dirlik and
and the Zhao–Baker method give the relatively accurate prediction for Tovo–Benasciutti methods exhibit less than 10% absolute error, which
the general case of wide-band random processes. This conclusion is are more accurate than others. The Tovo–Benasciutti method exhibits
consistent with Matjaž Mršnik's research [30]. In Matjaž Mršnik's re- less error again.
search, the frequency-based methods are compared to the time-domain Fig. 6 shows the relative errors of the selected methods for the
rainflow method, and twenty-eight different fatigue loads (five different

Fig. 5. Comparison of frequency methods with conventional Steinberg's three-band method.

62
J. Xia, et al. Microelectronics Reliability 95 (2019) 58–64

Table 3 Table 5
Relative error of the selected methods compared to the real fatigue-life for the The average absolute values and standard deviations of the relative error for the
BGA (k = 6.93). selected methods.
Methods Ttes (min) Tpre (min) Terr Methods The average absolute values The standard deviations

Narrow-band 113 72.45 −0.341 Narrow-band 0.316 0.049

395 244.51 −0.380 Wirsching–Light 0.266 0.042
Wirsching–Light 113 80.23 −0.290 Single-moment 0.154 0.040
395 251.97 −0.314 Empirical α0.75 0.192 0.039
Single-moment 113 95.33 −0.167 Tovo–Benasciutti 0.063 0.013
395 313.47 −0.206 Zhao–Baker 0.958 0.026
Empirical α0.75 113 90.56 −0.197 Dirlik 0.970 0.030
395 294.59 −0.254 Steinberg 0.286 0.070
Tovo–Benasciutti 113 118.77 0.051
395 421.57 0.057
Zhao–Baker 113 105.00 −0.071
395 362.77 −0.082
Dirlik 113 125.10 0.107
395 443.80 0.123
Steinberg 113 69.01 −0.389
395 273.22 −0.308

Table 4
Relative error of the selected methods compared to the real fatigue-life for the
PoP (k = 8.62).
Methods Ttes (min) Tpre (min) Terr

Narrow-band 97 72.75 −0.250

137 96.86 −0.293
Wirsching–Light 97 77.39 −0.202
137 101.96 −0.256
Single-moment 97 87.65 −0.096 Fig. 7. The average absolute values and standard deviations of the relative
137 116.70 −0.148
error for different prediction methods.
Empirical α0.75 97 82.67 −0.148
137 113.95 −0.168
Tovo–Benasciutti 97 102.17 0.059 tend to overestimate the fatigue life as their relative errors are positive.
137 148.78 0.086
To be clear, the average absolute values and standard deviations of the
Zhao–Baker 97 86.61 −0.107
137 120.12 −0.123 relative error for the selected methods were calculated and compared,
Dirlik 97 105.43 0.087 as shown in Table 5 and Fig. 7. In general, the errors in the selected
137 146.76 0.071 methods are not too big due to the lower value of the average absolute
Steinberg 97 68.02 −0.241 values. Only several methods exceeding 20% absolute error, and those
137 108.91 −0.205
include the narrow-band and the Steinberg method. It is indicated that
the Steinberg method isn't as accurate as thought, and the narrow-band
method is also not appropriate for the fatigue life prediction of the
solder joints since it is only for the narrow-band process. A good result
(the average absolute relative errors less than 0.100) is obtained by
three methods (the Tovo–Benasciutti method, the Tovo–Benasciutti
method and the Dirlik method). Although the Zhao–Baker method do
offer a conservative estimate (as shown in Fig. 4), with a larger relative
error compared with the Tovo–Benasciutti method. The Tovo–Be-
nasciutti method only slightly overestimates the fatigue life, with the
smallest absolute relative error (0.063), which is consistent with Matjaž
Mršnik's research [30]. Moreover, the standard deviation of the To-
vo–Benasciutti method is the smallest (0.013), which indicates that the
adaptability and stability of Tovo–Benasciutti method is well and can be
used to deal with different situation. In a word, the Tovo–Benasciutti
method can be considered as the recommended method based on this
discussion, but it must be aware of the overestimation problems.

5. Conclusion

Fig. 6. Relative errors of the selected methods for the solder joints with BGA
and PoP packaging format.
solder joints with BGA and PoP packaging formats. It is evident that
most methods are conservative except for the Tovo–Benasciutti method
and the Dirlik method. The Tovo–Benasciutti and the Dirlik method
The vibration-fatigue life estimation of the solder joints for the ty-
pical BGA and PoP packaging structures under random vibration
loading was performed and optimized by different life predication
methods, including the traditional Steinberg method and seven selected
spectral methods (the narrow-band approximation method, the
Wirsching–Light correction formula, the single-moment method, the
Empirical α0.75 method, the Tovo–Benasciutti method, the Zhao–Baker's
method (ZB), and Dirlik's approximate formula), these methods were

63
J. Xia, et al.
analyzed by introducing the relative error Terr as an estimation of the
error. The most appropriate method for the fatigue prediction of solder
joints was determined by comparison of the life prediction results. The
main conclusions were summarized as follows:
1) Most spectral methods selected in this study are more accurate than
the Steinberg method except for the narrow-band method. The
Steinberg method is not an accurate enough method for the vibra-
tion-fatigue estimation of the solder joints under random vibration
loading.
2) The Tovo–Benasciutti method and the Dirlik method tend to over-
estimate the fatigue life, while the other six methods, including the
Steinberg method, are conservative.
3) The Tovo–Benasciutti is found to be the best method due to the
minimal error and the best stability in dealing with the vibration-
fatigue estimation of the solder joints, but needs to carefully deal
with the overestimation problems.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Science and Technology Research
Project of Guangdong Province, China (2015B090912002,
2017A040406014, 2017B010121001), and the Key Projects of
Industrial Transformation and Upgrading in 2017 (The application of
reliability design technology for the smart home appliances and high-
end consumer electronic products).
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