A numerical study on the effect of the fixation methods on the vibration fatigue of electronic packages

Abstract This paper presents a comprehensive finite element analysis study on the effect of the support and fixation schemes on the dynamic characteristics and fatigue life of electronic assemblies under vibration. In this study, high accuracy finite element (FE) model was created and thoroughly validated with modal analysis experiments in terms of natural frequencies and mode shape. Accordingly, the finite element model was adopted to run the analysis and to investigate the influence of point support configurations on the out-of-plane deformations of the electronic structure and solder area array stress distributions. Additionally, submodeling technique was implemented to thoroughly analyze the most-critical solder interconnect stresses. The simulations results showed that the support type and locations could significantly affect solder stresses and hence the vibration fatigue performance. Finally, this paper suggest an optimum point support design that provides improved electronic assemblies fatigue life and it also provides another support system that could be considered in the accelerated vibration reliability experiments.