Electrical Overstress Estimation for Printed Circuit Board Design

Abstract

Electronic part failure analysis at early stages of the design reduces design re-spins and time to market. Component failure at later stage of the design costs heavier depending upon in which phase of design cycle the product is. Failure of a small electronic component can cause complete system shutdown. For examples are a quarter watt resistor operating at half watts, a 50 V capacitor suffering continuous spikes of 100 V, a 100 ohm resistor’s resistance changes to 115 ohms at 60 Degree temperature, power handling capability of 1 W BJT (Bipolar junction transistor) could go down to 0.75 W when operated at higher temperature & Transformer of 500 V dielectric breakdown is under constant stress of thousand Volts spikes. Debugging root cause of such failures on a complex design is not easy especially if done manually.