Non-Perpendicular Orientation High-G Impact Reliability of Electronics Potted Assemblies

The Commercial electronics being used in defense and aerospace applications are being exposed to extreme environments including high-G shock conditions, which is not their intended purpose of use. Currently most of the board level testing is being done at horizontal zero degree drop angle. In real life drop scenarios, the angle of drop varies a lot. The damage accrued in the board interconnects and components and solder-joint interconnects, varies with the change in the drop angle. The reliability of the electronic components and interconnections of the solder-joint depends on the effect of drop angle on the test vehicle. The results acquired under these varying drop angle environments would be more relatable to the real life drop scenarios. The test vehicle is a circular PCB and two different configurations of the test vehicle are tested bare and potted. The boards are tested for three different drop angles of 0-degree, 30-degree and 60 degree. Two different shock levels are tested at each drop angle 10,000g and 25,000g. To predict the effect of drop angle on the test assembly, an explicit finite element model of the assembly has been created and simulated.