Towards An Automated System Integration of

Physical Stress Simulation and Diagnostic

Engineering for Electronic Equipment
Focused approach to diagnostic engineering of electronics subjected to
thermal and vibration effects.
Val Khaldarov David Cirulli
CEMSol CEMSol
Tempe, AZ 85281, USA Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
Val.Khaldarov@CEMSol.com DCirulli@CEMSol.com

Abstract A right setup for diagnostics analysis at groups within an organization quality team which deals
the subassembly level can facilitate an analyst to look for with the early portion of its life cycle, reliability group for
obvious test areas, see stress diagnostically, and keep the middle portion, and durability test group to figure issues
real maintenance scenarios. This is achieved by for equipment wear out.
combined evolutionary analysis of physics of failure with
maintenance analyses and simulation technologies. II. CASE STUDY
Maintenance-based analysis and simulation can be In this section, we provide a simple example of how an
enhanced stress simulations where many parts are integration of electronic physical stress simulation subjected
replaced in the ambiguity group. to mechanical influences and resulting diagnostics based
analysis would work in the proposed Automated System to
I. BACKGROUND helps support the design stress failure modes and failed
Early Quality Reliability Engineering disciplines which date component isolation prognostics for a simplified cooling
back to World War II have developed a traditional view of subsystem.
Quality, Reliability & Durability (QRD) product life cycle
for electronics. It is usually represented with a classic Bath
Tub Failure Rate Curve made up of the sum of three
different phenomena infant mortality, randomness, and
wear out.
Figure 1 shows that early failures during products life
occur due to infant mortality issues. After that, a second
phase starts with a period of fairly stable failure rates which
are attributed to random events or chance problems. Finally,
we eventually come to a point where electronic equipment
starts to wear out and be at the end of its life.
Figure 2: Interaction of Diagnostic Flow Diagram and Design View
Display

In Figure 2, we consider a fan control model where the first

two detection tests are passed and the third is failed. The
analysis shows both sensors (green) have been exonerated,
while the FAN CONTROL and the FAN are flagged as
primary suspects (red) in an ambiguity group.

At this point, we are ready to conduct a PoF analysis of the

FAN CONTROL which, for this simplified example,
consists as of a circuit board and a single through-hole-
Figure 1: The Bath Tub Failure Rate Curve

This model has led organizations to where they are today

with a focus on three separate individual life style phases. It
presupposes companies to create separate engineering
mounted hybrid component (shown in Figure 3).

Figure 4: Transient stresses experienced by the PCB and its component due
to random vibration and thermal cycling.

Figure 3: Dimensions (in inches) of the PCB and its through-hole-mounted

hybrid component

We virtually test for random vibrations and thermal stresses

due to thermal cyclin due to an environmental stress
screening (ESS), city, and highway driving. Power spectral
density values and their durations are shown in Figure 4(a)
and thermal cycles are given in Figure 4(b).
Figure 5: Solder shear tear out due to mismatch of coefficients of thermal
expansion for a through-hole component and the PCB [10].

A. Results
Figure 6(a) shows a typical Damage-Boundary diagram,
where the x-axis represents PCB thickness, y-axis
resonance frequency of the PCB, and the lines (referred to
as Critical Frequency and Critical PCB thickness)
separation of damage and no damage regions.
Figure 6: Fatigue cycle ratio values with respect to resonance frequencies
of the PCB and thickness.

Figure 6(b) and (c) show response breakdown to each

influence with respect to either PCB thickness or natural
frequency. From Figure 6(b) we see that the PCB thickness
can significantly change fatigue ratio values between 0.06
and 0.10 inches; while from Figure 6(c) we can infer that
this ratio will not change much at around 160 hertz for the
PCB.

Figure 7(a) and (b) show system response subjected to

highway driving conditions with natural frequency of about
100 Hz for type I and 160 Hz for type II vibration isolators
along the x and y axes. Figure 7(c) shows that the natural
frequency of type II vibration isolators stays at about 160
Hz when electronics are subjected to city driving conditions.

Figure 7: System response of (a) type I, (b) type II vibration isolators

subjected to highway driving conditions, and (c) type II vibration isolators
subjected to city driving conditions.

B. Conclusions
In this simple example, we demonstrate how our proposed
Automated System combines electronic physical stress
simulation subjected to mechanical influences and resulting
diagnostics-based analysis and simulation on stress related
failure modes.

Our PoF approach identified the stress failure modes along

with the weakest link of the system (solder joints between
the PCB and the hybrid component) and the dominant
failure mechanism (solder shear tear out) completed without
running the traditional environmental run to fail test
(HALT). The diagnostic system uses this information to
prescribe additional detection requirements or for
application in the fault isolation manuals to resolve the
ambiguity group.
We were also able to identify prognostic performance
parameters with respect the associated board resonant
frequency values. This analysis can be used to establish
diagnostic test design for operational vibration monitoring
and prognostics. Additional the analysis could be used to
avoid failure through a design modification choosing the
right parameters for vibration isolators.
III. SUMMARY
In this paper, we established an Automated System
framework for diagnostics by shifting away from the
traditional quantitative methods with statistical approaches
that heavily depends on estimates of constant failure rates of
electrical components to qualitative PoF methods with cost
effective simulations.
Future work to investigate the application of the Automated
System solution in complex system integrated diagnostic
analysis using electronic physical stress could lead to
potential solutions in order to calculate and simulate
electronic wear for optimal diagnostic and maintenance