December 12, 2011

Printed Circuit Board Failure determination - The Basics

Complex electronic devices have relied on integrated circuits (Ics) on Printed Circuit Boards (Pcbs) for quite a while now. Though any advances in technology have been made, the fundamentals remain the same. Pressure to pack more circuitry into a smaller area has increased the density of these boards and along with such designs, come many separate errors. Greater complexity ensures that new types of flaws will emerge and the small size of the chips makes them difficult to detect.

Printed Circuit Board Failure determination deals with the detection of these errors. Over the years, many techniques have whether emerged or been modified to detect flaws with divurgent degrees of details and perspectives. In this article, we take a brief look at some of the flaws in Pcbs as well as the techniques for detecting them.

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Flaws in Pcbs

Broadly speaking, we can name three major types of flaws that plague Pcbs. Flaws relating to material defects, flaws appealing faulty electrical connections and flaws appealing a corporeal breakdown. Pcb materials are built to spoton specifications. Semiconductors need to have the exact specifications in order for them to have the spoton found properties.

When trace materials are present above the threshold, the Pcb won't work as specified. Looking out whether or not it contains trace materials is the job of failure analysts. Due to the complexity of the circuits, electrical problems can be very common. But it's often difficult to detach these flaws.

One electronic failure determination technique we use to test is to originate a heat map of the entire chip. Overheating in any area is a strong indication of an electrical fault though the actual problem might lie elsewhere. Nevertheless, it's a beneficial beginning point.

Finally, corporeal breakdowns such as rust and fractures are also common. There are many types of cracks such as fatigue cracks, brittle cracks and environmental stress cracks. Looking out which type of crack it is enables us to also address the basic problem which led to the flaw in the first place, which is the of course, the final goal of this exercise.

Detection techniques

A large whole of failure detection techniques have been industrialized to deal with each type of flaw. Spectroscopy is used to locate trace elements, microthermography is used to detect dinky heat traces. Varied types of penetrant testing are used to seek corporeal flaws in the substance. Each type of detection has many techniques, each of which has its own pros and cons.

For example, microscopy can contain emission spectroscopy, acoustic microscopy, and electron microscopy. Microthermography includes Liquid crystal imaging and fluroscent microthermal imaging. corporeal breakdowns can be detected using acoustic microscopy and x-ray imaging.

Sometimes many separate tests are valuable to get a complete photograph of what's gone wrong. The company, the type of test required, and the budget will all couple to decide which one is used. Without Printed Circuit Board Failure Analysis, we would be thoroughly lost when a Pcb malfunctions.

Summary

Through printed circuit board determination you will be able to know which of the three types of flaw has caused error in your circuitry which are flaws relating to material defects, flaws appealing faulty electrical connections and flaws appealing a corporeal breakdown. The use of the spoton detection techniques by inspecting the company, the type of test required, and the budget will all couple to decide which technique is used. A Printed Circuit Board Failure determination will be thoroughly beneficial when a Pcb malfunctions.

Printed Circuit Board Failure determination - The Basics

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