Vibration-Induced Failures in Automotive Electronics: Knowledge-Based Qualification Perspective

Abstract

This paper intends to address an important gap between reliability standards and the physics of how components respond to real use conditions using a knowledge-based qualification (KBQ) process. Bridging the gap is essential to developing test methods that better reflect field performance. With the growth in importance of automotive market and the wide usage of electronics in this market, vibration-induced failures was chosen for this study. MIL-STD-810G and ISTA4AB are couple of industry standards that address the risk of shipping finished goods to a customer. For automotive electronic products that are exposed to vibration conditions all through their life, USCAR-2 and GMW3172 are more relevant. Even though the usage models and transportation duration for shipping fully packaged systems is different from automotive electronics, the source of energy (road conditions), driving the risks, are similar. The industry standards-based damage models appear to be generic, covering a wide variety of products and failure modes. Whereas, the KBQ framework, used in this paper, maps use conditions to accelerated test requirements for only two failure modes: solder joint fatigue and socket contact fretting. The mechanisms were chosen to be distinct with different damage metric and drivers. The process is intended to explain how industry standards reflect field risks for two of the risks relevant for automotive electronics.