Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833

www.elsevier.com/locate/nel
Finite-element analysis of a PBGA assembly under
isothermal}mechanical twisting loading
Q.J. Yang

, X.Q. Shi, Z.P. Wang, Z.F. Shi

Gintic Institute of Manufacturing Technology, 71 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 638075, Singapore
Received 16 December 2001; accepted 2 May 2002
Abstract
In order to reduce the reliability testing time for new electronic products, a new highly accelerated
mechanical-thermal (HAMT) test system has been developed. In this system, a cyclic out-of-plane defor-
mation is imposed on a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly by twisting the PCB mechanically inside a
thermal chamber. The combined eects of the mechanical deformation and the coecient of thermal expan-
sion (CTE) mismatch of dierent materials accelerate the failure of solder joints, so as to reduce the reliability
testing time of the PCB assembly. To verify the test method, HAMT tests of plastic ball grid array (PBGA)
assemblies were carried out in an isothermal environment. Finite-element (FE) simulations were conducted
to predict the reliability of the PBGA assemblies under the isothermal}mechanical twisting (ITMT) loading
condition. In this paper, the simulation results are presented. The failure locations in the PBGA solder joints
under the ITMT loading condition are investigated, and the fatigue life of the interconnections is predicted
using Darveauxs crack initiation and growth model. The simulation results exhibit a good correlation with
the test results. ? 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: FEA; PBGA; Low-cycle fatigue; Solder joint; Electronic packaging
1. Introduction
Reliability is one of the major concerns in the development of new electronics products, particularly
the low-cycle fatigue failure of solder joints induced by temperature uctuations [1]. Accelerated
temperature cycling (ATC) tests are widely used in the electronics industry to assess the reliability
of new electronic products against the low-cycle fatigue in eld environment. However this test
method is expensive and time consuming. To reduce the reliability testing time in the development
of new products, a highly accelerated mechanical-thermal (HAMT) test system has been developed.

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qjyang@gintic.gov.sg (Q.J. Yang).
0168-874X/02/$ - see front matter ? 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0168- 874X(02)00134- 8
820 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
Fig. 1. The highly accelerated mechanical-thermal (HAMT) test system.
In this test system, a cyclic out-of-plane deformation is imposed on a printed circuit board (PCB)
assembly inside a thermal chamber by twisting the PCB mechanically. The combined eects of
the mechanical deformation and the coecient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch of dierent
materials accelerate the failure of solder joints, so as to reduce the reliability testing time of the
PCB assembly.
The setup of the HAMT test system is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a thermal chamber, a
PCB grip xture, a servomotor, a data logger system and a computer. The thermal chamber creates
either an isothermal or a temperature cycling environment. The low and high temperature limits of the
system are 75

C and 190

C, respectively. The servomotor at the bottom edge of the PCB assembly

imposes a mechanical load on the PCB assembly by twisting the PCB, while the top edge of the
assembly is xed by the xture. The computer controls both temperature and mechanical loading
proles. The data logger system, connected to the computer, continuously monitors the electrical
resistance of the components mounted on the PCB throughout the test.
Test results have shown that under an isothermal}mechanical twisting (ITMT) loading condition
with a constant temperature of 100

C and a twisting angle of 5

, the reliability testing time of a

plastic ball grid array (PBGA) assembly could be dramatically reduced by using this HAMT test
system as compared with the conventional ATC testing of the same assembly [2]. In order to verify
the test results, nite-element (FE) simulations of the PBGA assembly under the ITMT loading
condition were carried out. In this paper, the FE modeling of the PBGA assembly and the simula-
tion results under the ITMT loading condition are presented. The failure locations in PBGA solder
joints are investigated, and the fatigue life of the PBGA solder joints is predicted using Darveauxs
crack initiation and growth model. The simulation results show a good agreement with the test
results.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 821
2. Finite-element modeling of the PBGA assembly
Fig. 2 shows a picture of the PBGA assembly. There are three PBGA components mounted
symmetrically on an FR-4 PCB. Fig. 3 shows the schematic cross-section of a PBGA component. It
has 256 tinlead (SnPb) eutectic solder joints which are interconnected by 128 couples of shorted
copper pads on the BT substrate. The overmold has a chamfered body, and measures 27 mm27 mm
with an overall thickness of 2.3 mm. The pitch of solder joints is 1.5 mm. The copper pads on the
component and PCB sides are 0.04 mm in thickness, with a diameter of 0.54 mm. The PCB is made
of FR-4, and measures 210 mm 140 mm with a thickness of 1.6 mm.
Fig. 2. The PBGA assembly.
Fig. 3. Schematic cross-section of a PBGA component.
822 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
Fig. 4. Cross-section of a PBGA solder joint.
Table 1
Dimensions of the PBGA assembly
Material Height (mm) Length (mm) Width (mm)
PCB 1.575 150 150
Copper pad 0.04 [ = 0.54
Solder ball 0.62 [ = 0.82
BT substrate 0.36 27 27
Silicon die 0.45 10 10
Overmold 1.05 24 24
To determine the actual dimensions of the solder joints, several PBGA components were cross-
sectioned. Fig. 4 shows the cross-section of a typical PBGA solder joint. The solder joint dimensions
were then measured from the SEM pictures of all the cross-sectioned components, and averaged to
give the nominal dimensions of the solder joint, which are listed together with other important
dimensions in Table 1. It should be noted that the length of the PCB shown in the table is not the
actual length of the PCB, but the length of the free span between the xtures clamping the PCB at
top and bottom edges.
The overmold, silicon die and copper pads were modeled as linear isotropic materials. The BT
substrate and FR-4 PCB were modeled as linear orthotropic materials whose in-plane and out-of-plane
mechanical properties were dierent. The Youngs moduli, Poissons ratios, CTEs of these materials
are listed in Table 2, which are taken from Ref. [3].
The mechanical properties of the SnPb eutectic solder were determined from comprehensive
material tests carried out at dierent temperatures and strain rates [4]. In the current study, as the
strain rate eect was considered in the creep model, the material test results at one particular strain
rate of 1.010
3
sec
1
were used to establish the elastic and plastic properties of the SnPb eutectic
solder. The elastic properties of the SnPb eutectic solder are shown in Table 3, while the plastic
properties are shown in Fig. 5.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 823
Table 2
Mechanical properties of constituent materials
Material Youngs modulus (GPa) Poissons ratio CTE (ppm}

C)
Molding compound 16.52 0.25 14.8
Silicon die 130.36 0.28 2.5
Copper pad 129.93 0.34 16.8
BT substrate (in-plane) 15.11 0.11 12.5
BT substrate (out-of-plane) 6.59 0.39 57.0
FR4 PCB (in-plane) 19.68 0.11 17.6
FR4 PCB (out-of-plane) 8.55 0.39 64.1
Table 3
Elastic properties of SnPb eutectic solder
Temperature (

C) Youngs modulus (GPa) Yield stress (MPa) Poissons ratio CTE (ppm}

C)
40 29.00 45.90 0.4 21.0
25 22.39 30.04 0.4 21.0
75 17.31 21.25 0.4 21.0
125 12.23 16.51 0.4 21.0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Strain (mm/mm)
S
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
40 C
25 C
75 C
125 C
_
Fig. 5. Plastic properties of SnPb eutectic solder.
824 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
Fig. 6. FE model of the PBGA assembly: (a) Full model; (b) Zoom-in.
Fig. 7. FE model of solder joints: (a) All solder joints; (b) A corner solder joint.
The creep model used for the SnPb eutectic solder was [5]:
=C
1
G
1

sinh

:
t
G

n
1
exp

Q
1
R1

+C
2
G
1

sinh

:
t
G

n
2
exp

Q
2
R1

(1)
where is the shear strain and is the shear strain rate, C
1
=210
5
and C
2
=2.510
1
are material
constants, : =1289, n
1
=5 and n
2
=3 are stress exponents, Q
1
=48.5 KJ}mol and Q
2
=81.5 KJ}mol
are activation energies for the grain boundary creep and the matrix creep, respectively, G is the
temperature-dependent shear modulus of the SnPb eutectic solder, given by
G = (24782 39.631)(MPa), (2)
where 1 is the absolute temperature in Kelvin.
As the test results had shown that the central PBGA component failed rst in most cases [2],
only the central component was modeled to reduce the size of FE model. Considering the symmetry
of the PBGA assembly, only half of the assembly was modeled. Fig. 6 shows the 3D FE model
of the assembly, in which 128 solder joints were modeled. Coarse mesh (16 elements) was used to
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 825
model all the solder joints except those at the corners of the PBGA component to further reduce the
size of the FE model. The corner solder joints were identied as the critical joints by the reliability
tests of the assembly [2], and modeled using a higher mesh density. Fig. 7(a) shows the FE model
of all the solder joints, while Fig. 7(b) shows the ne mesh for the corner solder joints. Totally,
54 641 nodes and 50 684 3D elements were used in constructing the model.
3. Simulation results
In the simulation, the temperature was xed at 100

C, and two sets of displacement constraints

shown in Fig. 8 were imposed at the edges of the assembly. The xed end was constrained at all
degrees of freedom, while the twisting end was rotating along the axis lying in the middle plane of
the PCB on the symmetrical plane. At the same time, the symmetrical plane was assumed to twist
around the same axis as the twisting end with a twisting angle of
0

(x) =
x
L
0, (3)
where 0 is the rotating angle of the twisting end, L is the length of the PCB and x is the distance from
the xed end. The twisting angle of the symmetrical plane changes with the distance from the xed
end. It is zero at the xed end, and 0 at the twisting end. With this assumption, the displacements
for all nodes on the symmetrical plane were calculated and imposed as the displacement constraints
on the symmetrical plane.
The simulation started from 0 degree of twisting angle; ramped down to 5 degrees in 30 s; held
for 180 s and then ramped up to 5

in 60 s; held for 180 s again and lastly twisted back to 0

in
30 s to complete one cycle. This process repeated until four cycles were completed. The twisting
prole for one full cycle is depicted in Fig. 9.
A commercial FE simulation software, ABAQUS}Standard version 5.8, was used for the sim-
ulation. The elastic and plastic material properties of the SnPb eutectic solder were input as
Fig. 8. Boundary conditions for ITMT analysis.
826 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
0 100 200 300 400 500
-6
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
T
w
i
s
t
i
n
g

a
n
g
l
e

(
d
e
g
)
Time (s)
Fig. 9. Twisting prole.
Fig. 10. Deformations of the assembly: (a) At 5

; (b) At +5

.
temperature-dependent mechanical properties. The creep model of the SnPb eutectic solder,
Eq. (1), was implemented using a user subroutine and a quasi-static analysis technique was em-
ployed to include the time-dependent eect. The loading history was divided into steps, and the
temperature ramp-up, ramp-down and holding at 5

of twisting angle were simulated in dierent

steps. The simulation ran for four complete cycles continuously. The deformations of the PBGA
assembly at 5

and +5

of twisting angle are presented in Fig. 10(a) and (b) respectively.

Simulation results revealed that the plastic strain in the solder joints was negligible. The inelastic
deformations of all the solder joints were dominated by the creep strain. Fig. 11 shows the distribution
of the accumulated creep strain in the solder joints at the end of the fourth cycle. This distribution
provides valuable information that can be used to identify the most critical solder joint. This most
critical solder joint has the largest accumulated creep strain, and is most likely to fail rst [1]. In
the current study, the largest accumulated creep strain was identied to occur in one corner solder
joint near the twisting end, as shown in Fig. 11.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 827
Fig. 11. Creep strain distribution in solder joints.
0.1 0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15
25
20
15
10
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
Equivalent creep strain (mm/mm)
V
o
n

M
i
s
e
s

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Holding at 5 deg
Twisting to +5 deg
Holding at +5 deg
Twisting to 5 deg
_
_
_
_
_
_ _
Fig. 12. The hysteresis loop.
Fig. 12 shows the hysteresis relationship between the von Mises stress and the equivalent creep
strain in the element where the maximum accumulated creep strain is identied. It can be seen that
the von Mises stress is within a range from 25.0 to 25.0 MPa, while the equivalent creep strain
falls between 0.10 and 0.15. To generate this hysteresis relationship, a positive or negative sign
has been assigned to the von Mises stress and the equivalent creep strain according to the stress or
strain status in the element. For example, when the PCB assembly is twisted to +5

, the element is
in a compression state and the equivalent creep strain quickly changes to a negative value. When
the PCB assembly is twisted to 5

, the element is in a tensile state and the equivalent creep strain

828 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
becomes positive in sign immediately. At the holding at both +5

and 5

of twisting angle, a
signicant stress relaxation is observed because of the creep eect. The absolute value of the von
Mises stress decreases when no extra loading is applied to the PCB assembly, and the absolute value
of the creep strain increases. In other words, the creep behavior of the solder material signicantly
aects both the stress and inelastic strain in the solder joint.
4. Fatigue life prediction
Over the last two decades, many models have been developed to estimate the low-cycle fatigue
life of SnPb eutectic solder joints. Among these models, the crack initiation and growth model
proposed by Darveaux in 1995 [6], and revised in 2000 [7], is one of the widely accepted models.
In Darveauxs model, the fatigue life of a solder joint is determined by the cycles for the crack
initiation, N
0
, and cycles for the crack growth, N
1
, which is dened by a crack propagation rate,
da}dN
1
. N
0
and da}dN
1
are derived from a volume-weighted average viscoplastic strain energy
density
N
0
=K
1
W
K
2
avg
, (4)
da
dN
1
=K
3
W
K
4
avg
, (5)
where K
1
, K
2
, K
3
, and K
4
are the crack growth constants, a is the characteristic crack length (pad
diameter), and W
avg
is the volume-weighted average viscoplastic strain energy density dened by
W
avg
=
2(W J)
2J
, (6)
where the 2 operation includes all the elements in a thin layer that contains the crack propagation
path in the solder joint, W is the viscoplastic strain energy density accumulated in one cycle for
any element in the thin layer, and J is its volume. If the crack propagation rate is assumed as a
constant, the fatigue life of the solder joint,N, in terms of cycles, can be calculated as
N =N
0
+
a
da}dN
1
. (7)
The test results of the PBGA assembly showed that the low-cycle fatigue failure was caused by
a crack near the interface between the solder joint and the copper pad on the component side, as
shown in Fig. 13(a). A preliminary simulation also veried this location as shown in Fig. 13(b).
Therefore, a thin layer with a thickness of 0.0254 mm at its center was dened at the top of the
most critical solder joint. Fig. 14 shows the nite elements of this thin layer.
Fig. 15 depicts the history of the accumulated volume-weighted average creep energy density for
the thin layer. Using Eq. (7), and the crack growth constants: K
1
=56300, K
2
=1.62, K
3
=3.3410
7
and K
4
= 1.04 suggested by Darveaux [7], the fatigue life of the PBGA assembly is predicted as in
Table 4, in which W
avg
is the accumulated volume-weighted average creep strain energy density
in one cycle. Its unit has been converted from a Metric Unit (MPa) to an English Unit of si as
Darveaux developed the model in English Unit. The mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) of the test results
is also shown in Table 1. From these results, it can be seen that the fatigue life predicted by using
Darveauxs crack initiation and growth model is very close to the MTTF of the test results.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 829
Fig. 13. Failure location in the solder joint. (a) Test result; (b) simulation result.
Fig. 14. Finite elements of a thin layer in the solder joint.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Cycle
V
o
l
u
m
e
_
w
e
i
g
h
t
e
d

A
v
e
r
a
g
e

C
r
e
e
p

S
t
r
a
i
n

E
n
e
r
g
y

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
M
P
a
)

Fig. 15. History of volume-weighted average viscoplastic strain energy density.
830 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
Table 4
Fatigue life prediction result
W
avg
(psi) Fatigue life (cycles)
Simulation result 403 128
Test results (MTTF) 124
5. Discussion
5.1. Verication of the symmetrical boundary condition
In the simulation discussed in the preceding sections, only one half of the assembly was modeled
to reduce the FE model size of the PBGA assembly. It was assumed that the symmetrical plane
was twisted along an axis lying in the middle plane of the PCB with a twisting angle dened by
Eq. (3). The benet of this assumption is obvious: the total number of elements is halved, and the
simulation time is reduced dramatically.
To verify this assumption, an FE model of the whole assembly was built using 108 914 nodes
and 101 368 elements. Fig. 16 displays the FE model of the whole assembly. The simulation results
of the whole assembly are shown in Fig. 17, together with the results using half of the assembly. It
can be seen from the gure, the dierence in the accumulated creep strain for three cycles is only
7.25%, while the von Mises stresses for the two cases are almost same. As for the volume-weighted
average creep strain energy density, the dierence is insignicant and dicult to observe from a plot
like the ones in Fig. 17. So it is not shown here. All these comparisons conrm that the assumption
on the symmetrical plane is reasonable, and will not aect the fatigue life prediction signicantly.
Although some small dierences are observed for the creep strain, the simplication is worthwhile
considering the tremendous saving on computer resources and the simulation time.
5.2. Eect of mesh density
In order to understand the eect of mesh density on the fatigue life prediction, the mesh in the
thin layer shown in Fig. 14 was rened. Fig. 18 shows the three cases studied, in which only one
half of the solder joint is depicted to clearly demonstrate the mesh renement. The two-layer mesh
shown in Fig. 18(a) is the case studied in the preceding sections, in which the thin layer is composed
of two layers of elements. The mesh was rened into three layers and four layers of elements for
other two cases as shown in Fig. 18(b) and (c), respectively, while the mesh for the rest of the
assembly was maintained as the same.
Fig. 19 shows the comparison of calculated volume-weighted creep strain energy densities for the
three cases, and Table 5 lists the fatigue life predictions.
It can be seen from Table 5 that the fatigue life prediction changes with the mesh density, although
the dierence is small, especially for the three-layer and four-layer cases. As a matter of fact, the
fatigue life prediction will be further decreased with a continued mesh renement. This is because
that the solder joint at the interface between the copper pad and solder was modeled as a sharp corner.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 831
Fig. 16. FE model of the whole PBGA assembly.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
Cycle
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

e
q
u
i
v
a
l
e
n
t

c
r
e
e
p

s
t
r
a
i
n

(
m
m
/
m
m
)
half assembly
whole assembly
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
5
10
15
20
25
Cycle
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

v
o
n

M
i
s
e
s

S
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)

half assembly
whole assembly
(a) (b)
Fig. 17. Comparison of analysis results: (a) Accumulated creep strain history; (b) von Mises stress history.
But in reality, there must be a small llet between the copper pad and solder joint. The idealization
in the FE modeling leads to a stress singularity at the interface between the copper pad and solder
joint. This stress singularity causes the strain at the interface increases with the mesh density, unless
the structural detail at the interface is modeled. However a detailed modeling of the interface between
the solder joint and copper pad is not practical. Firstly, it will increase the cost of FE simulations
exponentially, which is not allowed in the electronics industry where the time-to-market is a critical
factor for new products. Secondly, the detailed information about the interface structure is dicult
to obtain and may not be available because of the variations in the assembly process. On the other
hand, even if the detailed information of a specic solder joint is available, the simulation results
would be only valid for this particular solder joint, and not applicable to other solder joints. Since
the dierence in the life predictions for the three-layer and four-layer cases is very small, it is
reasonable to conclude that the fatigue life of the PBGA solder joint is around 100 cycles.
832 Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833
Fig. 18. Mesh renement in the solder joint: (a) Two-layer; (b) three-layer; (c) four-layer.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Cycle
V
o
l
u
m
e
-
w
e
i
g
h
t
e
d

A
v
e
r
a
g
e

C
r
e
e
p

S
t
r
a
i
n

E
n
e
r
g
y

D
e
n
s
i
t
y

(
M
P
a
)

two-
-
-
layer
three layer
four layer
Fig. 19. Comparison of volume-weighted average viscoplastic strain energy densities obtained from dierent mesh densities.
Q.J. Yang et al. / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 39 (2003) 819833 833
Table 5
Fatigue life predictions for dierent mesh densities
Mesh density W
avg
(psi) Fatigue life (cycles)
Two-layer 403 128
Three-layer 459 111
Four-layer 475 107
6. Conclusions
In this paper, nite-element analysis of a PBGA assembly under an ITMT loading condition
was carried out to verify a newly developed HAMT test method. The failure location in the PBGA
solder joints under the ITMT loading was investigated, and the fatigue life of the PBGA solder joints
was predicted using Darveauxs crack initiation and growth model. From the results, the following
conclusions could be reached:
(1) A good correlation between the simulation and test results was achieved, indicating that nite-
element analysis could provide valuable information on the low-cycle fatigue failure of solder
joints in electronic packaging. It could be applied to identify the failure location in the solder
joints, and to estimate the fatigue life of the solder joints.
(2) A symmetrical boundary condition was assumed to reduce the size of FE model of the PBGA
assembly. Although small dierences were observed for the creep strain, the simplication would
not aect the fatigue life prediction signicantly.
(3) Because of the idealization in modeling the solder joints, the fatigue life prediction varied with
the mesh density. But when the mesh density increased, the dierence in the life prediction
became small and negligible, and a reasonable life prediction could be made.
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