Predictive modeling of board level shock-impact reliability of the HVQFN-family

A semi-empirical model is derived to predict the board level drop-impact lifetime of HVQFN-packages soldered on a printed circuit board. The strain that evolves in the soldered interconnections is evaluated by a finite element model and related to the experimentally determined lifetime. The result is a power law and it is compared to literature data. In addition, a measure for the strain on the board is obtained analytically and compared with the experimental data. Here, too, dependence in the form of a power law is found. The combination of both results strongly suggests a near-linear relationship between the strain in the solder and the strain in the board.