Investigation of the effect and optimization of material properties on the printed circuit board

Abstract

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) have a sandwich structure consisting of an insulating composite layer between conductive copper layers. The material property of the PCB cannot be defined as isotropic due to this special structure. In addition, variables such as the types of hundreds of components on the PCB, material properties, types of solder leads, and thickness of the sandwich structure make it very difficult to create and verify the finite element model of the PCB. The aim of this study is to perform a sensitivity analysis by defining the strain values measured from three points on the PCB with the help of strain gauges as responses and to find the best design variables that correlate with the physical test. The effect of each design parameter on the response function was examined, and the results were obtained with statistical data. The objective function and constraints were determined to find the best correlated finite element model with a physical test, and the best design was obtained by running the optimization model. In this way, the finite element model was calibrated by taking into account the thermal stresses resulting from the heat generated by the transistors and by using optimization methods.