In recent years, the printed circuit board assembly industry has seen more and more automation in comparison to previous years. Automation eases tasks, makes work faster, quicker, and reduces human error. However, it can also cause issues in production if not carefully examined. This is because a number of factors can lead to PCBA assembly failure. When it comes to assembling them, there is more to it than just having the skills and tools for the job. Now, let us have a look at some common causes of PCB assembly failure.
Insufficient soldering
The main reason for insufficient soldering is that it’s easy to miss spots when you’re trying to solder large areas of copper traces in a circuit board. If you’re using a stencil or other tool, there’s always a chance that you will miss a spot and your solder will not make contact with the trace at all. Without this connection, it won’t conduct electricity properly.
This can also occur when the solder paste or flux is not applied correctly, or if the components are not placed correctly on the board. Insufficient solder can also lead to a poor connection between components and pads. This may lead to PCBA failure.
Excessive usage
PCBA’s are used in all types of electronic devices, and they can be subject to heavy use if they are, for example, part of the power supply or memory of a computer. Over time, this type of use can lead to increased wear and tear on them, which can result in malfunctioning or complete failure.
One possible solution would be to hire a quality control inspector who can inspect each part as it is being manufactured and ensure that it meets all necessary standards before moving on to the next step in production.
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are one of the most common causes of printed circuit board assembly failure. Environmental factors can include:
-Temperature: Temperature extremes can cause solder joints to fail. The best way to prevent this is to make sure that your PCBA is operating at an appropriate temperature range.
-Vibration: Vibration can cause solder joints to fail because they will loosen over time and eventually break. The best way to prevent this is by using vibration dampening methods when designing your PCBA.
-Humidity: Humidity can cause corrosion of metal parts in it which can lead to electrical shorts or other failures in the system. You can easily prevent this from happening by making sure that your circuit has adequate ventilation and does not get wet or dirty during operation.
Incompatible design
Poor design is one of the most common reasons for PCBA failure. A poorly designed circuit board can lead to a host of issues, including high failure rates, poor performance, and even damage to the product itself. To avoid these problems, engineers should consider using tools like FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) to create designs that are more robust than traditional ones.
Installation problems
Improper installation can also cause problems with them because they typically require precision alignment during PCB assembly. If these components are misaligned, this can lead to issues such as loose connections between layers and poor signal integrity between conductive traces on different layers.
Conclusion
In the end, PCBA assembly failure analysis is key here. Assemblies are checked for visual defects leaving the PCBA manufacturer, but before being shipped or installed. Visual inspection can only detect a small fraction of failures. Therefore, it is important that proper inspection should be carried out at every stage throughout the process to ensure that all can be avoided.