Multiscale characterization of the mechanical behavior of a printed circuit board (PCB)

Auteurs

Atintoh A., Kpobie W., Bonfoh N., Fendler M., Addiego F., Lipinski P.

Référence

Materials Today Communications, vol. 34, art. no. 104968, 2023

Description

The present study focuses on the development of a multiscale method to assess the mechanical properties of a printed circuit board (PCB). The considered PCB is a woven laminate composite that comprises copper traces and FR4 glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composite. Due to the complexity of its microstructure, the effective mechanical properties of PCB are not well known, requiring the development of a new characterization method. Experimental testing was performed to determine the in-plane mechanical properties. Nanoindentation and microscopic observations were used to obtain information about the internal structure of the laminate. Since these pieces of information were incomplete, an inverse homogenization method was implemented. This method combined the Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG) approach and an optimization algorithm. A specific Python script was written for this purpose. The main advantage of the proposed method is the complete characterization of the mechanical properties of an unknown PCB and the lack of need for a particular supplier design. Furthermore, the computation time and the modeling effort were low. Finally, the use of a single script to do all the steps reduces the cost time and makes it adaptable and convenient.

Lien

doi:10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104968