24th Capacitor and Resistor Technology Symposium, San Antonio, Texas, March 29 - April 1, 2004.

Lead Free Solder and Flex Cracking Failures in Ceramic Capacitors

N. Blattau, D. Barker and C. Hillman
CALCE EPSC
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742

Abstract:

Many companies have experienced failure of multilayer ceramic capacitors due to printed wiring board bending and have placed controls in their manufacturing process to limit the amount of bending (or flexure) of the PWB to eliminate these failures. The shift to Pb-free solders may require these limits to be adjusted to ensure that MLCC bending failures are avoided. Elastic-plastic finite-element simulations were utilized to study the effects that three different solders have on the durability of a 0805 capacitor as it undergoes a standard three point bend test. The solder attaching a MLCC is a critical path in which printed wiring board loads are transferred into the capacitor, therefore the solder properties play an important role in the durability of ceramic chip capacitors.

Complete article is available to CALCE Consortium Members.

 



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