PCB testing

By combining electronic and mechanical testing through mounting the board under test in a cantilevered or two-support beam position and subjecting it to an oscillating force, important reliability information can be gained and incipient failure modes; eg, track breakage, SMD and pin joint failures revealed.

The board to be tested is subjected to various vibration frequencies and known micro-strain values as measured by strain gauges mounted on the board. The strain gauges (Kyowa SKF and KFRS series) have small footprints with the KFRS (1.2 x 1.1 mm) being suitable for on-device mounting as well as in between-device spaces.

The gauges are designed to mimic the expansion coefficients of PCB materials and can withstand large temperature cycling (from -30 to +120°C for the KFRS), permitting testing in environmental chambers.

The gauges can be interfaced to a computer using the Kyowa PCD-300A interface or to the Kyowa 32 channel or 64 channel version EDX-2000A memory record/analyser which provides FFT and histogram analyses as well as permitting other mathematical manipulation.