Vibration lifetime modelling of PCB assemblies using steinberg model

Abstract Automotive requirements are nowadays not only limited to high temperatures but more and more demands are driven towards vibration and higher acceleration values due to the direct mounting of the Electronic Control Units on the Engine. Temperature cycle testing and combined testing methods have been under study for a long time but literature concerning Vibration Modelling is very poor in comparison with thermal models like Arrhenius or thermo-mechanical based models like Coffin-Manson. In this article, a revisit of the Steinberg Model is presented with a direct application on tantalum capacitors populated boards. Experimental results with various sinusoidal excitation g-level are presented; whereas on the other side FEM simulations are performed and results are implemented in the Steinberg Model, in order to identify model parameters.