A System for First Order Reliability Estimation of Solder Joints in Area Array Packages

In this paper, a methodology, and a program based on the methodology are presented using which the reliability of solder joints for various values of design/process parameters can be estimated in seconds on a personal computer. The proposed methodology accurately captures the behavior of a solder joint in an artificial neural network (ANN) model trained to relate design as well as analysis parameters to fatigue life. The proposed methodology is novel since such simultaneous analysis and design (SAND) procedures do not appear to have been employed until now for reliability estimation of solder joints. The use of Moiré interferometry as an experimental technique to estimate the analysis-related inputs to the neural network model is also presented in the paper.