Thermo-mechanical simulation of PCB with embedded components

In recent years, in order to increase density and performance of electronic boards, components are embedded in internal layers of printed circuit boards (PCBs). The reliability of this new technology has to be investigated to ensure the working of the electronic boards submitted to harsh environment and long mission profiles. To study the thermo-mechanical behavior of these boards, finite element simulations have been performed. It is observed that embedded passive chips are subjected to complex loading during the lamination process, due mostly to shrinkage of the resin, differences in material properties and also because of temperature excursion. The effects of material parameters and of the geometrical configuration are investigated in details. It will be shown that the generated stresses are not critical for the passive chip size considered in the present work. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.