Stiffness and Fatigue Study for Surface Mounted Module/Lead/Card Systems

Modules attached to circuit cards by peripheral J- and gullwing leads were studied for their behavior under flexure. Three aspects of mechanical behavior were focused upon: the stiffness of the system, the forces arising in the leads, and the fatigue strength of the latter. The effective stiffness of a module-reinforced circuit card was measured experimentally in several configurations (load on card and load-on-module, double-sided and stacked). The leaded attachments were in two parallel rows. Analytical modeling of these tests were performed considering the leads as a continuous elastic foundation connecting the module and the card; test results were corroborated. Experiments were also conducted to establish the elastic and elastoplastic range of lead stiffness in three perpendicular directions: in two shearing planes and axially. The latter was the stiffest and most significant direction, motivating much of the present analysis. For lead force, the analytical procedure yielded values which were confirmed by finite element computation methods described previously by Engel (1990). Fatigue tests were performed on both J- and gullwing leads. Solder joints failed in the former, while lead failures occurred in the latter.