A HALT Qualification Electronic Packaging Proof Of Concept

As a HALT proof of concept, electronic package designs for long-duration deep space missions were evaluated and refined using the HALT technique across a wide temperature range (-150°C to +125°C). Testing procedures that encompass extreme temperatures and dynamic shock step processing from 0 to 50g of acceleration are included in HALT.

As a result of the repetitive stress on the test vehicle components caused by the HALT testing, which revealed design defects by causing craftsmanship and/or manufacturing errors, this study. The objective is to reduce the time it takes to produce a product so that the quality of the package design may be increased. For a variety of projects at JPL and NASA, advanced electronic package designs and surface mount technology processes, such as BGA, PBGA, CVBA, QFP, MLF, and other passive components, were used to create a test article. These include: ball grid arrays, plastic ball grid arrays, very thin chip array ball grid arrays. They were tied together and monitored independently during the HALT test. After that, the HALT method was utilized to predict and assess the reliability and survivability of these enhanced packing approaches for long-duration deep space missions in much shorter test durations. The test items were constructed using advanced electronic package designs, which are expected to be useful in a range of NASA programs. Individual electronic packages were daisychained in order to maintain the continuation of the individual electronic packages.

 

The HALT Test

In order to keep track of the daisy chain package continuity throughout the HALT testing, a data recording device was deployed. Shock levels of 40g to 50g have been tested on the boards at temperatures ranging from +125°C to -150°C throughout our testing. Shock intensities of 50g are possible with the HALT system even when the weather is normal. G levels of 5 to 50g, test durations of 10 to 60 minutes and temperatures of up to +125°C were only some of the circumstances that the test boards were put to. They were also tested at -150°C. In the HALT test, the PBGA package's electrical continuity testing indicated an open circuit, although the BGA, MLF, and QFP packages showed modest variations in electrical continuity values. The PBGA electrical continuity problem surfaced on the test board within 12 hours of commencing the accelerated test.

Similar test boards were built and thermally cycled individually from -150 to +125°C, and electrical continuity was determined for each package design. Electrical continuity was observed in an unexpected manner after 959 heating cycles in the PBGA package on the test board. To put it another way, the PBGA's thermal cycling alone needed 2.33 hours each cycle, which translates to 2,237 hours of testing (or 3.1 months). Thermal cycling and stress combined to cause the breakdown of the PBGA electronic package in under 12 hours. This was 186 times faster than the heat cycle test alone (more than 2 orders of magnitude). An accelerated process for predicting the life of a package component in a certain environment may save significant time and money if both tests show the same failure reasons.

 

Inquiry Is Necessary

Testing of the HALT technique on a range of more complex electrical packaging components is being conducted on the test board. A much shorter test program may be utilized to anticipate the number of mission heat cycles till failure using this information. For both trials, further study is being done to produce a consistent temperature range for the various components to be examined. Because of this, one can anticipate how long a given test board will last at a certain temperature and stress level based on its physical characteristics.