Use direct cyclic and sub-modeling approach to analyze solder joint fatigue reliability

Temperature change under the operating condition of an electronic product often leads to stress reversals and the accumulation of inelastic energy at the solder joints inside the packaging, resulting in the initiation and propagation of cracks in the solder joints. It is desired to predict the critical location of ball grid array (BGA) undergoing low-cycle fatigue and the fatigue life of the critical solder joints numerically to assess the development risks and guide the product design. This paper presents an approach by combining the direct cyclic method implemented by Abaqus and the sub-modeling method to achieve both goals with better computing efficiency than the traditional global-local approach.