Impact of solder-joint tilting on the reliability of LED-based PCB assemblies: A combined experimental and FEM analysis

The impact of solder-joint tilting on the reliability of high-power LEDs soldered on PCBs is investigated by means of FEM simulations correlated with thermal cycling experiments. A non-uniform solder joint stand-off height is implemented into the FEM and, using crack propagation modelling approach, the number of cycles to complete fracture are predicted.