Influence of Directional Random Vibration on the Fatigue Life of Solder Joints in a Power Module

In this paper, fatigue life of solder joints of the power module and the printed circuit board in a power inverter under directional random vibration using the finite element method (FEM) was evaluated. Five angles of 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90° were selected for direction of vibration loading. The simulation results showed that the outermost corner of the solder layer undergoes the maximum stress during the vibration frequencies in all the situations. In general, with the increase of input frequency, the solder joints got more susceptible to the catastrophic failure. Moreover, it was found that in lower angles of loading direction, the peeling stress is dramatically increased in the solder layer. This event can be attributed to the considerable portion of shear stress in loading directions with lower angles. The experimental results also proved the FEM simulation and showed that the void growth and coalescence, resulted by fatigue, are intensified in the lower angles of vibration loading. Overall, this paper indicates that the reliability of a power module under a normal loading (90°) is the highest among all other conditions.