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Influence of Printed Circuit Board Dynamics on the Fretting Wear of Electronic Connectors: A Dynamic Analysis Approach

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Abstract

The harsh operating environment of automotive and aerospace applications causes printed circuit board (PCB) connectors to be susceptible to intermittent high contact resistance, which eventually leads to a failure resulting in the loss of signal integrity. Pin fretting within the mating connector is often the cause of these failures. Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in the laboratory-based testing of sample connectors for pin fretting. These laboratory-based results have shown the primary cause of pin fretting to be due to the relative motion within the mating connector. However, quantification of the relative motion in different vibration environments by considering the dynamics of PCBs has not been studied yet. This paper develops a new methodology for studying pin fretting within the mating connector. The developed methodology is based on the quantification of relative motion as a measure of pin fretting by considering the dynamics of PCBs, printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs), and mounting brackets. To do this, a continuous, lightly damped, multi-degree of freedom (MDOF) model is developed for the assembly consisting of PCBs, PCBAs, and mounting brackets. The behavior of the system is investigated by exciting the system using harmonic and random vibration signals. In the harmonic signal analysis, a frequency domain-based approach is presented to compute the relative motion of the mating connector, while a pseudo-random time series signal derived from the power spectrum density (PSD) of the signal is used to excite the system for the random vibration excitation analysis. The relative response vector is then computed based on the system’s response. The results of the relative motion of the mating connectors are presented in terms of the maximum amplitude of relative motion and the cumulative relative movement. The significance of the cumulative relative movement is that the complex phenomenon of pin fretting in the mating connectors can be represented by a simple time series model that can be used to correlate the material degradation. Finally, two numerical examples using the analytical and finite element-based (FE) technique are shown to demonstrate the proposed methodology. The examples show that the method proposed here is systematic and constructive in quantifying the pin fretting behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, 77710, USA

    Sushil Doranga & Jenny Zhou

  2. Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, Appalachian State, University, Boone, NC, 28608, USA

    Ram Poudel

Authors
  1. Sushil Doranga
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  2. Jenny Zhou
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  3. Ram Poudel
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Correspondence to Sushil Doranga.

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Doranga, S., Zhou, J. & Poudel, R. Influence of Printed Circuit Board Dynamics on the Fretting Wear of Electronic Connectors: A Dynamic Analysis Approach. J Electron Test 38, 493–510 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-022-06022-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-022-06022-x

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