Modal Analysis and Mechanical Shock Simulation of a Printed Circuit Board

An electronic package consists of printed circuit boards (PCBs) placed in a casing joined together. Electronic equipment is subjected to severe vibrations during its lifetime; these vibrations can damage electronic components. Printed circuit boards are required to be ana-lyzed electrically as well as mechanically for optimized performance. In this paper, finite el-ement analysis (FEA) of a PCB is carried out in ANSYS and the results are validated using the modal testing. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of the PCB are determined, and the effect of mechanical shock on the PCB is also evaluated. The results show that the PCB has three resonance points in the frequency range of 0-1000 Hz. The mode shapes related to each natural frequency are also obtained using ANSYS software. The FE model is used to analyse the shock response of the board to a half-sine pulse force in different directions and determine the maximum stresses in the system.

Keywords:

finite element analysis , printed circuit board , modal testing , mechanical shock