Simulation of drop/impact reliability for electronic devices

The drop test simulation had been adopted by industries for years, it is still a challenging problem to replace the physical test, which requires the drop test simulation to supply reliable results and sufficient information. Another challenging requirement is to detect the failure inside small components during the product level drop test simulation. In this paper, the finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate drop test numerically, while the attention is paid to the methodology for analyzing the reliability of electronic devices under drop impact. Modeling and simulation method for such kind of complex structure is discussed. Some important issues, such as control of the simulation and material model, are addressed. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the application of FEM on virtual product development. Effective modeling and simulation method are concluded from the numerical example and authors’ experience accumulated from serial industry projects on drop impact simulations.