5 A Workflow Combining Ansys Sherlock, Icepak, and Mechanical to Evaluate the Reliability of Electronic Systems
Figure 9: Natural Convection Sherlock Solder Fatigue Results
The results show that without fans included in the housing, the Icepak-only analysis indicates that the PCBA will meet its reliability
goals under the analyzed loading and duty cycle, albeit with slim margin.
However, when the DCIR losses are included, the additional heating results in the PCBA missing its reliability goal by highlighting the
large BGA at the center of the board as a failure risk. This is a potential failure risk that may not have been properly identified without
the incorporation of HFSS in this workflow.
9. These results indicate that the natural convection solution will likely not be adequate for this use case, so the reliability of the
forced convection solution was next investigated.
All Components Pass Forced Convection without DCIR
All Components Pass Forced Convection with DCIR
