Simulation-Based Assessment of Vibration Fatigue in Printed Circuit Boards Using Steinberg’s Method

Presentation by Bharadwaj Gundepudi, Senior Application Engineer at Altair as part of Altair's Simulate at the Speed of Design 2025 conference.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) subjected to random vibration environments are highly susceptible to fatigue failures, particularly at component interconnections such as solder joints and ball grid arrays (BGAs). In this study, a simulation-based approach is developed to predict the vibration-induced fatigue life of a PCB assembly populated with electronic components. The workflow includes material modeling of the PCB and mounted components, modal analysis to extract the fundamental natural frequencies and mode shapes, and random vibration response analysis based on specified power spectral density (PSD) profiles. Maximum PCB displacement responses are obtained from simulation results and correlated to critical component locations across the assembly. Fatigue life estimation is performed using the Steinberg empirical method, which relates board displacement to component lead fatigue life under random vibration. The methodology enables rapid fatigue risk screening of critical components without requiring full solder joint finite element modeling.