Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

August 5 - 8, 2007, Harbin, China

Study on Vibration Analysis for Printed Circuit Board

of An Electronic Apparatus

Jianfeng Ren and Gangying Feng

Limei Xu

Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics

University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610054,
China

Weibin Tang

Institute of southwest electronics

technology
Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610061,
China

Institute of Astronautics & Aeronautics

University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China
Chengdu, Sichuan Province 610054,
China

twb0609@163.com

rjf314@tom.com

xulimei@uestc.edu.cn

vibrations are transmitted throughout the PCB inducing strains

in the connectors, modules, and most importantly, the solder
joints attaching the components to the PCB. Pitarresi(1990)
[4], Pitarresi, et al.(1991) [5,6], Barker(1992) [7], and Pitarresi
and Primavera(1992) [8] addressed the issue of modeling
circuit cards populated components. As the appearance of IC
and SOC which have more and denser package pins, smaller
volume, and more functions, the reliability of PCB is facing
greater challenges. 27 percent of the invalidation of the
electronic equipments on-board is caused by vibration factors
[9]. Since it is known that such vibration factors can induce
various failures in the electronic apparatus, an understanding
of the dynamic response of the PCB is warranted.
Therefore how to keep the PCB from the interference of
acute vibration is the problem that should be taken into
consideration. In order to achieve a good vibration reliability
estimate, firstly, it is necessary to efficiently and accurately
model the systems. Once an accurate model is builded, the
design engineer can then proceed with greater confidence in
estimating the dynamic stress and reliability. There are two
kinds of vibration analysis methods for PCB. First, the modal
analysis of vibration by FEA (Finite Element Analysis) and
the next is performing the structure vibration experiment,
which could obtain characteristics of the PCB. The FE method
has been shown to be an effective and versatile computational
tool for determining the stresses [10-12] and the dynamic
characteristics [4,13,14] of a populated PCB. The objective of
this paper was to use a commercial finite element program
(ANSYS) as a tool for predicting dynamic response of the PCB.
This paper extended Pitarresis detailed FE modeling approach,
the detailed approach reduced the DOFs independently of the
overall assemblage, saving modeling time and computational
cost because the mass and stiffness matrices of each
component need only generate once. It successfully used for

Abstract -The estimation of the mechanical reliability of the

printed circuit board (PCB) in electronic apparatus was
considered to be an important part of the overall reliability
estimate. The vibration often plays the key cause of invalidation.
This paper addresses basic modeling issues and choice of four
modes of boundary condition to simulate the solder joints on the
PCB. The PCB is composed of laminated copper and FR-4 glass
epoxy. Finite element modelling of an electronic apparatus
module is used to estimate the modal characteristics. Large
components populated on the PCB, such as a crystal oscillator
and some integrated circuit blocks, are modeled as simple
homogenous, rectangular blocks or cylinders. The elastic
modulus for these components is determined by a designed
experimental test. The mode shapes and natural frequencies of
the PCB are computed and correlated with measurement by a
vibration experiment. The simulated results show a good
correlation with measured values. It is proved to be the potential
mean to predict vibration reliability estimation of the studied
object in advance.

Index Terms

- Modal Analysis, electronic apparatus module,

PCB, electromotive test.

I. INTRODUCTION
Currently, the electronic apparatus used on plane or ship
are suffered from a vile vibration. The consideration on
vibration problems in electronic system starts with two of the
earliest references: books by Eshleman (1972) [1] and
Steinberg (1988) [2]. In some case, the response of a shock
and/or vibration environment will be a significant contributor
to the overall damage. These dynamic effects, whether owing
to environment, manufacturing, shipping, handing, operation
or other cause, may results in large amplitudes and/or
acceleration levels being sustained by the structure [3]. The

1-4244-0828-8/07/$20.00 2007 IEEE.

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the PCB of an electronic apparatus. To this end, the natural

frequencies and mode shapes of populated PCB, obtained
from both a smeared FE analysis and experimental modal
analysis, are compared and correlated. The modal assurance
criterion (MAC) is used as a measure of the spatial correlation
between the FE and experimental mode shapes [15,16].

type, configuration, size, and support conditions [15], it is

obvious that a typical PCB populated with components is a
complex structure. Considering the model function of ANSYS
is not very strong, it is necessary to model the structure in
other 3D modal software and then import it into ANSYS by
the standard interface. In this article we use Solidworks2005.
The model of electronic apparatus for FEA is shown in figure1
and 2:

II. MODELING APPROACH

The electronic apparatus module is composed of the
peripheral aluminium frame and the inside PCB. Generally,
the inside PCB is a rectangular plate containing many
elements. The PCB referred in this paper includes a crystal
oscillator and some integrated circuit blocks which occupy a
considerable weight and stiffness of the PCB. It brings the
extra mass and stiffness, which will influence the dynamic
response including natural frequencies and mode shapes.
There are two major challenges to modelling the PCB for
vibration response. One arises from the wide variation in
stiffness due to large components on the flexible FR-4 board.
The second challenge is that the geometric scale of the board
compared with the features of solder joints is large. This
requires a great number of elements.
Pitarresi and Primavera (1992) have addressed the issue
of modeling circuit cards populated with components. Four
modeling approaches are employed for circuit cards. For
simple method, the effects of the added mass and stiffness of
components mounted to the PCB are ignored (hence a simple
model). For the globally smeared model, the mass and/or
stiffness are determined for the entire board and then these
modified values are used in lieu of the actual properties. A
locally smeared model is simply a refinement of the global
smear in which subregions of smeared properties are defined.
A detailed FE model is one in which key components on the
board are directly modelled. This paper uses the detailed FE
model but there are some differences from it. In the modelling
process of the PCB, it can then be abided by the rule-sampling
on premise of the conservation of global mass. The key
components are idealized as simple homogenous, rectangular
blocks or cylinders. Then the pinhole of module, rounding,
some small size elements (border smaller than 5mm) and the
connection wires among of them are ignored. If they are
directly modeled, the model will be very complex and there
will be many anamorphosis elements when it is meshed.
Consequently it will increase the computed errors. Lastly, the
mass and stiffness ignored are smeared on the board to ensure
the global mass and stiffness.
Since PCB of electronic apparatus module in a given
electronic package can vary widely with respect to the module

Fig. 1 Model of electronic apparatus in in Solidworks2005.

Fig. 2 Model of electronic apparatus module in ANSYS9.0.

III. LOCAL STIFFNESS AND DENSIT DETERMINATION

Due to the composite nature of the materials and structure
systems used in PCB, handbook values for material properties
may not be appropriate. To determine the elastic properties of
the components on the PCB, a strain-flake electromotive
method was used. Samples were first removed from the PCB
(typically by de-soldering). A strain-flake (Rgi) used for
measuring the strain of the sample when loaded was adhibited
on one flank of the sample (see Fig3). Another strain-flake
(Rg) loaded no stress was used as temperature compensation.
Then the two strain-flakes was connected to strain gauge to
forge an electric half-bridge used for measuring the strain (see
Fig4). The sample to be test is placed in the hydraulic
universal testing machine (SHT5000) which generates a stress
as load and records the stress. The resistance value of the
strain-flack changes a little which caused by the distortion
when loaded. The half-bridge measures the change and then
transform it into a voltage which was input the static stress
amplifier (YJ28P10R). Before the measurement, a scrap
resemble the sample was used to determine the maximal stress
which may engender a distortion that can not be reverted.
From such an experiment, the effective elastic properties can
be approximated as:
E

G
H

(1)

A'H average

Where G is the stress, H is the strain, F is the force

loaded by the hydraulic universal testing machine, A is the

856

vibration, that is, its natural frequencies, mode shapes, and

modal damping ratio [15]. The common analysis procedure in
ANSYS is as follow: modelling, importing, defining materials,
generating mesh, applying loads, obtaining solution and
reviewing results. The first three steps have addressed
anterior. The finite element modal analysis requires that the
meshing should be regularity to the greatest extent. Therefore,
the FR-4 was composed of four-node quadrilateral plate
elements with both bending and in-plane stiffness (ANSYS
element Shell63), while for the components on the board
which were the regular hexahedrons. They were used mapped
meshing with Solid45. The meshing model is shown in Fig. 5.
In the process of importing from Solidworks2005 into
ANSYS, the assembly relations of the initial model will
disappear accordingly it should be redefined in ANSYS. In
practical use of, the four corners of the peripheral aluminium
frame are fixed by four bolts. This link mode is constrained by
displacement (all degrees of freedom (DOFs)) in ANSYS.
There are four link modes in the step of applying loads:
contact element, constraint equation, glue and coupling. For
contact element, it mainly applies in non-linear structure. But
the non-linear factors were ignored when doing modal
analysis. For constraint equation, it defaults a referenced plane
which is hold still. This situation is different from the practical
vibration which the board and the components are vibrating
synchronously. When you have as many volumes in ANSYS
as you had parts in the assembly, you must glue volumes
together to build a contiguous model. When you need to force
two or more DOFs to take on the same (but unknown) value,
you can couple these DOFs together. The ANSYS FEA model
of the two link modes were shown in Fig. 6, 7 below.
Fig. 6 shows using the glue as the boundary condition.
All the components maintain their individuality (they are not
added), but they become connected at their intersection. The
glue mode results in the increase of structure rigidity and
exorbitant frequency. Fig. 7 shows using the coupling as the
boundary condition. The number of coupled points can affect
the local stiffness. Generally, large components coupled 6 to 8
points and little components coupled 4 to 6 points. In the
model, using the last two link modes respectively simulated
the solder joints condition between the components and the
board.
The computed results are shown in Table II, Note that all
modes frequency using glue is almost double the
corresponding frequency using coupling. The results reflect
that glue results in larger structure rigidity than using
coupling. This may due to the coupling mode couples finite
nodes between components and the board, while the glue

area of the sample cross section, 'H average is the average value
of increment of strain under the increment force.
Another material property that is required is the effective
density. This smeared density can be calculated from the
expression:
M .
(2)
U
LWt
Where M is the total sample mass, L is the length, and W
is the width. The procedure for finding the various material
properties is independent of whether the samples are local
regions or the entire board. The typical material parameters
are shown in Table I:

stress
sample

strain-flack
Output the change
of resistance value
Fig. 3 Strain measurement of component of the PCB.

measuring

R gi

R3
D

Rg

temperature
compensation

U01

Fig. 4 Typical strain-flack half-bridge.

TABLE I
PCB COMPONENT MATERIAL PARAMETERS
Material

Youngs/GPa

Density/kg/m3

aluminum

70

2780

Integrate chip

39

2150

FR-4

22

4100

IV. MODAL ANALYSIS BY FEA

Modal analysis is the process of characterizing the
dynamic properties of a structure in terms of its modes of

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various predefined measurement points. Then a Polytec laser

doppler vibrometer collects the response and send it to
SignalCalu730. By cycling through all the measurement
points, sufficient frequency response functions are collected to

mode defines all the intersected areas of the components and

the board as an integer.

Fig. 5 The Finite element model of the electronic apparatus module.

Fig. 8 Vibration testing-rig.


Fig. 6 The glue mode as the boundary condition.
Fig. 7 The coupling mode as the boundary condition.

TABLE II
THE COMPARISON OF TWO BOUNDARY CONDITION
Mode

Frequency (glue) / Hz

Frequency(coupling) / Hz

419.9

215

Fig. 9 The experiment FRFs (above) and Curve fitting (below).

569.0

288

915.0

480

1141

522

1254

634

build the transfer matrix and then perform the curve fitting
necessary to obtain estimates of the modal properties of the
structure. The FRFs (above) and curve fitting (below) are
shown in Fig. 9. There are four hundred and eighty points are
tested and the FRFs shown good superposition. From Fig. 9, it
can be found the clear formants. These formants are used to
pick-up the nature frequencies of the structure. The fitting
curve of all the FRFs is to help to pick-up the nature
frequencies more exactly. It is assumed that the vibration
modes are globally defined. That is, evidence of the mode can
be measured from practically any point on the structure. Each
transfer function describes the complete dynamic properties of
the structure. The curve below is the curve fitting of all the
FRFs. All of the mode frequencies can be distinctly identified
from it. Software of Mescope4.0 was used for experimental
modal analysis. The result of experiment is shown in Table III.
Compared Table II and Table III, it can be found that the data
when using coupling not glue to simulate the boundary
condition of soldering in ANSYS is more approaching to the
results of measurement. The errors all of the six modes of
frequency using coupling are less than 7.1% comparing with
the results of experiment, while the errors of the glue mode is

V. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Experimental modal analysis is the process whereby the
natural frequencies, mode shapes, and damp values are
estimated from measurements made on an existing structure
[16]. These modal parameters are determined via data
curve-fitting algorithms from a set of frequency response
functions (FRFs) obtain from measurements taken at various
points throughout the structure [3]. The FRFs are acquired by
exciting the structure, usually by way of a random motion
shaker or an instrumented impact hammer, and measuring the
response by means of an accelerometer.
The vibration testing-rig is shown below in Fig8, the
dynamic signal analysis instrument SignalCalu730 export an
initial drive signal. The initial signal is amplified by the power
amplifier to serve for driving the shaker to generate a power
force. The shaker is used to excite the electronic apparatus at

858

too large because it results in the increase of structure rigidity

and exorbitant frequency.

TABLE IV
PREDICTED AND MEASURED MODAL RESPONSE OF THE MODULE

TABLE III

Mode

MAC

FrequencyHz

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT
FEA(coupling)

Measured

215

213

0.94

310

288

310

0.86

460

480

460

0.82

558

522

558

0.90

623

634

623

0.76

Mode

Frequency / Hz

213

From Fig. 10, it can even found that most of the two
corresponding mode shape are close similar. But the fifth
mode shape shows some discrepancy. This may due to the
over simplification of the processor, the crystal oscillator and
integrated circuit modules as simple homogeneous, isotropic
block or cylinders. In addition, all the simple blocks or
cylinders in the FEM were defined perfectly rigid connection
with all DOFs to the FR-4. While in practice, the solder joints
connecting the components to the board have finite rigidity.

VI. MODAL CORRELATION

Direct comparison of the natural frequencies between
measurement and FEA provides a quick assessment of the
correlation. However, both the natural frequency and mode
shape combine to produce the forced response. Therefore, it is
important to also compare mode shapes when correlating FEA
data and measurement. A commonly used performance
assessment for correlation of mode shapes is the modal
assurance criterion (MAC) [4]. MAC relates measurement
points from the experiment with the same points on the FEM.
MAC is essentially a goodness-of-fit coefficient between
each mode shape from the experimental and FEM, It is
expressed as:
[ MAC ({) e } j {) f }k )]

{) e }T {) f }k

{) e }Tj {) e } j {) f }TK {) f }K

(3)

Where {) e } j is the experimental mode shape vector j

( j 1, ne ), {) f }k is the FE mode shape vector k
( k 1, n f ), ne is the number of experimental mode shape
vectors, n f is the number of FE mode shape vectors.
A MAC value of unity indicates perfect correlation while
zero indicates no correlation between the two mode shapes.
Both frequency and MAC in Table 4 compare the predicted
and measured modal characteristics for the first five modes.
Table 4 shows encouraging results. The predicted
fundamental mode shoes very food frequency and mode
correlation with measurement. Note that the fifth mode
shapes MAC values listed lower 0.80. The frequency is close
but the mode shape is poorly correlated. For remaining modes,
show excellent frequency correlation and reasonable modal
correlation. The comparison of the first five mode shapes got
by using coupling mode and measurement are shown
ulteriorly in Fig. 10.

859

[6] Pitarresi JM. and Primavera A, Comparison of Modeling Techniques for

Printed Circuit Cards, ASME Winter Conference, paper
no.91-WA-EEP-34, 1991.
[7] Barker, Donald B., Abhijit Dasgupta, Michael G. Pecht, PWB Solder
Joint Fatigue Life Calculations Under Thermal and Vibrational Loading,
Journal of the IES, Vol. 35, no. 1, pp 17-25, January 1992.
[8] Pitarresi JM, Primavera AA, Comparison of modeling techniques for the
vibration analysis of printed circuit cards, Journal of Electronic
Packaging, vol.114, no.4, pp.378-83, Dec. 1992.
[9] Cheng shixu, Jing shouzhao, Shan lianfen, chen Yi, Anti-vibration
design of PCB placement and routing, Reliability and Analysis, vol 6,
pp. 16-18, 2004.
[10]Engel,P.A., Lim,C.K., Finding the stresses with Finite Elements,
Mechanical Engineering, Vol.108, NO.10, pp.46-50, 1986.
[11]Engel,P.A., Lim,C.K., Stress Analysis in Electronics Packaging , Finite
Elements in Analysis and Design, Vol.4, pp.9-18, 1988.
[12]Engel,P.A., Structural Analysis for Circuit Card Systems Subject to
Bending, ASME Journal of Electronic Packaging, Vol.112, pp.2-10,
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[13]Renner,T.E., Mechanical Design of Circuit Boards Using Finite Element
Analysis, ANSYS Conference Proceedings, pp1.2-1.22, 1985.
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Design Automation Conference, pp1-7, 1985.
[15]Pitarresi JM, Phil Geng, Willem Beltman, Yun Ling, Dynamic Modeling
and Measurement of Personal Computer Motherboards,2002 Electronic
Components and Technology Conference, pp.597-603,2002.
[16]Ewins D, Modal Testing: Theory and practice, Research Studies Press,
1984.
[17]Star, Star Theory and Application, Structural Measurement Systems,
1990.

Fig. 10 Mode shapes comparison of the measured (left) and the FEA (right).

VII. CONCLUSION
This paper addresses basic modeling issues regarding the
dynamic response of a typical PCB populated with
components of an electronic apparatus. A detailed finite
element modeling approach is used. This approach proves to
be an accurate predictor of the modal behaviour and an
effective analysis technique. An electromotive test was
performed to determine the stiffness of these components. The
plate and brick elements were used to represent the PCB. Then
the glue mode and the coupling mode respectively simulated
the solder joints on the PCB. It can be found that the data
when using coupling not glue to simulate the boundary
condition of solder joints in ANSYS is more approaching to
the results of measurement. The errors all of the five modes of
frequency using coupling are less than 7.1% comparing with
the results of experiment, while the errors of the glue mode is
too large because it results in the increase of structure rigidity
and exorbitant frequency. The predicted nature frequencies
and mode shapes are correlated with that of measurement
using MAC. It shows very good correlations although there
are some poor correlations.
This method of PCB modeling not only provides supports
for choosing the right shock absorber and optimises the shock
absorb area, but also provides reliable qualitative basis for
how to improve anti- vibration design of PCB. The modal
analysis of vibration for PCB has some reference values to
similar structures.
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to Electrical Systems, A survey, NASA, 1972.
[2] Steinberg, Vibration Analysis for Electronic Equipment, Wiley, 1988.
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technique for the FE vibration analysis of printed circuit cards, Journal
of Electronic Packaging, vol.113, no.3, pp.250-7, Sept. 1991.
[4] Pitarresi JM, Modeling of printed circuit cards subject to vibration,
1990 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, pp.2104-7
vol.3, 1990.
[5] Pitarresi JM. and Di Edwardo, Optimal Support Locations for Circuit
Cards Populated with Modules, ASME Winter Conference, 1991.

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