Use of temperature as a health monitoring tool for solder interconnect degradation in electronics

Solder interconnects are often the most critical components in electronic assemblies during their operational life. Health assessment of solder interconnects assists in monitoring the degradation of electronic components and predicting their failure. This paper demonstrates the use of temperature as a health assessment tool for implementing prognostics and health management in electronic components. The degradation in varistor solder interconnects due to thermal fatigue damage is assessed using temperature rise. A constant current of 5 amps is passed through the components and the temperature across the solder interconnects is monitored. The temperature rise in the components is found to be directly proportional to the damage undergone by the components due to thermal fatigue. The temperature can thus be used as a means to assess the damage, enabling the health monitoring of the components.