Health Monitoring Technology for Printed Circuit Boards of Digital Products

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) of digital products such as notebook PCs are subject to cyclic loads of thermal stresses and external mechanical forces. Depending on the conditions of use, they may be at risk of performance degradation or unreliable operation.

Toshiba has developed a health monitoring technique for PCBs based on computer-aided engineering (CAE) that utilizes reliability test results. Cooling performance degradation and the field load history of a PCB are assessed by built-in sensors. This technology can lead to the reduction of downtime and leverage investigations to determine the cause of failure. Furthermore, the health monitoring data can be used as evidence in the design review process to ensure the required reliability of digital products.

Flow of health monitoring for digital products