PCB Poor Solder Lead to EOS MLCC Fracturing

Gideon Analytical Labs received two 0805 MLCC capacitors mounted on daughter boards and several good capacitors for comparison. One capacitor mounted on a PCB had multiple cracks.

The pictures supplied indicated several horizontal cracks. The capacitor was cleaned and cut from the remainder of the PCB and mounted for horizontal to the PCB.

After analysis the conclusion was a combined affect of terminal fracturing and poor soldering wetting lead to over heating which in turn caused thermal cracks that lead to the EOS.

This MLCC failure (multilayer ceramic chip capacitor) had several issues which camouflaged the root cause and suggested it was a manufacturing issue rather than an application issue.

Confusion between which direction to look can be resolved through failure analysis. Gideon is concerned with only how the part failed. We give an unbiased analytical cause of failure independent of component manufacturing, assembly, board supplier, design, application or environmental installation site. Companies need to fix the failure and move forward. Gideon’s main objective is to move companies forward by minimizing damage and fixing problems as quickly as possible. Take advantage of us and our years of experience.