SwRI: Electronic and Electrical Component Analysis: Failure and construction analysis of electronic and electrical components since 1978.

Failure analysis and construction analysis of electronic and electrical components have been the primary emphases of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Component-Analysis Group since 1978. Using specialized equipment, experienced analysts perform:

Normal wear out of the contact-arm pivot in this snap-action switch diverted some of the load current through the spring in the over-center mechanism. Joule heating raised the temperature of the spring high enough to melt the thermoplastic actuator, thus allowing the spring to move into a neutral position that disabled the over-center snap action and made the switch inoperative.

• Package opening and decapsulation

• Microscopy

• Mounted cross sectioning

• Unmounted cross sectioning

• Plasma etching

• Wet-chemical etching

• Material removal

• Microprobing

• Hermeticity testing

• Wire-bond strength measurement

• Particle-impact-noise detection

Industries Using Electronic Failure Analysis

Over the years, the Electronic and Electrical Component Analysis Group has served a wide range of industries, including:

	This integrated circuit die failed because of an accidental short circuit during manual probing of the circuit board. Future failures were avoided with more careful probing techniques.

• Aerospace

• Automotive

• Computer

• Consumer appliance

• Electric utility

• Electronic component

• Government

• Industrial control

• Petrochemical

• Semiconductor

Component Analysis Services Available

• Failure analysis

• Root-cause analysis

• Construction analysis

• Destructive physical analysis (DPA)

• Design review

• Vendor audit

• Mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) computation

• Qualification testing

For more information on electronic and electrical component analysis, including failure analysis or how you can contract with SwRI, please contact Stan Silvus at ssilvus@swri.org or (210) 522-2742.