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40 The PCB Design Magazine • September 2015 of how and why different electronic compo- nents and materials fail, then develop and calibrate a mathematical model of each failure mechanism that could be incorporated into the CAE analysis program. Previously, these PoF analyses were performed by traditional fi- nite element analysis (FEA) tools. This required a long, complicated, model creation process performed by a highly trained expert—a ca- pability that was rarely available to most elec- tronic engineers. However, Sherlock software is designed to be used by non-CAE experts who quickly cre- ate and perform PoF durability simulations and reliability assessments. This is accomplished by a high degree of automation in the program that includes preloaded libraries of: component models, material properties, design templates, analysis wizards and environmental profiles for specific applications. The automation features enable electronics engineers, circuit board de- signers, and quality/reliability personnel to use the analysis tool to incorporate reliability into the design process. First, a product life cycle is created for the PCBA. The life cycle is a combination of the ex- pected life of the assembly and the failure rate at that time. A typical automotive life cycle would be 15 years with 5% failure at 15 years. The creation of a virtual module of a circuit board assembly is greatly simplified by importing the same CAD files created during a typical cir- cuit layout design process that are sent to a cir- cuit board fabricator and a circuit board assem- bler for use in their CAM equipment. Once the CAD-CAM files in either a traditional Gerber or feature Figure 2: The user can define and save an unlimited number of test or field environmental and usage stress profiles to perform virtual test to field correlations and simulated aided testing studies. PHySICS oF FAIluRE DuRABIlITy SIMulATIoNS FoR AuToMoTIvE ElECTRoNICS