High Precision Stress Measurement Solution for PCBs
Published on : Saturday 06-07-2024
Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are subjected to various equipment and testing processes during manufacturing.
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In response to increasing market demands for lighter and smaller products, printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers are reducing the dimensions, thickness, and weight of their PCBs. However, this change has led to fractured tin solder joints becoming a common problem. Furthermore, during manufacturing, PCBs are subjected to various equipment and testing processes, which place the circuit boards under varying degrees of stress.
The electronics industry has also begun to replace traditional tin/lead solder with lead-free soldering materials, which are relatively weaker. The result is that under the same levels of mechanical stress and tensile strength, solder joint failures have become a serious problem. Consequently, PCB manufacturers have begun to introduce various stress measurement solutions to avoid fractured tin solder joints and increase their overall yield.
Project requirements
In order to detect defects caused by stress at an early stage, PCB manufacturers are planning to introduce stress measurement systems into their production processes to verify whether the maximum mechanical stress is within a safe limit. The most common form of stress measurement involves using a data acquisition module to measure changes in the electrical resistance of strain gauges.
To measure strain during testing, the system must provide an excitation voltage to measure the resistance change in the stress gauge’s electrical conductor. However, because the change in electrical resistance caused by external forces is extremely small, a Wheatstone bridge must be built into the circuit’s high-precision data capture module to detect the resistance change of a stress gauge.
A minimum resolution of 24 bits is required to measure such a small change. In addition, to further increase the accuracy of strain analysis results, synchronous sampling between each channel of the data capture module must be implemented to prevent deviation caused by sampling delays between various channels.
System description
The stress measurement solution provided by Advantech comprised its MIC-7500 compact modular computer, PCIE-1813 4-channel, 26- bit simultaneous strain measurement card, and a signal processing card to provide isolated DI/O and signal filtering features. Generally, 4 to 12 sets of strain gauges are used to measure strain on a circuit board.
For this type of measurement system, strain gauges attached to the PCB are connected to the signal processing card, which filters out the noise. The PCIE-1813 strain measurement card’s parameters are then configured according to the specifications of the strain gauges in order to collect signals sent by the strain gauges based on the specified sampling frequency, magnification rate, and excitation voltage.
The most important product in the solution is the PCIE-1813 card, which is capable of providing extremely high-resolution measurements. The card’s 26-bit resolution provides the ability to detect and measure the slightest change in the strain gauge. The built-in supply of excitation voltage allows the card to be directly connected to the strain gauge. No additional modules are needed to provide the excitation voltage. The PCIE-1813 card also offers excellent magnification rates and the input range is able to reach ±31.25 mV/V. In addition to its four sets of analog-to-digital converters (ADC), which can be used to collect signals from four channels simultaneously, the PCIE-1813 card also provides a trigger function for implementing synchronised multichannel data collection to meet the synchronised precision sampling requirements.
Why Advantech
PCB stress measurement systems depend heavily on data collection products that are capable of providing high-precision stress measurements. Advantech’s high-precision PCIE-1813 card offers several advantages, including high resolution, an outstanding price/performance ratio, as well as numerous signal processing features.
In addition to satisfying the measurement system requirements, this solution allows customers to select a modular industrial computer from Advantech’s MIC-7500 series based on the number of card slots available as well as their strain test requirements and rapidly build various stress measurement systems.
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World Bank predicts 20% economic boost by closing gender gap
empowerment of women for careers in the robotics industry.
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and its members support the empowerment of women for careers in the robotics industry.
Labour shortages hamper future economic growth worldwide. World Bank predicts that GDP per capita would be almost 20 percent higher on average if female employment were increased to be the same as men´s. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) and its members support the empowerment of women for careers in the robotics industry.
“Robotics is a fascinating field and my clear message is that there is a great future for women in this industry,” says Marina Bill, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “Every year, the robotics ecosystem grows more and we want to set a benchmark in terms of gender equality.”
On average, women are broadly underrepresented in the workplace. Yet, the talent pipeline varies by industry: food and beverage manufacturing in North America, for example, has 54% female labour force participation at entry level. 42% work in a senior management role but only 15% reach the C-Suite. The broader industrial manufacturing sector in the US and Canada lags much further behind: only 33% attract entry-level women. The potential to empower women and fight labour shortage is currently not exploited by any of the 20 industry sectors surveyed by McKinsey´s study “Women in the Workplace”.
Above senior management level, even the most progressive industries do not reach gender equality. There are only about 30% C-Level women in healthcare systems and services, for example. This is remarkable since this sector is in the lead with female participation at manager (70%) and entry level (76%).
Robot manufacturers like ABB, FANUC, KUKA, and YASKAWA all run programs to close the work-related gender gaps. They reach out to candidates at a young age at school to get them interested in new technologies related to robotics and STEM professions. These programs often work hand-in-hand with government initiatives, academia and network projects on a local level. At the same time, robotics training plays a key role to promote female labour force participation. The training programs range from basic programming for the first-time user to complex workshops. International robot manufacturers offer robot classes with a special focus on gender equality across more than 30 countries.
“All around the world, there are inspiring women who work in our industry and set an example of gender equality,” says Marina Bill, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “We aim to give them more visibility and acknowledgment: From 2024, we will select and officially award IFR's ‘Women in Robotics: 10 Women Shaping the Future of Robotics’.”
Among IFR´s selection criteria will be contributions to and achievements in the overall field of robotics, further promoting the industry, as well as activities encouraging young women to pursue a career in STEM subjects or robotics.
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