PCB Failure Analysis

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You’ve progressed through the design process, fabricated your PCB and assembled your first article prototype for a project. You flip the switch to power everything on and — POP! Immediately, the circuit card bursts into flames — impossible! You’ve checked every capacitor on the circuit! It’s supposed to be 2-ounce copper and your ground plane thermals are flawless! You scramble for the nearest fire extinguisher as your project goes up in smoke.

There are thousands of reasons that can cause a PCB to fail, from a short in the design or a spark jumping an air gap, a power surge superheating and melting inner circuit layers to a component with too much power drain for an inner layer’s laser-drilled microvias. Some problems can’t be anticipated or are caused by the fabrication process, like solder mask misregistration or overprint, drill misregistration, breakout or shorting, solder paste shorts or stencil defects causing solder failures. Using imaging techniques rooted in a long history of optical inspection and reverse engineering, ScanCAD can precisely identify trouble locations on inner layers of multilayer PCB designs.

By comparing multiple PCBs “side by side”, layer by layer, ScanCAD can also identify issues caused by inconsistencies in the fabrication process by finding differences between two identical products. If no secondary board is available, ScanCAD can generate a partial design from the remaining circuits, resulting in a partial netlist or schematic. Combined with an accurate bill of materials, it is possible to re-engineer circuit routing to reproduce failed circuit designs.

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PCB Disassembly Services

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Trade shows

ScanCAD participates in many trade shows during the year, whether in ScanCAD's own booth or by way of our distributor/OEM.

Dallas Expo and Tech Forum
March 19, 2024
Plano, TX USA
Southwest Systems Booth

Houston Expo and Tech Forum
March 21, 2024
Staford, TX USA
Southwest Systems Booth

APEX 2024
April 9-11, 2024
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, California
Booth 3206

SMTA Guadalajara Expo & Tech Forum
September  11-12, 2024
Guadalajara, Mexico
ScanCAD/USM Reps  Booth 201

DMC 2024
December 2-5, 2024
Austin, TX USA
ScanCAD Booth 122

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Meet the ScanCAD team in this series of blog posts. Meet Danielle!   Danielle Heller started working at ScanCAD in their shipping department in 2021. She was mentored and took over for...

read more

Common Solder Paste Stencil Defects

Solder paste stencils are essential tools for PCB manufacturing, as they allow precise and consistent application of solder paste to the pads of surface-mounted components. However, solder paste...

read more

PCB Disassembly Services

Sometimes it is necessary to completely depopulate a PCB. This can be for an array of reasons including reverse engineering, testing and quality control. We offer a variety of services to assist you...

read more

Trade shows

ScanCAD participates in many trade shows during the year, whether in ScanCAD's own booth or by way of our distributor/OEM.

Guadalajara Expo and Tech Forum
October 25 and 26, 2023
Chihuahua City, Mexico
EXPO GUADALAJARA
USM Reps Booth

TPCA Show
October 25-27, 2023
Taipei , Taiwan
Microsys Booth

PRODUCTRONICA 2023
November 14-17, 2023
Munich, Germany
GS Electronic Booth

DMC 2023
December 11-14, 2023
Music City Center
Nashville, Tennessee
Booth 314

APEX 2024
April 9-11, 2024
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, California
Booth 3206

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ScanCAD International Inc. is a corporate member of:

U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics
Defense Electronics Consortium