...) with gull‐wing leads. A commercial finite element code, ABAQUS, was employed to perform a two‐dimensional plane stress analysis. While all other constituents of the PQFP assembly were assumed to be linear elastic, the solder joint was considered to be elastic‐viscoplastic. The creep model was adopted from...

... stresses could lead to the growth of‘latent defects’, not easily identifiable during final stage acceptance tests, that could lead the PCB's failure during service. The paper discusses degradation mechanisms which can lead to dielectric failure, together with first results relevant to a wider research...