Printed circuit board are an integral part of all electronic products, including highly sensitive medical devices, satellites, computers and the hottest wearable devices on the market. When a PCB in a smartphone malfunctions, it can affect your professional and personal life. PCB failures in medical devices can have far-reaching effects and affect patient safety.

What are the common causes of printed circuit board failure? Our experts provide a list and brief overview below.

Typical causes of PCB failure

Component design failure: Due to insufficient space on the PCB, many problems can occur during the design and manufacturing phases, ranging from component misplacement to power failures and overheating. Burned components are some of the most common rework items we receive. Let your team take advantage of our expert layout review and prototype feasibility assessment.We can help you reduce the risk of costly delays and loss of consumer confidence.

Poor quality parts: wiring and paths too close to each other, poor welding resulting in cold joints, poor connections between circuit boards, insufficient plate thickness resulting in bending and breaking, loose parts are common examples of poor PCB quality. When you work with our ITAR and ISO-9000 certified PCB assembly companies, you will ensure accuracy, reliability and quality. Use our parts sourcing service to purchase quality PCB components at reasonable prices.

Environmental factors: Exposure to heat, dust, and moisture is a known cause of circuit board failure. For unexpected shocks to hard surfaces, power overloads or surges during lightning strikes can also cause damage. However, as a manufacturer, the most damaging is the premature failure of the circuit board due to electrostatic discharge in the assembly stage. Our modern ESD control facility with field testing facilities allows us to handle twice as many electronic prototypes while maintaining our trademark quality.

Age: While you can’t avoid age-related failures, you can control the cost of replacing components. Replacing old parts with new ones is more economical than assembling new PCBS. Have our experts review your old or faulty boards for economical and efficient PCB repair or rework large companies as well as small companies rely on us to save production costs and time.

Lack of comprehensive review, unclear understanding of manufacturing requirements, and poor communication between design and assembly teams contributed to many of the problems mentioned above. Choose an experienced PCBA assembly company to handle and avoid these problems.