Research on flashover characteristics of typical interconnect structures on printed circuit board and influential factors under DC voltage

Abstract

With the development of high-density and highly integrated electronic devices, the insulation characteristics between the interconnects of printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the key issues to be considered in their design and production. Most of the existing studies on insulation characteristics are based on parallel interconnect structures; however, the possibility of flashover or breakdown on PCB at parallel interconnects is relatively low compared to other irregular structures. The flashover characteristics of PCB interconnects need to be more comprehensively presented. In this paper, the commonly used interconnects were divided into three typical structures. Under the same DC excitation, the “interconnect with pad” structure had the most severe electric field concentration, and the insulation characteristic of this structure was the worse of the three. Furthermore, the effects of the distance between the interconnect and pad size on the flashover voltages of the “interconnect with pad” structure were investigated and explained by the maximum electric field strength, which could be approximately calculated by the existing equation.