Ansys Sherlock Workshop

arkaprabha.sengupta@ansys.com

Ali Karimi – Application Engineer

Overview

• In this tutorial, we will learn to analyze mechanical reliability risks of PCBs with
several components using ANSYS Sherlock
• We will analyze a PCB assembly comprising a six-layer board and hundreds of parts
as shown below
• The objective of this analysis is to ascertain that the PCB design meets the target
goal of less than 20% probability of failure in its service life of 10 years
Outline

• We will go through the following workflow

– Importing ECAD files
– Life cycle
– Part Library and Parts list
– Updating Parts list from Part library
– Part properties
– PCB stackup
– Analysis cases
• Natural frequency
• Random vibe
• Solder Fatigue
– Editing parts and re-running analysis
– Saving results and generating report
 Environment Settings
2

1. Start Sherlock application by opening “Sherlock 2021 R1” 3

2. Before running any analysis, some environmental settings need to be
setup
3. Go to Settings->General settings. Select “FEA Analysis” from the tabs
on the left
4. Set the number of CPUs to 1-2 less than the max number in the drop
down
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5. Also go to “Launcher” tab and set the max. memory size and max
stack size (used by Sherlock GUI) as shown here
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 1 2
Importing ECAD files

1. Go to Project in the Menu and click on “Import ODB

Archive”
– Also notice the other types of ECAD import options available
there
• In the dialog box browse to the tutorial folder and select
the file name as shown
2. Provide a “Project Name” and “CCA Name” (circuit
card)
– Leave other options as is and run “Scan Archive”
3. Go with the default options in the Component 3
Property mapping box and press OK
 2
Importing ECAD files
1. The Import ODB++ files dialog now shows the actions that will be performed
based on the data found in the archive
2. Once you hit “Import Archive” the project gets added to the left panel as shown
• Notice the following sections under tutorial1 1
– Life Cycle has Phase1 with some pre-defined events
– cca1 has several odb Files as shown on the right
• comp-bot.odb and comp-top.odb are the components mounted on the
PCB
• copper-xx.odb are the copper layers in the PCB
• sm-xx.odb are the solder mask layers on either side of the PCB
– Inputs have some sub-sections required for the analysis tasks
• Parts List – list of all components in cca1
• Stackup – Substrate stack layers
• Layers – 2D view of components, copper layers and other features of
the PCB
• Drill Holes – Holes drilled through PCB to connect across layers
• NetList – List of all connections between components and board
– Analysis section has several types of analysis that can be run
– Results section consolidates the overall results from the analyses
 Life Cycle
1

1. Right-click “Life Cycle”->Edit Properties and check the Reliability goals

section
– This defines the overall reliability goals for the PCB
2. Right-click “Life Cycle”->View Life Cycle and check the Phases and Events
Tabs
– It shows the various load events and the % of service life that each event occurs over
3. Right-click “Phase 1 ”->Edit Properties and check the Phase settings
section
– Duration sets the overall duration of the phase. Ignore other fields
4. Note the various load events already created in Phase 1. We will delete
these events and go through creating new ones
2
4 3
 Life Cycle – Deleting existing events
1

1. Right-click Harmonic Event -> Delete Event to delete this load event
2. Repeat this for Random Event and Shock Event
3. Note that we can’t delete the last remaining Thermal Event. We will just
edit this event instead of deleting it
3
Life Cycle – Editing events (Thermal Cycle)

1. Right-click Thermal Event -> Edit Properties 1

– Change the Name and Thermal Event settings as shown in the Thermal Event Editor
window
– Set the # of Cycles to “1000 Count”
2. Click Edit Profile and note the table shown in the Thermal Profile
Editor
3. Edit temperature to 125C as shown in the 2nd and 3rd rows
4. Click Save in both editor windows to exit
5. After this is done, Phase 1 section should only have the edited Thermal
Event as shown below

5 3

4 2
4
 Life Cycle – Adding new events (Random vibe) 1

1. Right-click “Phase 1 ”-> Add Random Vibe

– Provide Name and Random Vibe settings as shown in the Random Vibe Editor window
– Note that the load direction vector is set to -Z (For other load directions this can be edited)
2. Click Edit Profile and note the table shown in the Random Vibe Profile
Editor
3. Right-click to add rows as needed to create the profile as shown
– Click Apply after every row is added to see change to the profile
4. Click Save in both editor windows to exit
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5. After this is done, phase 1 should show the new random vibe event created
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5

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 Life Cycle – Adding new events (Shock)

1. Right-click “Phase 1 ”-> Add Shock Event

– Provide Name and Shock Event settings as shown in the Shock Event Editor window
1
2. Change the Shock Load settings as shown
3. Click Edit Profile and note the options for the shock profile in the Shock 2
Profile Editor
– Note: Magnitude of Load(G) in this editor is meaningless and used for visualization only.
Actual magnitude is governed by the “Peak load” set in the Shock Event Editor window
– Keep the default HalfSine option and exit the editor
4. Click Save in both editor windows to exit
5. After this is done, phase 1 should show the new shock event created 3

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5

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 Parts list
1
1. Double-click “Parts List” under Inputs to
show the list of all components
2. Right-click Parts List and update the list
from Parts library as shown below
– Note the options selected in Update Parts window

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 Update Parts list from library

• After clicking update parts list, Sherlock goes through the

list and tries to match based on the Parts number with its
database
– The “Part Number” must match one of the Manufacturer Part numbers
in Global Part Library as per the update options chosen
– Part numbers used internally at an organization need to be either
added to a Local Part Library or mapped through the Approved Vendor
List (AVL)
– Check with ANSYS support for help with Local Part Library or AVL
• The parts which match turn green in the Parts Number, Part
type and package columns
• Note that the number of parts updated may vary
depending on the Library available
 Part properties
1
1. Double-click Part C7 from “Parts List” and
the Part Properties window shows up
– Note the various tabs on the left
2. Click on package to see the details of the 2
package
– Note that “Model Part” is ENABLED which includes this
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part in the analysis
3. Check some of the other important tabs
– For leaded packages, the Lead tab will have lead
details
– For BGA packages, the Ball tab will have the solder
dimensions
4. Click on View 3D Model icon at the top
of the window which opens the Part Viewer 4
5. Close both the Part Viewer and Part
Properties window
 PCB Stackup

1
1. Double-click “Stackup” under Inputs to show the board
stackup details
– Note that the overall properties of the board stack is displayed at top
• Note, if you need to edit any layer information, you can
right-click any row and select “Edit Selected Layers” as
shown below
 Layer viewer
1. Double-click “Layers” under Inputs to open the 2D layer viewer
2. Shown below are the top components and the corresponding solder mask layers that are visible. Also
the black circles shown inside blue rectangles are the mount points (fixed supports)
– Try checking/unchecking the various layers of the board, components and other mechanical assembly features, if any 1
– Also note the filter options at bottom which can be used to filter parts and features shown
– Several options to edit the PCB including components and mount points are available in this viewer. We will not discuss that here
3. Minimize the Layers viewer to return to Sherlock GUI

2
 Running analysis tasks (Solder Fatigue)
1
1. Expand Analysis branch and see the various analysis types that
can be run in Sherlock
– Right-click Solder Fatigue -> Run Analysis Task and check the entries in the
properties dialog box
2. The thermal event defined in Phase 1 is already selected here,
but for multiple thermal event case, user can select which ones
to run
a) Note that Part validation is set to enabled by default before any
analysis
– Unless all part numbers are found in Part Library and properties are confirmed or
on the Approved Vendor List, this would fail. The analysis task still runs and gives
the warning message below. Part validation has no effect in your analysis results.

3. Click “Save and Run”. While running, appears next to Solder

Fatigue
2a
4. After the analysis task completes, you will see either a ? or a
green check next to Solder Fatigue 4
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 Running analysis tasks (Solder Fatigue)
5. Double-click Solder Fatigue and a Results window opens
6. Check the various tabs (Summary, Life Prediction, Time to Fail, Table and Issues) towards the bottom
of the window
– Any Warnings/Errors during running the analysis is reported in Issues tab
– Overall results are available in Summary tab along with high-level summary of inputs and other relevant statistics
– There are 3 colors used to indicate different risk levels for components based on their reliability scores

5 Summary
 Running analysis tasks (Solder Fatigue)
• Other result details are explained below 1
1. Life prediction tab shows the overall life curve for the PCB indicative of
combined risk of all components
2. Table tab has the risk levels for each component in tabular form
• The first eight columns show some of the component inputs while last four are outputs
• Damage column has the damage fraction during the PCB service life i.e. 10 years in this
case
• TTF (Time To Fail) shows the characteristic life in years. You can also right-click any row Life prediction
and select “View Life Prediction” to view the life curve of that component 2 Inputs Outputs
• Cycles to Fail is the total number of thermal cycles the component can survive based
on the low cycle fatigue model
3. Time To Fail tab shows the histogram of the TTFs of the components
• Close the Results viewer and return to Sherlock GUI

3
Table of Component results
(top few shown)
 Running analysis tasks (Natural Frequency)

1. Right-click Natural Freq -> Run Analysis Task and check the
entries in the properties dialog box 1
– Set the total number of natural frequencies in NF Result Count along with min
and max frequency
– Note that the PCB is fixed at the Mount Points discussed in earlier slides. Mount
Points provide the necessary boundary conditions and should always be set to
2
enabled in Mount Points tab
2. In PCB Modeling tab, check the following options
– Mesh Type can be only Bonded (Merged mesh could be chosen only if we change
the mesh engine to legacy mesh engine)
– PCB model can be changed from Uniform to Layered to capture effects of the
discrete layers in stackup. Other options are for trace mapping 4
3. In Part Modeling tab, check the Min. Part size and the Mesh Sizes
– Parts smaller than Min Part Size will not be included in analysis
– Note some other tabs below Part Modeling like Lead Modeling, Wire Bonds, Heat 3
Sinks and see that they are DISABLED in the analysis
4. “Save and Run” the analysis
 Running analysis tasks (Natural Frequency)

5. After it completes, double-click Natural Freq and a Results window opens 5

– Check the NF tab for the reported natural frequencies
6. Right-click Natural Freq -> View 3D Results to open the 3D viewer
– Under Color Schemes section, you will find radio buttons next to the first few frequencies
– Click the radio button next to any of the frequencies (NF xxx Hz) and hit “Refresh”
– 3D contour plot of the mode shape is displayed
– Note, you can also view any contour plot in 2D in
the Layer Viewer with parts superimposed (FEA Results)
– Play with Options to get desired plot
• Note Line Mode can be set to Mesh to view the mesh

6
 Running analysis tasks (Random vibe)
1. Right-click Random vibe-> Run Analysis Task and check the entries in the
properties dialog box
2. Check the box next to RV-Z and click “Save and Run”
3. After it finishes, double-click random vibe to open results window
– Check the RV results under “Random Vibe” tab (in next slide)
– There are also Summary and Life Prediction tabs here as in the Solder Fatigue results
2
– Note the damage and TTF (years) columns in Random Vibe tab. The damage indicates
fraction of life used during the service life (>1 means than 100% damage during service life)
4. Right-click random vibe -> View 3D Results to open the 3D viewer
– Under Color Schemes section, you will find the RMS RV displacement and strain outputs
– Click the radio button next to “RV strain RMS” and hit “Refresh”
– 3D contour plot of selected output is displayed
– Play with Options to get desired plot 3
5. Save the results for analyses run so far for future reference (see last slide
for directions on saving results)
 Random vibe results
3 Life prediction

RV Strain (RMS) over PSD spectrum

Table of Component results (top few shown)

 Editing parts (BGA part)
• We will now edit some parts to include the actual connections between the component and the board
• We will start by adding the solder balls in one of the BGA packages to the model
1. Double-click “Parts List” under Inputs to go back to the parts list
2
2. Right-click part U10 and select “Edit Parts”
3. In the Part Editor window, go to Ball tab and select “NETLIST” for Ball Pattern and “TWO ELEMENTS” for
Ball Modeling (Ball Pattern taken from the Netlist discussed in slide 6)
4. Click on View 3D Model at the top of the box and check that the solder balls are added to the part

4
3
Editing parts (BGA part)

5. The message box shown on the right appears and we will scope the
changes to part U10 only and click Save

5
 Editing parts (QFJ leaded part)

• We will now proceed to edit the part U3 as well

2
1. Open Part Editor for U3 and go to Lead tab and set Lead 3
Modeling to ENABLED
2. Click on View 3D Model at the top of the box and check that
the leads are added to the part 1
3. Close the Part viewer and click Save in Part Editor
4. The message box shown appears and we will scope the
changes to part U3 only and click Save

4
 Rerun Random Vibe Analysis
• We will rerun the random vibe analysis with the above part modifications
1. Right-click Random vibe-> Run Analysis Task and check that entries in
the properties dialog box are same as before
2. Go to Lead Modeling tab and change lead Modeling to ENABLED. Also
you can change the other entries as shown
– The balls and leads for the two parts we edited will now be included in the analysis
3. Run it and double-click random vibe to open results window after it
finishes 2
– Check the Life Prediction tab in RV results
– Note that the PCB life has shortened compared to last run. Open the “Random Vibe” tab
to see the offending parts
Life prediction
Table of Component results (top few shown) 3
 Random Vibe Results
• Note that there is a new “Leads” tab that has been added to the random vibe results
4. Open Leads tab to see that there are quite a few solder balls in U10 at high risk
– When solder balls are included in the analysis, Sherlock gets the max strain directly from the ball instead of from
the board (Max Lead Strain column)
– Improved strain computation leads to higher risk in this case
5. Right-click random vibe -> View 3D Results to open the 3D viewer
– Choose RV strain RMS in Color Schemes and hit “Refresh” to view the 3D contour plot
– Note the board strain is slightly different here than the previous run without leads/balls
4 Lead results
RV Strain (RMS) over PSD spectrum

U3
U10
 Saving results and generating report

1. Items in the Results section are shown on the right

– You are already familiar with Score Card and Life Prediction results
2. Right-click Results and click Save Results. This archives the current set of results for
future reference and comparison across different runs
– Open the saved result by double-clicking the item as shown on the right
3. You can also save any of the 3D results in the 3D viewer 2
– Either save it as a Results file with File->Save As option or
– Export one image at a time with the ‘Export Image’ option. Also can use the camera icon at bottom
4. Right-click Report and choose Generate Report to create a pdf report of the analysis
– Note the options to de-select the various sections to manage report size in the settings window that appears

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