Hi-Q supplies majority of PCB to space and defense applications where the long-time quality of product is paramount importance.
To assure Hi-Q manufacturing processes are capable of producing products with consistence quality and there are no reliability issues during long run, HI-Q periodically evaluates its manufacturing process through stringent reliability testing process by sending test samples from regular production panel to 3rd party test lab.
Hi-Q is very proud to announce that there are no failures seen till date which assures that Hi-Q products best of breed in PCB market.
Below are few of the reliability test done by Hi-Q periodically,
Highly accelerated Thermal stress.
The via reliability coupons that are subjected to the assembly simulation process shall be thermal-cycled using the Highly Accelerated Thermal Shock (HATS) reliability test methodology.temperature extremes and the number of cycles are detailed in below table
| Lower Temperature | Upper Temperature | Number of Cycles |
| '-40 °C | '+145 °C | 500 or until open |
HATS coupons are built by Hi-Q and incorporated in every panel and fabricated along with PCB.
Hi-Q does HATS testing through 3rd party test lab based on customer request. Also Hi-Q does HATS test periodically as a part of process quality conformance testing.
Interconnect Stress Test
IST is an accelerated stress test method that overcomes the limitations of thermal oven or liquid/liquid methods.IST has the capability of effectively quantifying the integrity of both the plated through hole (PTH) and the unique ability to identify the presence and levels of post separations within the multilayer board.IST creates a uniform strain from within the substrate, the interconnect ability to distribute and redistribute this strain provides and indication of integrity. The plated barrels and inner layer junctions are exercised until the initial failure mode/mechanism are uncovered.
Hi-Q can incorporate the IST test coupon in production panel and fabricate along with PCB if the coupon design is supplied to Hi-Q.
SEM/EDS Analysis:
The use of Scanning Electron Microscopy / Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) in the analysis of failure related issues of printed circuit boards (PCBs) is a well-established and accepted protocol. As opposed to or simply in addition to normal optical microscopy, SEM/EDS allows for the “inspection” of areas of interest in a much more informative way.
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) allows for visual observation of an area of interest in a completely different way from that of the naked eye or even normal optical microscopy. SEM images show simple contrasts between organic-based and metallic-based materials and thus instantly provide a great deal of information about the area being inspected. At the same time, Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), sometimes referred to as EDAX or EDX, can be used to obtain semi-quantitative elemental results about very specific locations within the area of interest.
Hi-Q does SEM/EDS analysis to evaluate the electroless nickel immersion gold process through 3rd party test lab.
Periodic quality conformance testing as per IPC requirement
Hi-Q does below listed reliability test periodically by sending test samples to 3rd party test lab,
- Rework simulation
- Moisture insulation resistance
- Dielectric withstanding voltage
- Resistant to Solvent
- Surface peel strength
- Ion chromatography.