Failure Analysis of Electronics
Short Course
Tuesday September 17 – Friday September 20, 2013
Venue: University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Program Information | Registration and Contact Info

Program Information

Organizations involved in activities within the electronics supply chain are facing new challenges—not just from complex components and assemblies, harsher lifecycle environments, and newer materials, but also from a need for quicker turn-around. Engineers need a clear understanding of the failure mechanisms of electronic products as well as familiarity with the tools and techniques used to determine the root causes of failures.

Twice every year, CALCE and Buehler jointly offer a four-day course on failure analysis of electronics at the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Over 120 engineers from leading companies and government organizations from around the world, ranging from NASA to Microsoft, have taken this course. With a combination of classroom instruction, case studies, demonstrations, and hands-on laboratory training, this course covers topics ranging from failure mechanisms in electronics to specimen preparation, physics of failure, reliability, root cause analysis methodology, and materials analysis techniques.

Engaging and knowledgeable lecturers from CALCE and Buehler provide practical recommendations with numerous failure analysis case studies. The case studies illustrate the use of an array of failure analysis techniques to arrive at the root causes of field failures on printed circuit boards, passive and active components, and assemblies. Attendees will get a comprehensive picture of the variety of approaches and methods used and the rationale behind the selection of these techniques to uncover the root cause in the four cases. Each case study is concluded with recommendations for corrective actions that assist in minimizing downtime as well as prevent future occurrences of the problem.

The next course is being offered on September 17-20, 2013. Act quickly—seating is limited, so register today. Please use the attached form for registration. The course fee is $2500. A 20% discount for CALCE consortium members and federal government employees applies (final cost for CALCE consortium members and federal government employees is $2000).

Upon successful completion of this course, attendees will be awarded 1.6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) from the University of Maryland. CEUs are an important credential for many in today’s competitive workplace.

Each attendee, once registered, is invited to submit one sample to CALCE at least three weeks before the course starts. Several of the submitted samples will be prepared and analyzed in advance for use during course demonstrations. Some of the other samples will also be used for hands-on training sessions during the course to illustrate specimen preparation procedures and analysis techniques. All unused samples will be returned. However, no guarantee can be offered that any specific sample will be used during the course.

Registration and Contact Info
A registration form can be downloaded at the following address:
Download Registration Page

Please contact Bhanu Sood at 301-405-3498, or by email at bpsood@calce.umd.edu, for additional details.