On the Utility of Insulation Resistance Tests to Assess the Life Performance of Printed Wiring Boards

Based on new data insulation resistance tests have little capacity to predict the life performance of double‐sided rigid printed wiring boards. This conclusion arises from an elaborate insulation resistance evaluation after 2300 hours of accelerated life testing. The study considers the effects of two sources of contamination and five material combinations on the initial insulation resistance at 23°C and 90% RH. Life test samples were exposed to four levels of humidity and three levels of temperature. Using 1 Megohm as failure criterion there are clear‐cut effects of humidity, temperature and material combination, but there is only a weak correlation between failures and the initial insulation resistance.