Enhanced Foam Package Design for Drop/Impact Using Accurate Predictive Simulation

The interconnections and chips of the internal components of electronic devices need to be protected to prevent damage during shipping, handling, and daily use. This article studied an investigation into the abilities of foam as an outer packaging material to protect the detector device. This detector device is required to withstand a high-speed impact, 30 mph, and to avoid moisture damage. The finite element model of foam was validated by a compression experiment. The prediction simulation of foam samples was performed by using the validated foam model to obtain the correct stress-strain properties of foam samples. Different shapes, textures, and designs of foam outer packaging were investigated, which include tennis ball shape versus hockey puck shape, inner dimple texture versus outer pimple texture, and monotonic foam layer versus double foam layers. The different foam material combinations of packaging were also compared by using the predicted stress-strain properties of foam in ANSYS/LS-DYNA to study the effect on reducing the out-of-plane deformation of the printed circuit board (PCB).