An Investigation into the Impact Different Quantities of Vias have on the Reliability of PCB Circuits

Preddy, Christopher (2024) An Investigation into the Impact Different Quantities of Vias have on the Reliability of PCB Circuits. [USQ Project]

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Abstract

In Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design and manufacturing, there are several official and unofficial design rules; one of these unofficial design rules is via minimisation, which is to keep the number of vias in use to a minimum, potentially reducing performance and reliability loss. Vias are holes drilled into a PCB, plated typically with copper to interconnect the conductive layers of a PCB. With rising component and circuit density on PCBs, which has facilitated the increased use of vias in PCB design, it is undetermined if this overall increase in vias impacts the overall reliability of PCB circuits, consequently impacting failure rates which sequentially leads to an impact on electronic waste.

This project investigated and analysed results gathered from two physical experimentations to observe the impact that different quantities of vias have on a PCB circuit’s reliability to validate or invalidate the design rule via minimisation. The focus areas were the maximum current capabilities of the circuits, and the thermal and physical properties. To conduct the experiments, three circuit types were designed and manufactured based on the different quantities of vias; the first circuit contained one via, which was the control circuit for the experiment and results; the second circuit contained five vias; and the third circuit contained ten vias. Each PCB contained twenty circuits and was all manufactured by JLCPCB, 80 circuits of each type underwent experimentation under two methodologies; the first experiment focused on the maximum current, which started at 500 mA and increased by 100mA every 5 seconds until failure, and the second experiment which had a focus on the thermal properties started at 5 A, increasing by 500mA every 20 seconds until failure, where physical and thermal images were taken in the 20-second pause. The results and images were analysed and compared between the three different circuit types.

Results show that an increased quantity of vias reduced the overall maximum current of the circuit, the circuits had a higher temperature, and the area of damage after failure was far greater, concluding that this increase is detrimental to the reliability of the circuits and validating the design rule of via minimisation. While overall detrimental, there were some benefits; the ten via circuits held higher temperatures longer than the other two circuits, and comparing the five and ten via, the temperature did not change drastically at the lower current levels.

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Item Type:	USQ Project
Item Status:	Live Archive
Faculty/School / Institute/Centre:	Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Engineering (1 Jan 2022 -)
Supervisors:	Brown, Jason
Qualification:	Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (Electrical/Electronic)
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2026 04:32
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2026 04:32
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Printed Circuit Board (PCB); vias
URI:	https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/53150

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