Target Condition: Are Autorouters Friend or Foe?
Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
Failure Mode: Hole Wall Pullaway
September 16, 2015 | Paul Reid, ConsultantEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Hole wall pullaway (HWPA) is an insidious defect that is not usually a cause of electrical failure. What happens with HWPA is that the copper plating in a plated through-hole (PTH) is pulled away from the dielectric of the drilled hole wall. The hole must not be filled with any sort of a hole fill in order to see HWPA.
There are two distinct types of HWPA: stress-relieving and stress-inducing. In stress-relieving HWPA, the condition appears to distress the PTH, allowing it to survive hundreds or thousands of thermal cycles without failure. In stress-inducing HWPA, the stress appears to greatly increase, causing the PTH to fail in just a few thermal cycles. What we consider a failure is an increase greater than 10% in the overall resistance in the circuit. A crack that partially bridges the copper at the internal interface is enough to cause a failure.
This column is based on my experience in test reliability of interconnect stress test (IST) coupons. I am addressing HWPA that features moderate to severe outgassing. There may be HWPA due to thermal stressing of the board without any significant outgassing, but this type of HWPA is subtle, and it presents as a dark line between the plating and the dielectric of the hole wall. This type of HWPA is rarely detected.
Stress-Relieving HWPA
Stress-relieving is the most common type of HWPA. It appears that the adhesion of copper plating to the dielectric is reduced most likely due to problems with the application of electroless copper plating adhering to the dielectric of the hole wall. At the same time, the adhesion is strong at the copper’s internal interconnection. In fact, experience suggests that the adhesion of the electroless copper is stronger than the copper plating. This process frequently produces strong interconnections to copper inner layers. This condition may result in a hole wall that looks like a stack of forward or backward “Ds” running the length of the hole where the top and the bottom of the “Ds” is at an internal interconnect.
To read this entire article, which appeared in the August 2015 issue of The PCB Design Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Happy’s Tech Talk #40: Factors in PTH Reliability—Hole Voids
07/09/2025 | Happy Holden -- Column: Happy’s Tech TalkWhen we consider via reliability, the major contributing factors are typically processing deviations. These can be subtle and not always visible. One particularly insightful column was by Mike Carano, “Causes of Plating Voids, Pre-electroless Copper,” where he outlined some of the possible causes of hole defects for both plated through-hole (PTH) and blind vias.
Trouble in Your Tank: Can You Drill the Perfect Hole?
07/07/2025 | Michael Carano -- Column: Trouble in Your TankIn the movie “Friday Night Lights,” the head football coach (played by Billy Bob Thornton) addresses his high school football team on a hot day in August in West Texas. He asks his players one question: “Can you be perfect?” That is an interesting question, in football and the printed circuit board fabrication world, where being perfect is somewhat elusive. When it comes to mechanical drilling and via formation, can you drill the perfect hole time after time?
The Evolution of Picosecond Laser Drilling
06/19/2025 | Marcy LaRont, PCB007 MagazineIs it hard to imagine a single laser pulse reduced not only from nanoseconds to picoseconds in its pulse duration, but even to femtoseconds? Well, buckle up because it seems we are there. In this interview, Dr. Stefan Rung, technical director of laser machines at Schmoll Maschinen GmbH, traces the technology trajectory of the laser drill from the CO2 laser to cutting-edge picosecond and hybrid laser drilling systems, highlighting the benefits and limitations of each method, and demonstrating how laser innovations are shaping the future of PCB fabrication.
Day 2: More Cutting-edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/18/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) summer conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the third of three articles on the conference. The other two cover Day 1’s sessions and the opening keynote speech. Below is a recap of the second day’s sessions.
Day 1: Cutting Edge Insights at the EIPC Summer Conference
06/17/2025 | Pete Starkey, I-Connect007The European Institute for the PCB Community (EIPC) Summer Conference took place this year in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 3-4. This is the second of three articles on the conference. The other two cover the keynote speeches and Day 2 of the technical conference. Below is a recap of the first day’s sessions.