Failure Analysis of Inductors
Inductor Failures
Failure analysis of inductors involves a combination of x-ray imaging, dissection, microsectioning, optical microscopy, and SEM/EDS analysis in order to isolate and characterize the root cause of the failure, since inductors are very often potted in an encapsulant. Inductors often fail open due to corrosion or bad internal solder joints or the inductors fail shorted due to electrical overstress, bad magnet wire insulation, or potting issues.
Some images of common inductor failures are shown below.
Other device failure analysis information:
inductors
Surface Mount Device (SMD) inductor.
Encapsulant voids around magnet wires in an inductor.
Corrosion due to Cl & Br from activated flux that wicked into the inductor coil.