Understanding the minutiae of a device or board’s construction can be key information for achieving success. Destructive physical analysis (DPA) of incoming products – components, PCBs, and others – can reveal important information about product quality, identifying potential weaknesses or process anomalies that should be corrected to improve reliability. An in-depth construction analysis or DPA may be mandated by the customer on a certain percentage of products, especially in the case of military or aerospace applications, to help guarantee that only defect-free parts are installed in critical systems. At Spirit, we perform deep-dive inspections of device construction, applying the knowledge of defects and failure mechanisms gained through years of F/A experience to ensure that any potential sources of trouble are clearly identified and reported.

DPAs are only one facet of the construction analysis services offered at Spirit; in some cases, one might be interested in examining a competitor’s product to better understand the state of a given market. One of the most common steps before launching a new product is gathering technical competitive intelligence; the millions of dollars required to perform research and development on a new product may never pay off if a competitor has already beaten you to the punch. Protecting one’s own intellectual property may also require construction analysis of competing products – for example, to prove infringement upon a patent. No matter what your situation, our engineers can apply their extensive expertise to produce a comprehensive dataset; whether we are working closely with a legal team to develop a teardown protocol to be applied to a patent litigation case or helping to assemble a bill of materials for a new electronic gizmo, our thorough, focused analysis is guaranteed to provide the information you need.