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LPD Lab Services

Data Centre Failure Investigation

Uptime is critical for computer data centres, but they can have a variety of operational problems during their life including power disruptions, cooling system failures causing overheating and electrical breaker tripping as well as network connection failures.network box

  • Power disruptions can be from mains or UPS battery backup system failures. The Laboratory can conduct physical failure analysis of the power electronics components, using combinations of reverse engineering procedures, carefully dismantling optical microscopy, SEM/EDX and other materials analytical techniques. To work out the reasons for the failures and how to avoid them in the future.
  • The intense heat in a datacentre requires complex cooling systems which can thermally shut down because of membrane fouling, mineral scaling or corrosion buildup, water treatment breakdown, heat exchanger cooling loop faults and biological matter build-up. Deposit sampling or careful dismantling of components and chemical and materials analysis including corrosion investigations can reveal the root cause utilising combinations of optical microscopy, SEM/EDX, and ion chromatography.
  • Electrical shorts from dust and debris as well as poor environmental control reduces the efficiency of datacentre operation and in bad cases can cause trips. Relative humidity or dew point control is vital to minimise static electricity build up and sources of particles and corrosive species should be identified and eliminated. If release osmosis systems supplying moisture fail, these can cause power unit trips. Dust and debris particle can be identified and analysed by SEM/EDX and FTIR. Such deposits can be analysed directly on electrical boards and cables as well as from collected samples taken from infrastructure surfaces.
  • Zinc whiskers are also a major problem in datacentres causing electrical shorts. LPD Lab Services can diagnose this problem by SEM/EDX too.
  • Printed Circuit Boards can themselves have quality issues which make them vulnerable to premature failure including issues with excess soldering flux use or residues as well as poor PCB passivation leaving the board vulnerable to corrosion and shorts. Localised analysis by SEM/EDX or FTIR Microscopy can diagnose these faults and IC can be used to look for excessive ions left on the surface from manufacture which promote premature electronic device failures.