-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueIPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
The Cost of Rework
In this issue, we investigate rework's current state of the art. What are the root causes and how are they resolved? What is the financial impact of rework, and is it possible to eliminate it entirely without sacrificing your yields?
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Risk and Mitigation for Tin Whiskers and Tin Pest
March 4, 2015 | Dr. Ronald C. Lasky, Indium Corp.Estimated reading time: 1 minute
There is considerable and justifiable concern over the risks of tin whiskers. However, the same concern is not apparent regarding the dangers of tin pest. This paper will present an overview of both of these reliability concerns by reviewing what is known about the mechanisms and the occurrence of both phenomena.
Mitigation techniques will be discussed, and for tin whiskers, the discussion will focus on barriers between the tin and copper base metal, additions of bismuth to the tin, annealing of the tin, designs that minimize tin whisker failure risk, and over-coatings of the tin. For tin pest, the mitigation technique will be primarily adding bismuth or antimony to the tin.
Tin Whiskers
The existence of tin whiskers has been known since the early days of radio. Typically, tin whiskers form in tin plating on component leads, not bulk solder. Numerous, very expensive failures have been caused by tin whiskers; many of these failures were in satellites. NASA has a website devoted to tin whisker failures.
The website is the home of many iconic tin whisker photographs, and is frequently and justifiably referenced when the topic of the risk of tin whiskers is mentioned. But what is the true risk of tin whiskers in today’s products, and what are the mitigation strategies and their effectiveness in handling this threat?
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the February issue of SMT Magazine.
Suggested Items
Indium Corporation to Present, Exhibit at EPP InnovationsFORUM
03/28/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation is set to present and exhibit at EPP InnovationsFORUM, one of Europe’s premier single-day electronics manufacturing forums, on April 17 in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. Topic areas for 2024 will include AI, automation, sustainability, and quality.
Reducing Nitrogen Consumption in Convection Soldering with Rehm Thermal Systems' Patented Mechatronic Curtain
03/28/2024 | Rehm Thermal SystemsCurrent developments indicate a need for larger throughput heights due to the trend towards e-mobility, which in turn increases nitrogen consumption for process inertization. Rehm Thermal Systems responds to this issue with an innovative solution: the mechatronic curtain.
Indium Corporation, Industry Partners to Showcase Products “Live@APEX”
03/26/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation®, in cooperation with its industry partners, will feature its proven solder solutions live on the show floor throughout IPC APEX Expo from Apr. 9‒11 in Anaheim, Calif., U.S.
ITW EAE Wins New Product Introduction Award for Electrovert® Wave Soldering Machine Deep Wave
03/26/2024 | ITW EAEITW EAE is proud to announce that it has earned a 2024 New Product Introduction (NPI) Award for Electrovert’s Deep Wave option for wave soldering machines. This new, innovative system provides the ability to pump up to a 20 mm wave height.
Mek's Next-Gen AOI Technology Takes Center Stage at IPC APEX EXPO 2024
03/19/2024 | MEKMek is excited to announce its presence at IPC APEX EXPO, North America's largest electronics manufacturing event, in Anaheim, California, from April 6-11, 2024. Attendees are invited to visit Mek at booth #1433 to explore the latest AOI technology offerings.