Evaluation of Effectiveness of Conformal Coatings as Tin Whisker Mitigation

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 41; no. 9; pp. 2508 - 2518
• Main Authors: Han, Sungwon, Osterman, Michael, Meschter, Stephan, Pecht, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Backscattering; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Coatings; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Effectiveness studies; Electronics; Electronics and Microelectronics; Exact sciences and technology; Hardware; Humidity; Instrumentation; Materials; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Packages; Phase diagrams and microstructures developed by solidification and solid-solid phase transformations; Physics; Protective coatings; Solid State Physics; Solidification; Strategy; Tin; Tin whisker; conformal coating; coating coverage; Scanning electron microscopy; Electron backscattering; Titanium nitride; Coverage rate; Coatings; Solidification; Thickness; Image analysis; Microelectronic fabrication; Conformal coatings; Humidity; Vibrational modes; Whiskers; Gallium selenides; Quantitative chemical analysis

The application of a conformal coat has been considered as a mitigation strategy to prevent unintended shorting events induced by tin whisker formation in electronic products. While various conformal coatings have been shown to be effective at containing tin whiskers on treated coupons, the effectiv...