Folks,
I just returned from SMTA/INEMI’s Medical Conferencein Milpitas (near San Jose/San Fransisco), where I spoke on Tin Whiskers. I then quickly traveled to Costa Mesa (400 miles south, near Los Angles), to IPCs Tin Whiskers/Reliability Conference, where I spoke on Weibull Analysis. Both shows where attended by 80-plus people.
Most noteworthy, at the IPC Tin Whiskers Meeting, was Raytheon's Dave Pinsky’spresentation, titled: “Tin Whiskers at a Large Defense OEM: Past . Present, Future.” In addition to discussing claims that some vendors have of producing whiskerless tin coatings and other topics, mosthelpful was his mention of a report by the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association (GEIA) on Tin Whisker Risk Mitigation. This standard, GEiA-STD- 0005-2discusses mitigation details thoroughly. Not only has the knowledge of tin whiskers increased, there appears to be more confidence in coatingsfor mitigation. However, in mission-critical applications, a well thought out, multiple mitigation approach to tin whiskers is still needed.
The image above, taken by NASA, shows a tin whisker next to a human hair. Tin whiskers are very thin indeed!
Cheers,
Dr. Ron
