I saw an interesting report on the History Channel (Engineering Disasters) about "Tin Whiskers"
Some electronic failures are being caused by “Tin Whiskers”. When lead was removed from solder for environmental reasons, it was discovered that the tin was growing microscopic tin crystals on component legs. If the tin whisker touches another conductive part, the component or the board can fail! It is theorized that tin whiskers may have been the cause of a satellite failure, as well as problem with F-16 fighters.
Maybe we should brush our motherboards with non-conductive brushes from time to time to clean off an potential tin whiskers. It makes you wonder how many hardware failures were due to tin whiskers, and could have been prevented.
Here is a NASA page on the subject.
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm
Some electronic failures are being caused by “Tin Whiskers”. When lead was removed from solder for environmental reasons, it was discovered that the tin was growing microscopic tin crystals on component legs. If the tin whisker touches another conductive part, the component or the board can fail! It is theorized that tin whiskers may have been the cause of a satellite failure, as well as problem with F-16 fighters.
Maybe we should brush our motherboards with non-conductive brushes from time to time to clean off an potential tin whiskers. It makes you wonder how many hardware failures were due to tin whiskers, and could have been prevented.
Here is a NASA page on the subject.
http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram