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NEMI User Group Issues Recommendations for Mitigation of Tin Whiskers in High-Reliability Applications
March 23, 2004 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Herndon, Va. — The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) has issued a set of interim recommendations for lead-free component finishes to be used in high-reliability electronic applications in order to minimize risk of failures caused by tin whiskers.
These recommendations were developed by the consortium's Tin Whisker User Group, which comprises nine large manufacturers of high-reliability electronic assemblies that annually purchase many millions of dollars of components. The User Group was organized to define methods and tests that would minimize the probability of tin whiskers creating functional or reliability problems in their products. Members include Alcatel, Celestica, Cisco Systems, Delphi Electronics, HP, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems and Tyco Electronics. It is the consensus of the group that pure tin electroplating presents a risk in high-reliability applications, and they have outlined cost-effective alternatives using known mitigation practices and some level of testing to minimize this risk.
This second interim report updates a report published by the group in June of 2003. It presents recommendations for lead-free finishes for a variety of applications. These recommendations reflect the best judgment of the NEMI User Group members, based on their own experiences and the available data. The document outlines specific whisker mitigation guidelines supported by the group. Several larger OEMs have already issued specifications similar to these recommendations and others are considering following suit.
The document also discusses specific component types, assessing the reliability risk of tin whiskers for each and the various mitigation strategies recommended. The group is currently in the process of extending this work to create a user acceptance specification based on the test methods defined by the NEMI Tin Whisker Accelerated Test Project.
The Tin Whisker User Group's recommendations are available on the NEMI Web site at www.nemi.org/prjects/ese/tin_whisker_usergroup.html.The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's mission is to assure leadership of the global electronics manufacturing supply chain. For more information, visit www.nemi.org.