Publications

Platelet Composite Coatings for Tin Whisker Mitigation

Rohwer, Lauren E.; Martin, James E.

Reliable methods for tin whisker mitigation are needed for applications that utilize tin-plated commercial components. Tin can grow whiskers that can lead to electrical shorting, possibly causing critical systems to fail catastrophically. The mechanisms of tin whisker growth are unclear and this makes prediction of the lifetimes of critical components uncertain. The development of robust methods for tin whisker mitigation is currently the best approach to eliminating the risk of shorting. Current mitigation methods are based on unfilled polymer coatings that are not impenetrable to tin whiskers. In this paper we report tin whisker mitigation results for several filled polymer coatings. The whisker-penetration resistance of the coatings was evaluated at elevated temperature and high humidity and under temperature cycling conditions. The composite coatings comprised Ni and MgF2-coated Al/Ni/Al platelets in epoxy resin or silicone rubber. In addition to improved whisker mitigation, these platelet composites have enhanced thermal conductivity and dielectric constant compared with unfilled polymers.