4 ms·
Zinc and zinc alloys are also known to produce whiskers slowly (or rapidly if subjected to temperature/stress cycles) which can short circuits over time. https
by Laforet 11y ago
Zinc and zinc alloys are also known to produce whiskers slowly (or rapidly if subjected to temperature/stress cycles) which can short circuits over time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker_%28metallurgy%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whisker_%28metallurgy%29
This is especially a problem in RoHS compliant appliances as the common additives, i.e. lead, used to supress whisker formation in solder cannot be used.
- kragen 11y agoYes, although it's tin whiskers rather than the zinc whiskers that come from solder. It might be the same mechanism, but the mechanism isn't well understood yet. Which is kind of funny, given that we've been smelting tin since the beginning of the Bronze Age; you'd think we'd understand it by now. I thought about bringing up tin whiskers in my earlier comment, but I decided I was already going over my non-architectural surprising-failure-mode word budget. :)