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I had heard about tin whiskers, but always in relation to NASA. I had assumed it was only a problem in space, somehow related to lack of gravity and/or atmosphe
by aij 7y ago
I had heard about tin whiskers, but always in relation to NASA. I had assumed it was only a problem in space, somehow related to lack of gravity and/or atmosphere.
Apparently it's just that NASA cares about reliability more than most, and hence takes the time to do more detailed failure analyses.
Thanks for linking those slides.
- robomartin 7y agoNASA has done tons of research on this over decades. I have read most of the papers they published and worked with a couple of their researchers. While the context was aerospace, the effect happens on earth just as well. Pretty much all of their tests are done on the ground.
- blattimwind 7y agoThe reason lead was added to solder in the ~30s-40s was tin whiskers. Think about how huge components and pitches were back then and they still noticed tin whiskers and changed the solder to avoid them.
- LorenPechtel 7y agoRepairing a satellite in flight is effectively impossible. Thus NASA cares far more about how long something will last than most users.