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July 2005

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Subject:
From:
Carl VanWormer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
TechNet E-Mail Forum <[log in to unmask]>, Carl VanWormer <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 1 Jul 2005 12:57:22 -0700
Content-Type:
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text/plain (112 lines)
Hi Graham, thanks for the reply.

The board was not coated.  Who needs to coat it if it's in a waterproof
enclosure - hahahahahah!  The water was dumped and the board with all the
white fuzzy stuff on it was given to me.  I ran it through a couple of
cleaning cycles (solvent, dishwasher, etc.) and took most all of the
corrosion products off of it.  The water in the enclosure must have been
quite conductive, maybe because of residual contamination on the board.  The
evident corrosion appeared to be caused by electrical bias action.  There
was some discoloration of the board, particularly around vias, where it
looked like water had seeped into the solder mask or into the laminate.
Would pictures be in order?


Carl Van Wormer
[log in to unmask]



-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Naisbitt [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 9:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]; IPC TechNet
Subject: Re: [TN] Water damage question


Carl
In answer to your questions:

1   Yes.
2   Yes.
3   Definitely maybe.

Was the board conformally coated?
Have you investigated the resistivity or conductivity of the water? Have you
analysed the water to determine what impurities are present?

If you can answer these it will make the solution easier to fathom......ooh
sorry about the puns, they will make Dewey's day!
--
Regards Graham Naisbitt

[log in to unmask]          [log in to unmask]

Golf Quote of the week: I don't play golf to feel bad. I play bad golf and
still feel good.

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Farnborough GU14 0NR

Phone: +44 (0)12 5252 1500
Fax: +44 (0)12 5252 1112

CONCOAT - Engineering Reliability in Electronics
CONCOAT SYSTEMS - Measuring Reliability in Electronics
A British Manufacturer

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Cell: 079 6858 2121



On 1/7/05 15:43, "Carl VanWormer" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Background:
> I am trying to fix a circuit board that has been running in an
> underwater environment.  The water was not a planned condition.  The
> board was in a waterproof box with waterproof grommets for the cables
> that came into the box.  Unfortunately, the CAT-5 cable that went up
> the antenna tower had water leaking into the other end of the cable,
> which was 100 feet higher, so the water made its way into the
> enclosure.  Since the enclosure was "water proof", no water leaked out
> of the box.  The board ran in this condition for a while.  I cleaned
> and dried the board, then added a jumper to replace the 24V power lead
> terminal on the switching regulator, which had been etched away.
>
> As I slowly increased the input power to the system, I saw the
> regulator start working, but the output voltage didn't rise.  I
> measured the resistance from VCC to ground at under 1 Ohm.  I fired up
> my favorite short circuit location tool (SS-2) and observed the
> following: 1.  several short circuits under the BGA chip 2.  several
> short circuits on areas of board without traces showing on the top and
> bottom sides.
>
> Question to the group:
> 1.  Can running a board under water cause short circuits to form under
> a BGA chip? 2.  Can letting a multi-layer circuit board soak in water
> (with or without
> bias) cause shorts to appear on inner layers?
> 3.  Is there anything that can be done to reverse the action that
> caused these shorts?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
> Carl
>
>

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