There have been studies done regarding this issue. They seem to be of the opinion that since the whisker tip area is very small, the pressure at the surface of the tip is large, and hence it can easily pierce the 1-3 mil thickness coating layer. Conformal coating is still mentioned as one of the forms of preventing the tin whiskers from touching each other and shorting (but not as a technique to inherently prevent the formation of Sn whiskers). The ultimate decision will have to consist of testing the efficacy of the type of coating for a particular application.

Amol Kane
M.S (Industrial Eng.)
Process Engineer
Harvard Custom Manufacturing 
941 Route 38  Owego, NY 13827
Phone: (607) 687-7669 x349
[log in to unmask]

 -----Original Message-----
From:   TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]  On Behalf Of David Hudson
Sent:   Thursday, April 13, 2006 6:33 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        [TN] Tin whiskers and conformal coating

Is there any experience or thoughts about whether the application of
conformal coating would help with the prevention of tin whiskers?

Thanks,
Dave
--
++++++++++++++++++++
David Hudson

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