So... I'm a little confused. The NASA site and the article below completely contradict each other. Does anyone know the truth? Does lead inhibit whiskers or not? Are whiskers really a problem with today's board fab methods? We tried a new board fab house, and asked for HASL like we always do. They tried to get us to use nickel gold, but we said no, so they provided us with some sort of plated tin finish, because, I think, they are specializing in the plated type finishes and don't have the ability to do HASL - not that they told us that ahead of time. Right about the same time, all the talk about whiskers started up on this forum, and we don't know what to do with these boards now. Should we populate them or not? -----Original Message----- From: Guenter Grossmann [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: May 11, 2001 2:49 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Pure Tin I just read an article in the " Advanced Packaging, April 2001" about pure tin plating with the result that no whiskers were found after 18 months 50°C/85%. Well, no secrets told in the article but quite interesting to read another opinion. On www.apmag.com you can read the article after registering searching the archive for the April 2001 issue and ignoring the tons of advertising. Have a great day Guenter Guenter Grossmann Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Testing and Research EMPA Centre for Reliability 8600 Duebendorf Switzerland Phone: xx41 1 823 4279 Fax : xx41 1823 4054 mail: [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt delivery of Technet send the following message: SET Technet NOMAIL Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------