Hi Werner,

Thanks for the interesting story.  So, if silver forms brittle IMC with tin at
about 3%, why do people use (and pay for) Sn62/Pb36/Ag2, Sn96/Ag4 and even
Sn95/Ag5?  Are all these silver-bearing alloys inherently brittle?

Is there any hard evidence that the failure mode in this particular TI case back
in 1982 was related to Sn/Ag IMC and not to something else -- say for instance
-- electroplating defect?

Eric Yakobson
Alpha PC Fab




[log in to unmask] on 05/05/99 03:01:20 PM

To:   [log in to unmask]
cc:
Subject:  Re: [TN] Silver coating on connectors




In a message dated 5/5/99 12:25:22, [log in to unmask] writes:
>Hi Werner,
>Sorry, I've never heard of "silver embrittlement", which is worse than gold
>embrittlement before.  Perhaps you could enlighten us?  Also, I'm not quite
sure
>I understand how the nickel barrier layer would help to eliminate it.
>Thanks.
>Eric Yakobson
>Alpha PC Fab

Hi Eric,
The industry found out