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