All lot of times when we deal with electronics we think that things will last forever, or at least several lifetimes. Of course, mechanical parts wear out, but electronics? Looking for information on electroplating this afternoon I landed on NASA's Tin and Zinc Whisker Photo Gallery. The gallery has a series of close up images on whiskers that form between capactitor plates and relays. Over time, these can cause shorts with serious implications (think Phoenix Missles and F-15 radar systems). Jay Brusse has a related article on zinc whiskers being "cited as the root cause of costly computer system failures". In addition, the zinc filaments, with diameters in the micrometers (thousandths of millimeters) when knocked off could be breathed in. These whiskers can grow as fast as 1 mm/year. Why zinc? Zinc plating is often used to protect against corrosion. Interesting, I bet that in some cases, whacking the electronics does make it work better because it knocks the filaments off. You can bet, though, that the trunk of the filament serves as a base for even faster growth next time, so that the electronics fails more and more until you give up and throw it out the window.
Posted by torque at May 25, 2004 1:22 PM | TrackBack