Creep Corrosion of OSP and ImAg PWB Finishes
With increasing adoption of lead-free PWB surface finishes,along with increasing product deployments in more corrosive
environments,the electronics industry is observing increased occurrences of corrosion-induced product failures. Particularly,
creep corrosion on immersion silver has been observed to cause product failures after very short service periods in G2 and
worse environments,in some cases less than one year. In our previous work (APEX 2009) [1],we demonstrated that creep
corrosion of ImAg can be correlated to the presence of certain types of surface contamination (for instance residues left
behind by organic acid fluxes). In this work,creep corrosion observed on OSP finished circuit boards will be reported. The
effect of post-reflow cleaning process on creep corrosion will be discussed. A laboratory MFG test will also be discussed that
replicates field creep corrosion. Comparison of creep corrosion susceptibility between OSP and ImAg PWB surface finishes
will also be made.