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Lead Whisker Formation in the Gold-Lead System

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Abstract

Metallic whiskers of pure lead (Pb) have been observed in the solder of several types of transistors. The conditions that lead to these whiskers were evaluated, including characterization of the whisker lengths and whisker density as a function of time and temperature. The potential cause and impact they would have on the reliability of electronics has been investigated. Based on these results, it is hypothesized that these whiskers may be caused by the relief of residual stresses that are created during the evolution of Au-In and/or Au-Pb intermetallic compounds or, possibly, by a decomposition of the AuPb3 phase. Due to their small size, the Pb whiskers that were observed were considered to not be a reliability concern, but similar or larger Pb whiskers could cause electrical failure in some applications.

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Acknowledgments

The laboratory support of M. Ditz, K. Kobayashi, P. Koenig, A. Ozaeta and M. Paet is greatly appreciated as well as the comments provided on the manuscript by J. O’Day and F. Yang.

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  1. Boeing Research and Technology, El Segundo, CA, USA

    D. E. Helling

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  1. D. E. Helling
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Correspondence to D. E. Helling.

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Helling, D.E. Lead Whisker Formation in the Gold-Lead System. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 28, 1936–1941 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-03948-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-019-03948-w

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