Whisker growth on Sn thin film accelerated under gamma-ray induced electric field

Killefer, Morgan; Borra, Vamsi; Al-Bayati, Ahmed Jalil; Georgiev, Daniel G.; Карпов, В. Г.; Parsai, E; Shvydka, Diana

doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa85b1

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…ing TCO layer without scribes. 11 That fact is consistent with our theoretical methodology of Sec. II D showing how a laterally nonuniform substrate charging results in a laterally uniform electric field due to the free carriers rearrangement in TCO.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Such field-induced accelerated whisker growth has been observed in multiple experiments. [7][8][9] A related effort was devoted to acceleration of whisker growth under ionizing radiation sources, such as 6 MeV electrons 9,10 and 0.4 MeV gamma-rays 11 capable of inducing electric fields by electrically charging a substrate (glass or acrilic holder) supporting tin or zinc films. We note that radiation effects on whisker growth have been observed ∼60 years ago and remained unexplained.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14 Here, we further explore the effects of ionizing radiation on tin whisker development with a goal of verifying the hypothesis of their underlying electrostatic interaction. A central argument will be that while the utilized radiation fields cannot lead to metal film structure modifications, they accelerate tin whisker development by orders of magnitude; hence, ionization and its related substrate charging [10][11][12][13] becomes the culprit. In order to verify that hypothesis, we studied the dependence of whisker development rates on the ionization rate by designing experiments where samples received different radiation intensities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gamma- and x-ray accelerated tin whisker development

Oudat

Arora

Parsai

et al. 2020

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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We observed accelerated whisker development in thin tin films under non-destructive gammaray and x-ray irradiation sources. The effect is mediated by charges induced in glass substrates supporting films, and becomes significant reaching the characteristic range of radiation doses of 20-30 kGy. We were able to change the radiation induced whisker growth rate by electrically disconnecting some parts of our experimental setup thus demonstrating the electrostatic nature of the whisker development. The observed acceleration factors make the ionizing radiation a potential non-destructive and readily implementable accelerated life testing tool.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gamma- and x-ray accelerated tin whisker development

Oudat

Arora

Parsai

et al. 2020

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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“…A recent electrostatic theory [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] attributes MW driving forces to the electric fields, either induced by surface imperfections (charge patches) or externally. That theory predicts MW nucleation barrier, growth rates, and statistics of MW lengths vs. certain material parameters such as the surface tension σ and surface charge density n. However, a number of important questions remain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopic Structure of Metal Whiskers

et al. 2018

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We present TEM images of the interior of metal whiskers (MW) grown on electroplated Sn films. Along with earlier published information, our observations focus on a number of questions, such as why MWs' diameters are in the micron range (significantly exceeding the typical nano-sizes of nuclei in solids), why the diameters remain practically unchanged in the course of MW growth, what is the nature of MW diameter stochasticity, and what is the origin of the well-known striation structure of MW side surfaces. In an attempt to address such questions we performed an in-depth study of MW structure at the nanoscale by detaching a MW from its original film, reducing its size to a thin slice by cutting its sides by a focused ion beam, and performing TEM on that structure. Our observations revealed a rich nontrivial morphology suggesting that MW may consist of many side by side grown filaments. This structure appears to extend to the outside whisker surface and be the reason for the striation. In addition, we put forward a theory where nucleation of multiple thin metal needles results into micron-scale and larger MW diameters. This theory is developed in the average field approximation similar to the roughening transitions of metal surfaces. The theory also predicts MW nucleation barriers and other observed features.PACS numbers:

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“…They found that continuous DRX took place in thicker (2-5 µm) Sn films and resulted in short whiskers. Killefer et al [27] investigated the whisker growth on Sn thin-film subjected to a gamma-ray induced electric field. They found that electric charges generated in the insulating glass substrate under the Sn thin film were perpendicular to the Sn film, thus resulted in electrostatically driven whisker growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinetics of Sn whisker growth from Sn thin-films on Cu substrate

Illés

Krammer

Hurtony

et al. 2020

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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The kinetics of Sn whisker growth was investigated on vacuum-evaporated Sn thin-films. Sn film layers were deposited on a Cu substrate with 0.5 and 1 µm thicknesses. The samples were stored in room conditions (22 ± 1 °C/50 ± 5RH%) for 60 days. The Sn whiskers and the Cu–Sn layer structure underneath them were investigated with both scanning electron and ion microscopy. Fast Cu–Sn intermetallic formation resulted in considerable mechanical stress in the Sn layer, which initiated intensive whisker growth right after the layer deposition. The thinner Sn layer produced twice many whiskers compared to the thicker one. The lengths of the filament-type whiskers were similar, but the growth characteristics differed. The thinner Sn layer performed the highest whisker growth rates during the first 7 days, while the thicker Sn layer increased the growth rate only after 7 days. This phenomenon was explained by the cross-correlation of the stress relaxation ability of Sn layers and the amount of Sn atoms for whisker growth. The very high filament whisker growth rates might be caused by the interface flow mechanism, which could be initiated by the intermetallic layer growth itself. Furthermore, a correlation was found between the type of the whiskers and the morphology of the intermetallic layer underneath.

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Whisker growth on Sn thin film accelerated under gamma-ray induced electric field

Cited by 14 publications

References 39 publications

Gamma- and x-ray accelerated tin whisker development

Gamma- and x-ray accelerated tin whisker development

Microscopic Structure of Metal Whiskers

Kinetics of Sn whisker growth from Sn thin-films on Cu substrate

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