The deterioration of electrical components during storage was found to be a problem. The problem surfaced at a storage site in the state of Georgia. Documentation of the problem and preliminary failure analysis indicated that material handling, identification tags, and the plating process were potential causes for the problem. Subsequent work at RIA implicated the packaging materials and work at Honeywell implied that the brazing operation may have also contributed to the problem. In all cases, the contaminant was the same: residual chloride. Chloride from the brazing flux, chloride from the nickel plating solution, chloride from handling due to perspiration residues and chloride from the bubble-pak cushioning material and heat-shrink identification labels are all sources of contamination during processing that affect storage. Rased on the testing, bubble-pak containing an anti-static compound also presented an unsuitable condition for packaging gold plated Kovar components. If long-term storage of electrical components is desired, such items must undergo stringent cleaning after brazing, use of sulfamate nickel plating solution, handling with clean gloves and packaging with non-chlorinated packaging/identification material.

Subject
Circuits, Water, Materials, Fluxes, Brazing, Packaging, Storage, Vapors, Gold, Heat, Polyethylene, Blistering, Chlorides
© 1989 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1989
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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