NASA GSFC Tin Whisker Anecdotes Page

NASA
Whisker Anecdotes

Tin and Other Metal Whisker Anecdotes

This portion of the NASA Goddard Metal Whisker WWW Site is intended to collect Whisker Anecdotes where more "formal" publicity of the item is either unavailable or "unwanted" by the individuals/organizations experiencing the problems. Attempts have been made to gather and report the information in as detailed a manner as possible while protecting the sensitivity/anonymity of the parties involved.

Anecdote	Description
Anecdote #10	Tin Whiskers on Tin-Plated Oscilloscope Probes (reported in 2007)
Anecdote #9	Tin Whiskers on Tin-Plated Copper Bus Bars Suspected to Have Produced Metal Vapor Arc Failures
Anecdote #8	Tin Whiskers Detaching from RF Shield (Bracket) During Assembly and Producing Electrical Short Circuits Found at End-Of-Production Line Testing (Reported in 2008)
Anecdote #7	Tin Whiskers Inside of Tin-Plated Transistor Packages Used in Vintage Radios (Reported in 2005)
Anecdote #6	Tin Whiskers in Radio & Telephone Equipment (Observed in 1981)
Anecdote #5	Field Failures Due to Tin Whiskers on "Bright" Tin-Plated Circuit Breaker Contacts (Reported in 2003)
Anecdote #4	Tin Whiskers on Shields (Enclosure) of GPS Modules (Reported in 2003)
Anecdote #3	Field Failures due to Tin Whiskers Breaking Loose from RF Enclosures - Package Lids (Reported in 2003)
Anecdote #2	Tin Whiskers Observed in Waveguide that Affected Performance without Electrical Shorting (Reported in 2004)
Anecdote #1	Field Failure Caused by Tin Whisker Short ~20 Years after System Fielded (Reported in 2002)

Responsible NASA Officials: Michael Sampson/NASA GSFC Code 306 Dr. Henning Leidecker/NASA GSFC Code 562	Additional Researchers: Lyudmyla Panashchenko/NASA GSFC Code 562 Jay Brusse/SSAI Jong Kim/Vertex LLC	Last Updated: January 17, 2019
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