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EFC Working Party 23: Corrosion Reliability of Electronics


Welcome to the website of the Working Party on Corrosion Reliability of Electronics.

Current Activities

 

EUROCORR 2024

1-5 September 2024, Paris, France

Announcement of WP Session on Corrosion Reliability of Electronics

Being a multidisciplinary topic involving Materials, Corrosion, Electronics, and Electrical aspects, goal of WP23 is to bring people from different areas to a common forum to discuss and find solutions for corrosion issues in Electronics and resulting functional problems. Today Power Electronics (PE) is the heart of all sustainable technologies, and key for energy transition and e-mobility. One of the most important issues influencing its performance is the functional issues caused by corrosion failure modes due to their exposure to harsh environmental conditions. Interaction of humidity with internal parts of the device such as Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA), IGBTs, and other components result in several corrosion failure modes. Problems are compounded by the fact that electronic systems are built by multi-material combinations and presence of additional accelerating factors such as corrosion causing process related residues, bias voltage, and unpredictable user environment. This WP session aims to bring all actors together to a common forum for discussion. Session Topics

Take part and submit your abstract now! Deadline: extended to 14 February 2024


Business Meeting

Next Business Meeting at the upcoming EUROCORR

 


Knowledge transfer

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the subject, the knowledge sharing between various actors is an important part of the WP net-working activity. Organization of workshops, seminars, and symposia with respect to the basic understanding and industrial application will be part of this strategy.

Main interests for the Working Party, but not limited to are:

  • Electrochemistry under thin water layers and reliability of electronics
  • Corrosion failure modes and mechanisms related to electronics
  • Process cleanliness, design aspects, and interaction with humidity
  • Corrosion mitigation strategies and early prediction for electronics
  • Testing methods and standards useful for humidity effects
  • Specific corrosion issues related to material in electronics and components
  • Importance of enclosure design and various levels of packaging

And prospective industrial sectors for the Working Party include:

  • Power electronics and control systems
  • Electronics for offshore applications
  • Electronics for energy systems
  • Automotive electronics
  • Aerospace electronics
  • Consumer electronics
  • Medical electronics

 


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Mission


Electronic devices, components, and products world-wide today face corrosion reliability issues resulting in premature fault and intermittent or permanent failures due to humidity exposure. The humidity related functionality issues and corrosion problems compromise the durability and reliability of the devices resulting in huge economic loss. Often a faulty signal or erroneous function by an electronic device is linked to the water layer formation on the surface of the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) resulting from the humidity exposure and the water layer acting as electrolyte for electrochemical processes. Problem is compounded today due to a number of factors specific to the electronic devices such as miniaturization, high level of integration, and multi-material usage on the PCBA. These factors together with the applied potential bias when the device is working and contamination introduced during the manufacturing process causes a number of humidity related failure modes in electronics. Today electronic devices and control systems are part of almost all installations exposing them to all climatic conditions from clean room to severe offshore conditions.

Electronic corrosion

Corrosion failure modes under humidity exposure conditions includes: leak current failures due to surface insulation reduction, electrochemical migration, galvanic corrosion due to micro-galvanic cell formation, creep corrosion, and corrosion caused by gaseous environment. Leak current and electrochemical migration issues are of particular importance due to the possibility of intermittent or permanent electrical functionalities issues causing device breakdown.

Both industrial electronics and consumer electronics suffer from corrosion reliability issues and the exposure conditions vary from humid to harsh environments. Therefore, incorporating enhanced corrosion performance in the design is relevant for all, which needs collaborative effort between interdisciplinary areas namely electronics, electrical, and corrosion specialists enabling remedial measures based on proper understanding of corrosion and electrochemical mechanisms.

The vision of this Working Party is to build the necessary interdisciplinary understanding required for solving the corrosion reliability issues at European level merging the expertise of various actors and to identify the industrial, and research and development needs, share knowledge and ideas, and develop information net-work at international level.

 
Research and development

This Working Party activity focus on understanding the root cause for humidity related failures based on corrosion and electrochemical mechanisms combined with electronics and electrical aspects. Improved understanding will be useful for developing mitigation strategies and predictive tools for PCBA and device design at various levels. Working Party also focus on sharing and comparing information on various test methods and methodologies used for analysis.

Publications

 

Information Resources

Journal publications, CELCORR group
(http://www.celcorr.com/index.php/publications/journal-publications)

Conference publications, CELCORR group
(http://www.celcorr.com/index.php/publications/conference-proceedings)

Previous Activities

 

Workshops

Workshop on Corrosion reliability of electronics, Eurocorr 2014, 8-12 September 2014, Pisa, Italy

Workshop on Corrosion reliability of electronics, Eurocorr 2015, 6-10 September 2015, Graz, Austria

Workshop on Corrosion reliability of electronics, Eurocorr 2016, 11-15 September 2016, Montpellier, France

Workshop on Corrosion reliability of electronics, Eurocorr 2017, 3-7 September 2017, Prague, Czech Republic 

One day seminar on Climatic reliability of electronics: Global perspectives and challenges, 28th January 2016, DTU, Lyngby, Denmark 

2nd seminar on Climatic reliability of electronics: Global perspectives and challenges, 19-20 January 2017, DTU, Lyngby, Denmark

Training of GfKORR guide line for the application of protective coating of electronic assemblies Ingolstadt, Germany, 2018 November 21st and 22nd.
This guideline and its training is established because of the awareness that comprehensive and elementary knowledge of the coating and its performance on electronic assemblies is mandatory. In order to achieve proper protection by coating , it is necessary to analyze the entire process. This training based on the guideline shall help examine the process in practice, from the layout to the functional test of the assembly after coating.

Workshop on "Corrosion reliability of electronics devices" as part of the EUROCORR 2018, 9-13 September 2018, Krakow, Poland (More information will appear soon)

3rd Seminar on Climatic reliability of electronics: Global perspectives and challenges, 30-31 January 2018, DTU, Lyngby, Denmark (More information will appear soon)

 

Working Party meeting presentation/minutes

Task Group meeting, Eurocorr 2016, Montpellier, France

Working Party meeting, Eurocorr 2017, Prague, Czech Republic

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