Bourns hot-dips trimmers to eliminate tin whiskers

摘要

Tin whiskers-electrically conductive, crystalline structures that grow from surfaces on which tin is the final finish-have been the bane of electronic products since 2007. During that year, a European ROHS (restriction-of-hazardous-substances) directive essentially banned the use of lead in many electronic devices. However, the lead-free tin solder replacement is prone to whiskers, which can cause short circuits, interference,rnand unreliability.To virtually eliminate tin whiskers in its trimmers, Bourns'rnline of ROHS-compliant cermet-wire-terminal trimming potentiometers now uses a new, hot-dipped-tin process.