• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.29 no.4
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• pp.3-10
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.1337-1342
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• 2008

The whisker grows at the plating of a lead frame so that it causes the serious problem like the short. To prove this case, many people have studied the cause and influence of the tin whisker growth. This study explains the grain size affects the growth of the whisker in the lead frame. By these studies about the whisker, the whisker growth is discovered by stresses generated by the intermetallic compound and CTE mismatch in both plating and base metal. The stresses or lattice defect generated in the plating process changes grain structure of plating. Consequently, these various stresses are stabilized by forming unspecified whiskers through lots of grain boundaries. Because the grain boundary is the path of the whisker growth, the smaller grain size exists, the more whiskers grow.