Patent ID: 9644253
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: C23C,H05K,Y10T

Claim:
1. A method comprising: providing an electronic assembly, the electronic assembly having at least one electrical connection that includes at least a surface that is substantially pure tin metal wherein, the pure tin metal has preformed tin whiskers formed thereon and wherein the pure tin metal has a thickness; exposing the tin metal to at least one mitigating agent selected to interact with the tin metal to oxidize the preformed tin whiskers; and mechanically removing substantially all the oxidized tin whiskers from the electronic assembly, wherein mechanically removing substantially all the oxidized tin whiskers comprises an action selected from the group consisting of: vibrating the electronic assembly to remove substantially all the oxidized tin whiskers and applying a gas flow over the electronic assembly sufficient to separate the oxidized tin whiskers from the surface of the electronic assembly; and wherein the electronic assembly is exposed to the mitigating agent under appropriate conditions to oxidize the tin whiskers.