Question Log: Reducing Environmental Corrosion Failures in HP Products

Date: April 12, 2012

ID Question / Response
1 Do you know if Cisco has adopted ISA G1?
1.1 Cisco has co-authored papers with HP on the subject of data center corrosion and has supported
the idea of a G1 limit in these public forums.
2 Is it more advisable to have lower relative humidity in the computer room eg.<35% to lower the
chance for corrosion to occur?
2.1 While humidity has an effect, we have found that there is no correlation between high levels of
humidity and sulfide based corrosion activity. All you need is a small amount, and even lower levels
of humidity are enough to participate in the sulfide corrosion process.
3 Coupon placement was specified a situation with a failed device. Is it foreseen that this testing
might be done prior to system install to prevent failure at a future point in time?
3.1 Yes, we have discussed this with relevant R&D groups. There is an ongoing discussion about
requiring this at certain sites before installation, but this particular discussion is not over at this time.
4 Dell's spec on airborne contaminants: Class G2 or lower as defined by ISA-S71.04-1985
(http://i.dell.com/sites/content/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/dell-poweredge-r620-
technical-guide.pdf)
4.1 We are aware that Dell is making very aggressive statements about corrosion. They are taking this
very seriously. So should we! This is a good example of how our competition is setting the bar very
high right now on this subject. IBM is also taking a very aggressive response on the issue.
5 What is an "Ag cap"
5.1 A capacitor that uses silver (chemical symbol Ag) in its construction
6 Will there be any discussion regarding cosmetic issues for sheet metal, e.g. preplate steel?
6.1 Not specifically, but it is something you can discuss offline with Helen or I after the conference.
7 What about Paralyne coating
7.1 Paralyne coatings would require masking of connectors...we were trying to avoid that with the
Novec materials
8 Will coating cause any issues with ICT probe contact? Keeping in mind that Customer Returns may
flow back through ICT?
8.1 I don't expect any issues with the Novec coating and ICT. The material is formulated to move out of
the way when contact pressure is applied.
9 It was mentioned in on of the previous seminars, that FM200 gaseous fire suppression agent is
phased out also due to possible corrosion issues. Is any additional info available on this topic?
9.1 It was the phosphate flame retardants that were being phased out and replaced with this fluorinated
material (FM200). Dupont has previously tested for corrosion problems and found them low risk,
using coupons. See report:
http://www2.dupont.com/FE/en_US/assets/downloads/pdf_fm/k17642_FM-
200_material_compatibility.pdf
10 Are the geographical maps going to be shared within HP? If so, when? Using coupons at individual
consumer locations not practical, but having a regional overview would be insightful.
10.1 More information, including regional maps can be found at http://ges.corp.hp.com/cleanliness/

11 Are these failures also seen in NA, EU, etc (developed countries w/ pollution controls) near coal
fired power plants or other sources of sulfur laden environments?
11.1 Yes. We do see corrosion problems in the western world, but they are isolated to areas in and
near heavy industrial settings where sulfur gasses are present. I’ve been to geothermal power
plants, coal plants, oil refineries, etc that all exhibit this kind of corrosion. The issues are few and
far between, since most of these facilities understand the chemistry behind what they are doing,
and take steps to mitigate the problem like NEMA type enclosures or office filtration of the air.
There is no map that I am aware of that locates every possible sulfur generator. That would be a
huge undertaking even for one country. I suppose the EPA may have this information, but since
sulfur (elemental) generally isn’t regulated under laws like the Clean Air Act, I doubt they have
much either.
11.2 Yes, these failures are observed in the Western world, but at lower overall levels and are usually
tied to a specific industrial process.
12 Except for PCAs with BGAs, why are is Electrolytic Ni/Au red and would it be as good as OSP vis a
vis S laden atmosphere
12.1 No. Electrolytic gold/nickel does not fully coat the copper surface. If you look closely at an
electrolytic board, you will see exposed nickel and copper on the sides…this is due to edge effects
that prevent the electrolytic process from completely coating the board. Electroless processes like
ENIG do fully coat the pads, but don’t always fully coat VIAs, and so you can have corrosion
growing out of VIAs.

13 Humidity was an accelerate in the B 809 test can you share the levels
13.1 Humidity is a factor for creep corrosion, but not silver sulfidization. In creep corrosion, the cycling
of the humidity level up and down is more detrimental than a stable, elevated humidity level
within ASHRAE limits.
13.2 Industry literature minimizes humidity affect on copper.
But, Industry literature connects humidity affect on silver.
The industry is in process of more exhaustive tests.

14 Are OSP and Electrolytic NiAu about the same cost now? Should I just make everything OSP? Oh,
and if we move to OSP do we plug all vias? Man, I could riff on this a long time…Good thing the
seminar ended
14.1 Good questions…I don’t know about price. You could talk to Richard Barnett or Duane Wegher in
CDP about that. OSP is a relatively good choice in general. It is quite popular across most of our
products. Plugging VIAs comes with its own issues, so you’d want to carefully study that to ensure
you don’t end up with an unintended reliability issue.