What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4300

[Priss80]

I have a drawing given from a customer, note in drawing to mention "Overall ion contamination must meet requirements of C-7000 as measured per Q1000-119 . What does this mean? What the spec C-7000 is and what type of test should i perform?
The part is a cover, material Ultradur B4300G6 natural. The part is as a plastic cover assemble to the castings and PCBs inside, the complete set is a car sensor.

 

[Stijloor]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

A Quick Bump!

Can someone help??

Thank you very much!!

 

[Priss80]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

I get to know that the C-7000 is the delphi specification and Q1000-119 is spec mention the method to perform the ion contamination test. One that concern me is what exactly ion contamination is? Is the ion come from environment and charge or discharge on part or it is from the material itself?

 

[1010011010]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

Hi There,

I do not know those specs, but coming from the electronics industry I know a bit or two about ion contamination. If you're talking about ion contamination it is about NaCl residues [?g NaCl equ./cm?]. Why is this important to electronics? Because NaCl is conductive. Just add a little moisture and depending on the level of contamination things start of with a little corrosion and might end up in some serious short-circuits.

For our industry the upper tolerance for ion contamination is set to 1.56 ?g NaCl equ./cm? (IPC J-STD-001 = electronics standard).

Where does the contamination come from? Well, pretty much from everywhere.

• Material
• Processing (e.g. washing, ...)
• Handling (e.g. sweaty hands, ...)
• ...

Measurements are usually made with a contaminometer, which is a bath of isopropanol with a controlled flow of liquid and a measuring cell. Basically it compares the NaCl equivalent at the beginning of the measurement to the NaCl equivalent at the end.

In your case, if it is some kind of electronics housing and going into a car, I can totally understand what your customer wants or put differently why he wants this - he is "scared" of corrosion...in my opinion for a reason, because this is one of the worst things you can do to an electronic assembly.

 

[blargon]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

[FONT=&quot]Hi Priss80,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]It could be that the note refers to a qualification test already conducted on the PCBs? If the PCB drawing was supplied for the purpose of designing the plastic cover. Query it with the customer.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The spec and test method can be downloaded from here: https://www.delphisuppliers.com/vendor_documents/delphi-d/ce/download.htm[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]From Q1000-119:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]PURPOSE: This test is designed to determine the level of ionic surface contaminants (such as chloride, Cl-) on representative component samples. The samples must represent production components. The method may be used for the following applications:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1) Bench-marking new manufacturing processes for validation and qualification.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2) Setting up on-line and/or routine process monitoring for ionic contamination levels.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3) As an alternate method for determining the cleanliness level of as-received component parts, particularly when absorbed ionic contamination is suspected, or when it is desired to know the surface loading of specific ions as opposed to total ionic concentration.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4) As a procedure for determining if specific ions of interest reside on parts.[/FONT]

 

[Priss80]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

Thanks for the clear explanation. Does the contamination test only for ion? Does the test able to test for organic component such as silicon...? What unit the test result will gave by the contaminometer ?
What is the pre-caution or PPE or type of packaging to protect the part from ion contamination? Does it means that the environment temp and humidity need to control at certain acceptance level?

 

[1010011010]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

Does the contamination test only for ion?
Yes, due to the principle of the measuring system. The measurement of the ionic contamination is carried out by immersing the test component into a test solution, usually a mixture of isopropanol and deionized water, to wash off the "contamination". The dissolved ionic contamination results in a change of electrical conductivity of the test solution. The conductivity is measured in a measuring cell.

Does the test able to test for organic component such as silicon...?
No, just changes in conductivity.

What unit the test result will gave by the contaminometer?
The conductivity is measured in S (Siemens) or in this case ?S (micro Siemens). However, the result is converted into/ expressed as ?g NaCl equ./cm?.

What is the pre-caution or PPE or type of packaging to protect the part from ion contamination?
If you don't know the degree of possible ionic contamination of your part, thinking about the packaging would be my second priority. First of all I'd find out what we're talking about, taking a part out of shipping, maybe even packed, and get it tested. However, since a contaminometer can easily cost around 20k EUR upwards (right now about the same in $), you should try and find a lab near you for doing this.

Does it means that the environment temp and humidity need to control at certain acceptance level?
Unless your production facility is near the sea side, salt or ionic contaminants in the air shouldn't be a reason for climate control.

 

[Priss80]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

You mentioned that the ion come from either material, processing and handling in your previous message, can i interpret that the ion may be at anywhere in the air around our environment? Or the ion only exist in certain environment, for instant plating enviroment, solder bath environment?
Is it ion charge and discharge activties happen between the ion in the air and the part? But my part is a plastic molded part, how can the ion joint to the plastic surface?

 

[blargon]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

In this context, ion contamination testing enables an assessment of PCB cleanliness. The test measures the amount of surface contaminants introduced during the fabrication process and from the fabrication environment - like residues of dust, oil, salt, etc.
When the PCB is rinsed with a solution, components of these residues (inorganic anions & cations and anion salts) will decrease the electrical resistance (increase conductivity) of the solution. The lower the electrical resistance of the solution, the more contamination was present on the PCB.

This test is usually done on bare boards and post-assembly. If you are supplied the assembled PCBs, tasked with placing them into an enclosure for a car sensor, then the ion contamination testing may have already been conducted on the PCBs you received.

What drawing has this note on it? Is it the drawing of the PCB or the drawing of the car sensor?

 

[Priss80]

Re: What is ion contamination? Specs are C-7000 & Q1000-119 - Material is Ultradur B4

The part i am going to test is a molded plastic cover, the cover will be assemble on the car sensor at customer side. I am wandering how the plastic part can attract with ion. Our process is just a molding machine and packing. Do you think there is possibly of ion happen in molding environment? (Our molding is not in clean room)