Dendrites, more dendrites!

The photos show another case of dendrite formation, although this time it's not in a mild, low voltage scenario (like in the infamous ceramic filter case).

That dendrite formed on one of my car's spark plugs when the ceramic insulation cracked and leakage occured, making the engine misfire and hiccup.

Observe the fractal nature of the dendrite, reminding of a lightning (which is exactly the same phenomenon at a much larger scale).

After I cleaned the ceramic surface with an abrasive disk and applied a suitable silicone oil with very high dielectric strength to the tiny crack, the spark plug worked very well for a few days until it was replaced.

Moral:     When dendrites grow
             like a thorny bush,
             your car starts going slow,
             you may well have to push...

(Click on the photos to see a larger version, the initial magnification was 25X and 200X, respectively).

Addendum - The leaking Electrolytic Capacitor Plague and my TDS-460

The nagging thought that maybe, just maybe, there was more electrolyte hidden under one of the SMD ICs on the board gradually rose to an obsession. I had to see with my own eyes!
So I proceeded to remove U82, one of the ICs that had been affected, to take a look under the hood.The photo (click to enlarge) shows I had missed a spot, or rather three spots, where the electrolyte could potentially create trouble.

Fortunately, there weren't any signs of the electrolyte under the IC. The row of pins and soldered connections at the sides act somewhat as a barrier, and had prevented the electrolyte from creeping under the IC, holding it among the pins by affinity. Unfortunately, the electrolyte doesn't mind and does its frightful tricks there, too. There is no conformal coating immediately around the copper pads where the pins get soldered, and this facilitates the electrolyte getting under the coating exactly where it upsets things the most, creating parasitic conductance where there shouldn't be any. Scraping off and cleaning with IPA does the trick, a good measure of drying with hot air from an SMD soldering station and coating with a small quantity of acrylic varnish, applied with the tip of a fine painting brush (after the IC is back in place) ensures the best possible result.

And a word to the wise: Searching for information on the Web, I have seen that a lot of  fellows have had the same unpleasant experience with the Plague. In several fora it was recommended that the affected board should be washed under the tap with water. I am quite skeptical about that though, because the water could easily dissolve the dried-up residue of the electrolyte, which would then merrily wick itself deeper into the board wherever there isn't any conformal coating (immediately around the ICs pins, for example). Getting it out in that case might prove next to impossible.

When capacitor electrolyte contamination is the issue, removing it only at the affected spots by thoroughly scraping the residue and already damaged coating off the board (before applying any liquids), then thoroughly cleaning just that spot with a cotton swab soaked in isopropyl alcohol (IPA)  logically seems much safer. After drying with hot air (at about 140 degrees centigrade applied locally for about 5 - 10 minutes), one can seal the spot with acrylic varnish, removing the possibility of future moisture ingress.

A hasty cleaning action with the wrong means or method might make things a lot worse, so beware..!

The Leaking Electrolytic Capacitor Plague and my Tek TDS-460

There are many good things in life, but bad ones tend to take more of humanity's time. There is compassion, love, science, understanding, but people spend most of their life - if not all of it - in greedy bellicose hunger, hating, believing in ghosts (holy or otherwise), and missing the - equally valid - other guy's perspective. The news every day provide ample proof.

Having put that off my chest, I had better now focus  my "elegant tapestry of quotations, musings, aphorisms, and autobiographical reflections" to the more mundane matter of  The Capacitor Plague, which, although completely unknown to the Medical Science, has caused many a frustrated consumer's tear to flow. In short, electrolyte leakage from bad (bad, bad) electrolytic capacitors destroys thousands of electronic devices every day, by corroding copper traces and creating parasitic conductivity on printed circuit boards. The plague doesn't discriminate and victims appear in every class of electronic devices. I have seen my car's ECU, personal computers, power supplies, test instruments, transceivers (and my friend's Stavros Sony ICF-80) die a gruesome death by the infamous Capacitor Plague.

In all godlike modesty, I have been able to resurrect most of the victims, save a few that were truly beyond redemption, as the time and cost to fix them was more than getting a new one. The latest unfortunate victim in my troubled experience was my beloved Tek TDS-460 digitising oscilloscope, a true work of four-channel art, which suddenly (and scaringly) started failing the self-test and showing erratic triggering (quite blasphemous for a prestigious Tek stallion). As the original SMD electrolytic capacitors, with a tarnished history of leaking, had been very wisely replaced with new ones before I acquired the instrument, I was almost certain that the malfunction couldn't be attributed to the electrolytics - although the symptoms - in an eerie way - pointed straight to that direction. Turns out that the Plague is like a time-bomb, and a very delayed one sometimes.

After thoroughly cleaning the (amazingly beautiful) acquisition board with isopropylic alcohol around the electrolytics, the symptoms went away (to my great joy), but only to come back to haunt me a couple of days later. I immediately repeated the cleaning and drying - same story. I replaced some of the caps in despair - nada. So I was clearly missing something. My trusty 4X Russian magnifying glass in hand, I started examining the PCB in detail around the electrolytics - and I finally spotted what you see in the pictures (click to enlarge), near the pins of U82 and U140. The discoloration was well concealed UNDER the conformal coating of the PCB and very hard to see, due to the light reflecting off the epoxy coating and the glare obscuring the surface under.

As there were no signs of electrolyte leakage from the new capacitors, the damage must have started with the old, leaky caps, and it took years to finally manifest itself as a malfunction of the instrument. The electrolyte had crawled under the conformal coating and gradually compromised the insulation, eventually disturbing trigger control potentials and making the self-test fail (it logged the error message: "trigComparatorTest, TRIGA status after trigger: exp(ected) = 1, act(ual) = 0).  The dried-up murderous electrolyte residue shows best in the second photo, of U82 (the first is of U140).

After scraping off the coating and affected spots under it with the point of a scalpel, the symptoms vanished, and this time I think it will be for good. I couldn't find any more such discolorations elsewhere on the board, but there's always the inaccessible area under the SMD  integrated circuits, so I shouldn't be unduly surprised if...!

Well, there's a nice thought to keep a test instrument lover twisting and turning in his bed at night...

The Withering Filters: A microscopic view

In a previous post I discussed the deleterious effects of electromigration and corrosion on ceramic intermediate frequency filters, when DC potentials are applied to their pins, especially the output pin. I have collected some more data that may be of interest to those following the subject. Take a look at the photos, click on them to see an enlarged version.

Life on the edge. The first photo (25X magnification) shows the corroded edges of a filter element (the shunt output element, which due to its small thickness gives the most trouble). Observe the damage to the plating at the corner and along the upper edge, also the metal / oxide deposits that have short-circuited the element, rendering the filter inoperative. Measuring with an ohm-meter, the resistance was about 30 ohms between the plated surfaces (where it should have been a very large value, in the tens of megohms or more). However, after cleaning the element's edges in the way I have described, the filter (amazingly) returned to normal! I have repaired numerous such filters this way, and, after the addition of DC blocking capacitors in the circuit, they seem to stay healthy and happy.

 A rough corner. The corner of the element in the previous photo (now in 200X magnification). Electromigration and corrosion have admittedly done a great job of stripping away the metal plating and short-circuiting the element. Check out the dendritic growths at the edge of the remaining plating. The small magnification factor doesn't do them justice. Anyone with a spare electron scanning microscope? I could accept a hand-me-down, you know, I am not that snubbish...

Filter-pox. The effects of moisture inside the filter, on the other elements. Although rather spooky-looking, the elements actually checked out all right. The leftmost thick element is the one at the input. Owing to its thickness, the input element is a lot more tolerant of the DC bias abuse. In fact, I have yet to find a troublesome input element, the trouble is always at the thin (~0.35mm) output element (seen to be missing at the far right). The elements between the input and output elements of the filter don't "see" the DC bias, so they don't suffer the dire consequenses. They get their spots, nevertheless. Moral: It doesn't pay being in the middle of any mess.

An inside job. The spring plate compressing the elements in the filter case is oxidised, too. Yes, those shiny sparkles are indeed tiny droplets of water. Some of the filters I've examined contained a surprising quantity of water. The damage was roughly proportional to the quantity of water, which suggests that the manufacturing could be improved, so as to prevent water from entering the filter's case. The problem is, we're talking about filters that cost a couple of euros retail, and it's always true you get what you pay for. I have yet to see a good crystal filter deteriorate due to moisture ingress, they're truly "hermetically sealed".

A very green face. The end plate at the input side, also oxidised. Although certainly a disturbing view, the oxidation there doesn't do much harm to the functionality of the filter (well, up to a point, I guess!)

It's aliiiive!! To test a little theory of mine, I experimented by applying about 60V DC through a 33KΩ resistor to the input and output pins of a new TOKO ceramic filter. The high voltage was intended to speed things up (things = the deterioration of the filter). This went on for two months, after which the output element was short-circuited (as expected), but the thicker input element was mostly unaffected. So, in conclusion, one may take a calculated risk and add a DC blocking capacitor only at the output pin of the ceramic filters of this type, as the input seems a lot more forgiving to abuse (and most transceivers apply only about 8V to the filter). The output pin is the one closer and opposite to the arrangement of the three grounding pins (in the TOKO brand filters I have found in Kenwood transceivers). Check the manufacturer's data sheets to find out about the other brands and types.

Radio amateurs (and every sensitive person) should establish a movement for the rights of those wonderful, innocent, so unjustly suffering components, the ceramic filters. Don't just sit there! You could write to your manufacturer of ham radio transceivers and ask for the continuing torment of those poor beasts to end at last, or something like that!...

***ADDENDUM: For those who want to learn more about the phenomenon that I propose that causes DC-biased filter failure, please take a look here: http://www.ami.ac.uk/courses/topics/0158_emgr/index.html
There you can admire two great photos of the results of electromigration across tracks and solder resist on printed circuit boards, plus lots of interesting relevant information. Clearly, humidity and voltage gradients at small distances are a bad combination!!

Lift the withering spell off those ailing ceramic filters!

As promised, here is the solution to the "withering ceramic filter" problem. The mod here was performed in a TM-D710, but the concept presented holds for all similarly affected rigs.

First of all, take a look at the photo on the left (click on the pictures to enlarge). There are four ceramic filters in the '710, two (wide-narrow) for each receiver.

Our first step is to cut two PCB traces converging at each filter's input and output pins, bridge them, and then solder a size 1206 or 0603, 0.1μF / 25V or 50V SMD ceramic capacitor from each bridge to the filter's input and output pins (8 capacitors in all for the '710). This way, the DC switching voltage is blocked by the capacitor, that passes only the small AC (signal) component into and out of the filter. Removing the DC bias from the filters is all that is needed to avoid filter failure.

The first photo shows (with the red arrows) the eight traces to be cut with a very fine-tip grinding tool. Notice that there are 16 cuts for the 710, eight are shown completed, the other eight are in the red circle on the left (the circuit topology is identical).

Take a look at the second photo (click to enlarge), showing  the completed job for a filter set. As you see, fine wire bridges have been soldered, bypassing the cut-off portion of the circuit that was going to the filter pins, and the ceramic capacitors are also in place, soldered between the wire bridges and the filter's input / output pins.

The third photo (click to enlarge) shows the completed job for all four filters.

I must say, that although very simple, this mod is a bit difficult because of the very small dimensions of the traces and SMD components. Extreme care is required, along with the proper tools and ability to work with them. It's easy to make a disaster out of the job, so please be careful!! If you don't feel up to the job, have somebody qualified do it!

The same concept holds for any transceiver that has DC bias voltage applied to ceramic filters. The objective is to block the DC bias with the capacitor, but otherwise maintain intact the circuit's filter switching functionality (if of course there is one), which in most rigs is accomplished by properly biasing switching diodes.

Please note: If your filters have already deteriorated, they must be replaced or repaired before the mod. The symptoms of deteriorated or failed filters are: "deaf" receiver, crackling noises heard during reception of otherwise full-quieting level signals in FM receivers, crackling noises with no antenna connected in SSB receivers.

Good luck!

Does your FT-857 display look like a zebra?

I have come across several cases of malfunctioning display in the control head of the FT-857, where several "scan lines" in the dot-matrix display cease to function, so the display seems "streaked" at places. In extreme cases, the display becomes difficult to read. The funny thing is, the streaks come and go, or seem to move about the display with time! I finally got to open a control head belonging to a friend to see if there was something that could be done. The photo (click to enlarge) shows the display module ribbon, which is soldered directly to the PCB. The connections on the PCB turned out to be OK, so I checked the LCD side. I couldn't spot anything there either, but I saw that flexing the flexible ribbon near the LCD glass made some of the streaks come and go. The flexible ribbon is attached to the LCD glass with epoxy material. This reminded me of my experience with my Sony F-717 camera, where the epoxy material holding the CCD sensor on its carrier had softened due to heat and humidity, making the connections fail - the CCD had to be replaced. Perhaps the control head of the '857, when subjected for a long time to the temperature extremes and humidity inside a car, suffers a similar degradation of the epoxy material at the LCD display, eventually causing those streaks to appear. All of the affected units I know of were actually being used in cars! For the time being, I can't think of a solution, except of course replacing the whole display module - a bit tough.
So, my advice is, don't leave the control head(s) in your car exposed to the sun, humidity and temperature extremes, the dot-matrix display might become "streaky"! I, for one, have always covered the FT-857 control head in my car with a piece of black cloth, protecting it from strange eyes and the deleterious effects of sunlight. After five years in the car, it still operates fine.

I'll keep my fingers crossed - and my control head covered!

More on the withering filters case: The TS-2000 disappearing noise conundrum

A few months ago, a friend gave me his TS-2000 to check, because occasionally there was a crackling noise coming out of the speaker (and showing on the S-meter) during SSB weak signal reception (SW8KOU operates EME on 2m).
However, when I checked the rig, the noise just wasn't there. I checked for bad SMD components or soldering, but found nothing. I returned it, the noise eventually came back even louder after a few days, he gave it back to me to check it again, and guess what - the noise was absent again. I gave it back to him again, and he reported there were sporadic outbursts of noise now and then.
Eventually, the noise came back to stay, and loud it was!! It resembled lightning noise, heard during a storm on a low HF band and registered S2 ~ S5 on the S-meter. This time the noise was kind enough to be there when I powered the rig up on the test bench. It could be heard on SSB only, not on FM (with the proper test setup). I had already previously checked the rig thoroughly for bad SMD components or bad solder connections, and, having seen many "withered" ceramic filters in the meantime (in other rigs), it suddenly dawned on me that the noise could very well be emanating from a faulty ceramic filter! The schematic diagrams showed two such filters in the SSB signal's path, CF3 and CF4 in the TX-RX unit.
To make a long story short, the culprit was CF4. The filter had suffered the same degradation I describe in another post, but in a more gradual way, due to different conditions. The other cases I have examined had about 7V applied to the filter's pins, but the circuit around CF4 applied about only 1.5V to it. The degradation was there, but the symptoms and time scales were different. I measured about 1MΩ from the output pin to the nearest ground pin, which was far more resistance than the usual 20 ~ 100 Ω I had previously measured in other malfunctioning filters. That explained the crackling noise and the fact that the receiver didn't go totally deaf, like in the other cases. The lower voltage was slower to act on the filter, and the degradation was milder. I opened up the filter, and, there you are, I could immediately see the effects of oxidation on the phosphor bronze spring plate. I removed the thin element at the output side, and sure enough, it showed the telltale signs clearly (see the photo, click on it to enlarge). After carefully cleaning the edges in the way I have described, the resistance reading was more than 40ΜΩ. I soldered the filter back in place, and the noise was gone. My friend tells me that the receiver is very quiet now (but let's see what happens when eventually CF3 (with 7V applied to it) breaks down, too!).
 I will shortly publish the solution to this vexing problem, consisting of just adding two DC-blocking capacitors at each filter (the example mod will be performed in an ailing TM-D710). The same simple concept, however, holds for the modification of all similarly affected rigs.