Interconnection Reliability Assessment for Electronic Equipment Exposed to Chlorine Dioxide Used For Biological Decontamination

Chlorine dioxide gas was used to successfully decontaminate several major buildings in the United States following the anthrax letter attacks in 2001. From those experiences, there were indications that electronic equipment could be adversely affected by the fumigation process. As a result, the US Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency are interested in generating specific data on the impact of chlorine dioxide (CIOs sub 2) decontamination on electronic equipment, to better understand the usefulness and limitations of the decontamination technology. Using personal computers as examples of current commercial systems, the effects of chlorine dioxide fumigation on the reliability of electronic equipment have been studied. Unit and subunit failure were objectively defined by standard commercial software and failure modes were determined using in-depth physical analysis. This paper focuses on the connector failures due to decontamination and the associated failure mechanisms. The requirements on the contact finishes for the interconnection to survive chlorine dioxide decontamination will also be discussed.