Formation of dendrites: experimental observations

A recent failure investigation highlighted the potential for dendrite formation in many electronic environments. In general dendritic growth requires an electrical bias to drive, and a condensed medium to support the growth process. In practice the latter is often a contaminating liquid. We briefly review our experimental observations of how the chemical composition and dimensionality (i.e. a film versus a droplet) of the supporting medium affect the morphology, composition and rate of dendritic growth and consider how such information might be used as an aid in establishing the source of the contaminant