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Humidity management of outdoor electronic

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66 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS AND PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIES, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2002
Humidity Management of Outdoor Electronic
Equipment: Methods, Pitfalls, and Recommendations
Michal Tencer and John Seaborn Moss
Abstract—The paper discusses the basics of the three ap-
proaches to mitigation of humidity related failures namely
1) relative humidity control module (RHCM);
2) absolute humidity control (AHCM);
3) use of potting and coating, as well as conditions and limita-
tions of their applicability.
The RHCM approach (or Saturation Limit Control) uses heat
dissipation from electronics to maintain an appropriate tempera-
ture difference between ambient and the critical surfaces to lower
RH in their vicinity and at same time through the use of diffusion
plugs ensures a relatively fast humidity equilibration between the
enclosure air and ambient to minimize condensation caused by
cold fronts and radiation cooling. The AHCM approach relies on
minimization of water ingress through selection of appropriate
materials and design and at same time uses desiccant to remove the
water which made its way into the enclosure. The choice between
these schemes depends mostly on thermal considerations. The
more expensive and sensitive to errors AHCM scheme has to be
used when the energy dissipation is either not high enough or it is
highly dependent on the traffic. The apparently obvious approach,
use of potting and coatings is not recommended for printed circuit
boards due to its nondeterministic character related to the board
structure and manufacturing issues, an exception being the use of
gels or greases for weatherproofing of outdoor connectors.
Index Terms—Absolute humidity management, coatings, con-
ductive filament, dewpoint management, diffusion, failure, gel,
grease, humidity, metal migration, moisture, outdoor equipment,
outside plant, potting, printed circuit, relative humidity manage-
ment, reliability, saturation limit management, surface resistance,
water, weatherproofing.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE CURRENT development of multi-media, broadband
telecommunication networks causes migration of much of
the electronic functionality, historically residing in central of-
fices or customer owned buildings, into outdoor locations. This
creates new challenges for the designer of telecommunication
equipment since he can no longer depend on controlled atmos-
phere to ensure reliability of complex electronic systems. A
very, perhaps the most, significant portion of environment-re-
lated reliability problems for this type of equipment is either
directly or indirectly related to high atmospheric humidity.
Most moisture related reliability problems boil down to
formation of water layers on critical surfaces and interfaces
Manuscript received January 5, 2001; revised June 26, 2001. This work was
recommended for publication by Associate Editor C. P. Wong upon evaluation
of the reviewers’ comments.
M. Tencer is with Nortel Networks, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4H7, Canada (e-mail:
mtencer@nortelnetworks.com).
J. S. Moss is with Dependable Technology Planning, Ottawa, ON K1Y 4H7,
Canada.
Publisher Item Identifier S 1521-3331(02)00685-2.
1521–3331/02$10.00 © 2001 IEEE
which results in resistance degradation leading to soft and/or
hard equipment failures. Over last few years systematic, sci-
ence based procedures were developed at Nortel Networks to
mitigate this type of reliability problems through the schemes
called absolute humidity control module (AHCM) and relative
humidity control module (RHCM) which rely, respectively, on
minimizing the amount of water in the enclosure and on en-
suring that critical surfaces are hotter than ambient dewpoint by
a specified . At the same time, using conformal coating and
potting for protection from moisture, an approach instinctively
sought by designers has been reevaluated, including a specific
version of the last approach, grease and/or gel application for
ensuring reliability of a field installable connectors and splices
system working in the conditions of long term exposure to
100% RH or, which is equivalent, immersed in liquid water [6].
In this paper the overview and scientific basis of the humidity
management methods adopted is given which takes into ac-
count the experience gained while implementing the schemes
to Nortel equipment.
II. MOISTURE RELATED FAILURES
Vast majority of failures attributed to moisture are related to
formation of electrically conductive aqueous paths on surfaces
and interfaces. These can lead to both soft and hard failures. The
former, caused the substrate resistance degradation below the
tolerance of some attached components are frequently (mis)di-
agnosed as no-fault-founds (NFF) and, as such, are frequently
missing from field failure data bases. The latter are usually due
some type of corrosion process under bias, typically electrolytic
metal migration (most frequently silver on ceramic hybrid and
copper in PCB’s) leading to shorts and/or opens.
Practically all moisture related failure modes are related to
the relative humidity (RH) rather than the absolute humidity
(AH). The processes leading to failure exhibit a threshold RH
value, related to formation of a water layer of a certain thick-
ness. Leakage currents on triple track testers are known to have
different activation energies below and above a certain RH [5]
pointing out to a change in the mechanism of conduction.
The relationship between the thickness of the surface
adsorbed water layer and relative humidity can be best ratio-
nalized in terms of the Brunauer Emmett–Teller (BET) model
of adsorption of vapors , [1]–[4], [20]. In the BET model the
first layer of water is bound to the surface with energy .
Subsequent layers of water molecules bind to the underlying
molecules with the energy which is identical to the energy
of evaporation. Arguments based both on kinetics and on
TENCER AND MOSS: HUMIDITY MANAGEMENT OF OUTDOOR ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
Fig. 1. Surface coverage with water as function of relative humidity for moderately adsorbing surfaces.
statistical thermodynamics lead to the expression (1) for the
average number of monolayers on the surface
(1)
where the relative humidity (RH) is expressed as a relative
number in the 0–1 scale.
Most surfaces encountered in practice (PCB materials,
epoxies, polyesters etc.) have moderately adsorbing surfaces
for which the water adsorption energy is close to that of heat of
water condensation amounting to ca. 0.4 eV For (1)
simplifies to
(1a)
For very high surface energy materials which strongly adsorb
water (ceramics, metals) , e.g., metals and some ce-
ramic materials (1) reduces to
(1b)
which means that the most hydrophilic surfaces will adsorb only
one monolayer of water more than the moderately adsorbing
ones and that they will hold on to this monolayer even at very
low humidity. This fact is well known from high vacuum studies
of metal surfaces by XPS and Auger spectroscopy. On the other
hand, very hydrophobic materials (e.g. PE, PTFE,) will resist
formation of conductive water layers up to very high humidities.
There is no general agreement as to the threshold thickness
required for ionic conductivity leading to failure. Values of eight
to ten monolayers are frequently assumed to be necessary but as
67
few as three monolayers are sometimes claimed to be sufficient
and we have accepted the latter, more conservative limit as the
basis of our weatherproofing schemes. The dependence of the
number of adsorbed monolayers of water on RH for moderately
and strongly adsorbing surfaces as given by (1a) and (1b) is
shown in Fig. 1.
Hence, to ensure that the average number of adsorbed mono-
layers of water does not exceed 3 it is necessary to maintain RH
below the threshold value of 0.6 or 60%. However, one
has to bear in mind that the above reasoning based of the BET
isotherm applies only to clean surfaces. The presence of water
soluble impurities like salts or hygroscopic dust may cause for-
mation of conductive aqueous layers at the deliquescence hu-
midity which may lie below RH of 60% [8]. Thus, maintaining
cleanliness of surfaces is also a very important aspect of weath-
erproofing.
By definition, relative humidity at a given place is the ratio
of the absolute humidity at this place to the maximum possible
(saturated) absolute humidity at a the temperature of the place
(2)
Thus, RH can be maintained below the threshold value either by
maximizing (“Saturation Limit Control”) or by min-
imizing of AH (“Dewpoint Control”). These two approaches
have their respective advantages and disadvantages and both
have been applied in Nortel products. The former is basis of
the relative humidity control module (RHCM), the latter of the
absolute humidity control module (AHCM). Yet another ap-
proach is to use some kind of protective coating or potting, an
approach where most misunderstanding exist. These three ap-
proaches will be discussed in this paper (Fig. 2).
68 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS AND PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIES, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2002

Fig. 2. Water saturation limit ( )

AH as function of temperature.

III. RELATIVE HUMIDITY CONTROL MODULE (RHCM)

The relative humidity control module (RHCM) uses the
Saturation Limit Control approach which utilizes the fact that
strongly depends on temperature. In a simplified 1
Fig. 3. Required temperature rise T necessary to achieve the RH  60% as
theoretical form is given by = 0 42 eV
a function of temperature, as calculated from Eqn (4) assuming E :
[7], [21].

(3)

where is the energy of evaporation, is the Boltzmann con-

stant, is absolute temperature and AH can be expressed as
concentration or as pressure (see Fig. 3). Thus, if the tempera-
ture is high enough, RH will be low enough. The principle of this
approach can be summarized as “keep it warm” and many his-
torical designs owe their reliability to the, often inadvertent, ap-
plication of the principle. In this technique, no attempt is made
at liming the water vapor ingress into the enclosure. On the con-
trary, as it will be discussed later, a fast humidity equilibration
with the ambient is encouraged.
In the RHCM we are not concerned about RH everywhere
in the enclosure but only about RH in the immediate vicinity of
critical surfaces where failure can occur. In the design practice
it is only necessary to consider one such area, namely the coldest
spot in the unit where there is voltage bias present.
Fig. 4. Required critical surface temperature as function of ambient
A. Temperature Differential temperature.

The relative humidity at the critical areas is minimized by

maintaining a temperature differential between the critical The temperature differential does not have to be maintained
surface and the ambient dewpoint so that RH at this surface will when ambient is very hot. Since nowhere in the world does the
never exceed 60%. Normally, we cannot constantly monitor the ambient dew point ever exceed 34 C, RH will always be 60%
dewpoint and since always (ambient) (dewpoint), it is safe if the internal temperature is 44 C or above (Fig. 4).
to maintain the temperature differential between the surface
and the ambient instead. The value of necessary to achieve B. Humidity Equilibration
the RH 60% depends on the ambient temperature and, starting On sudden temperature changes, especially during a cold
with (3), it can be easily shown that the temperature differential front passage or, to a lesser extent, due to radiation cooling,
to achieve RH 60% is given by the ambient temperature may fall below the dewpoint inside
the enclosure temporarily even if the proper is maintained.
(4) This could cause water condensation inside the enclosure. In
order to prevent such an occurrence we have to ensure a fast
Thus calculated typically ranges from 8–10 C as shown moisture exchange between the enclosure and ambient via
in Fig. 3. Therefore, C is a useful rule of thumb for diffusion but, at the same time, to prevent ingress of liquid
the RHCM design.1 water (rain) and of any particulate matter (e.g., dust, sand),
insects, snow, bird fouling etc. This can be achieved with a so
1In reality the heat of water condensation E is also somewhat temperature
called “diffusion plug,” i.e., a filter which should have very low
dependent, thus, in the engineering practice at Nortel a set of empirical equa-
1
tions from ASHRAE [8] was used to calculate the T values with the help of surface energy to prevent ingress of liquid water by capillary
Mathcad [11] for detailed design guidelines. action but at the same time let moisture exchange between the
TENCER AND MOSS: HUMIDITY MANAGEMENT OF OUTDOOR ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ambient and enclosure through diffusion of water vapor. One
suitable material for this type of filter is a patch of Goretex®
(expanded PTFE) used successfully for similar purpose in
other areas. Other low surface energy materials can be used
provided the long term stability of surface properties is assured.
The filter size should be such as to ensure the exchange time
constant of the order of several hours or less. This time constant
depends on the module internal volume and can be modeled
using commercially available software for thermal design [9]
Another helpful feature may be incorporation of the so called
“cold finger,” i.e., a cold spot away from any critical areas
where water would preferentially condense when a cold front
passes and store it temporarily.
C. Scope and Limitations
The main challenges of the RHCM approach are related to
thermal design [10], [11]. The method is applicable when there
is enough power dissipation by electronics. Theoretically, even
small constant power dissipation will do since we can increase
insulation. However, heat losses through cabling will become
predominant at very low powers. The power dissipation should
be also relatively constant; otherwise the temperature will be
too high at high traffic or too low at low traffic [11]. In such
case an active scheme may be required (heaters, controls) which
could increase the module’s cost and complexity. RHCM design
is needed when the module has to be regularly open for servicing
and if there is an internal antenna present in the enclosure which
precludes using metal walls.
IV. ABSOLUTE HUMIDITY CONTROL MODULE (AHCM)
When the above thermal design conditions cannot be met, the
Absolute Humidity Control Module approach may be consid-
ered. In this approach the relative humidity in and near the crit-
ical areas is controlled by minimizing the absolute humidity (or
dewpoint) inside the enclosure. In other words, this approach
can be summarized as “keep it dry.”
How dry does it have to be? Moisture related failure mecha-
nisms become very slow below freezing. It can be easily calcu-
lated from (4) that water vapor which has % at 0 C
has dewpoint of 8 C. Thus the basic design guideline for
AHCM is that the dewpoint inside the enclosure until the end of
its projected life does never exceed 10 C. Such dew-
point is equivalent to the water concentration in air of 2.14
10 g/cm or vapor pressure of 0.26 kPa.
The absolute humidity is kept to minimum by
1) reducing moisture ingress to the absolute unavoidable
minimum;
2) reliable take-up of the permeating water inside the enclo-
sure by a stable desiccant.
Using desiccant for drying electronic equipment is hardly a new
idea but the described systematic, understanding based method-
ology makes for a reliable design [12].
A. Limiting Moisture Ingress
The moisture ingress into the enclosure has to be reduced to
the absolute minimum by proper design and material selection
69
Fig. 5. Equilibrium water content of 4 A molecular sieve and other desiccants
as function of temperature.
for the enclosure. This precludes most plastics as enclosure ma-
terial since their water vapor permeability is too high and allows
only a minimum amount of such materials for sealing and/or
gasketting of the lid and cabling. Only module material nonper-
meable to water, e.g., metal casting or metal/plastic laminates
can be used.
This sealing should provide for long water ingress pathways
and should be done in a deterministic way so that moisture
ingress rates can be calculated from
a) the geometry of all the seals;
b) water vapor permeability of the sealant;
c) expected ambient conditions (humidity and temperature).
B. Desiccant Selection
Many common desiccants (e.g., silica gel, drierite and acti-
vated alumina) have poor thermal stability. For instance, silica
gel can hold maximum 10% w/w water at 40 C but at 100 C
it can only hold 2% water. In other words, desiccant which is
close to saturation at room temperature will release water when
heated. Then upon quick cooling the excess water may condense
where it can do damage before it is resorbed in the desiccant.
This is the reason of the ban on desiccants in some specifi-
cations for microelectronic packages, especially military ones.
The desiccants of choice which do not have this drawback are
molecular sieves, as pointed out by Davy [13]. Molecular sieves
are synthetic alumino–silicates with cavities which can be de-
signed specifically to accommodate molecules of a given size
[14], [15], [22], [23]. The 4 molecular sieves are the best for
adsorption of water. These materials are inexpensive and com-
monly used in the chemical industry for drying and catalysis in
ton quantities as well as in chemical laboratories.
As shown in Fig. 5, molecular sieves have to be heated to
a much higher temperature than other desiccants before they
start to release water. For instance, at 100 C the capacitance
of molecular sieves is 15% while both silica gel and activated
alumina lose practically all their water at that temperature. Even
more importantly, they maintain a very low equilibrium water
vapor pressure even at high temperature. At 70 C, they can
hold more than 14% water and still maintain the dewpoint inside
70 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS AND PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIES, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2002

the enclosure below 10 C. At 100 C, the maximum holding

capacity of the zeolite is 10% for the same equilibrium dewpoint
of 10 C [13], [15], [23].

C. Atmospheric Humidity and Lifetime Calculations

When designing a global outdoor product, we should assume
the world’s worst case condition in respect to average absolute
humidity (dewpoint). Assuming that the average night time tem-
perature is the average dewpoint (in fact it is the upper limit of
the dewpoint) at a given area, it follows from inspection of cli-
matological tables [16] that the place with highest absolute hu-
midity in the world is Canton Atoll, Phoenix Islands in the Pa-
cific where the average daily dewpoint is 25.5 C which is equiv-
alent to 23.7 10 g/cm or 3.27 kPa. This is the value used
in Nortel’s design practice. An exception would be immersed
applications (e.g., submarine) where saturated water vapor con- Fig. 6. Expected life of 100 g desiccant (in years) as a function of (A=L)
centration at a given temperature should be used. for different sealant materials based on 10% efficiency.
The expected lifetime of the desiccant can be calculated as
[17]

(5)

Fig. 7. Potting geometry.

where is the amount of desiccant (g), is its efficiency (we
can conservatively assume for molecular sieves); is
permeability2 of the sealant material (cm s ), is water vapor
concentration (23.7 10 g/cm ) (for immersed take satu-
rated vapor concentration 39.5 10 g/cm ) and is
the effective ratio of the cross-section area of the seal to its depth
or diffusion length (cm). is additive for all the possible
routes of moisture diffusion into the enclosure. Expected life of
a module containing 100 g of molecular sieves for different seal
materials as a function of is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 8. Attenuation of ambient humidity variations by potting.

D. Scope and Limitations V. COATING AND POTTING

With proper seal design it is relatively easy to achieve desic-
cant lifetimes of 10–20 years as calculated from (5). The AHCM
can and should be used with when
a) the power dissipation too low to achieve 10 C;
b) the power dissipation is variable and the module requires
no field servicing.
The approach gives the designer much more thermal headroom.
The challenges here are related to the mechanical design and
manufacturing as the technology is not tolerant of quality lapses.
As seen in Fig. 6, the presence of pinholes, delaminations or
any other air gaps defeats the design intent because moisture
permeability through air is many orders of magnitude higher
than through even the most permeable sealant materials (sili-
cones). Adhesive seams are preferred over gaskets which are
prone to compression set and the quality of adhesion of the
sealant is key parameter for the success of the AHCM. Hence,
the sealed enclosures should be tested for gas tightness using an
inert gas, e.g., SF . That’s why AHCM is the second choice for
humidity management after RHCM.
2The
system of units chosen here is that of Yasuda [18]. In this system per-
meability has the same units as diffusion coefficient as it was discussed in ref
[17]. P [in cm s ] = 76*(T/273)*P [in (cm at STP)(cm)/(cm )(s)(cm Hg)].
“Why don’t we just pot it?”—is a question frequently asked
by designers. “Why don’t we conformal coat the board?” Un-
fortunately, this approach in most cases it will not work.
Placing an additional plastic layer over the critical surface
will delay the moisture ingress to the surface but it will not pre-
vent it [6], [17]. Time constants for equilibration of humidity at
the surface with ambient can be estimated as [17] (see Fig. 7)
(6)
and for a rather thick 1 cm potting it typically amounts to 6
days (silicones) to 1 month (polyurethanes). It will attenuate
the ambient humidity changes but only if the ambient humidity
changes frequently. When modeling humidity changes as sinu-
soidal [17], this can be visualized as the attenuation factor
or the ratio of humidity variation at the board surface to that in
ambient air (Fig. 8). The amplitude of the humidity variations
under the potting layer is attenuated by the factor which can
be estimated as
(7)
where is the angular frequency ( ) of humidity
changes and is phase shift. can range from a week in some
TENCER AND MOSS: HUMIDITY MANAGEMENT OF OUTDOOR ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
areas to a year in others [17]. According to (7), potting may have
some effect in, e.g., Ontario ( for 1 cm polyurethane),
but not in Florida ( ).
It is good physical or chemical adhesion rather than barrier
properties can protect the board surface from moisture effects
[6]. Unfortunately, with the current trend of dispensing with the
cleaning step after soldering, the reliability of potted boards may
be even worse than that of untreated ones because water may stay
in a cavity between the board and the potting compound which in
the combination with ionic contamination may lead to resistance
degradation and failure. Moreover, the water will not stop at the
interface. It will continue inside the board and cause resistance
degradation along glass fiber interfaces resulting in soft failures
and copper electrochemical migration commonly known as con-
ductive anodic filament (CAF) formation [19], [24], [25]. Also,
water will migrate into plastic components which contain cavity
(e.g., MQUAD) where it can condense upon cooling. Moreover,
water will continue for some time to do damage even when the
outside conditions change to dry.
There are however, systems where the approach can be suc-
cessful. An example is automotive electronics where its success
is due to constant heat/dry cycles; this way the moisture ingress
starts anew each time. Using greases and/or gels to protect out-
door connectors as long as good adhesion and surface cleanli-
ness is maintained [6] is another example as connectors have
no internal structure which could fail due to water. Coating and
potting can also protect the board from particulate contamina-
tion including hygroscopic dust in those designs where this is
necessary.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
Both hard and soft moisture related failures, the major relia-
bility risk for outside plant equipment, boil down to RH at the
critical surfaces. The method of choice for humidity manage-
ment depends on functionality and design, especially thermal
considerations. Relative humidity (or saturation limit) control
is the preferred approach when heat dissipation is adequate and
relatively constant. Few special features are required other than
dewpoint equilibration and prevention of water droplets intake.
Absolute humidity (dewpoint) control gives the designer more
thermal headroom but it is more involved from the manufac-
turing point and less tolerant of error. Coating/potting is gen-
erally not recommended except for special applications, e.g.,
using gels for weatherproofing of outdoor connectors.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank T. Zapach, S. Rolt, and the other
members of the Nortel Interdisciplinary Team, for helping to
develop this topic and introducing the resulting solutions into
design practice.
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[3] D. J. Klinger, “Humidity acceleration factor for plastic packaged elec-
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[5] N. L. Sbar and R. P. Kozakiewicz, “New acceleration factors for tem-
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[7] M. Kitano et al., “Analysis of package cracking during reflow soldering
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[8] ASHRAE Handbook, 1981 Fundamentals, American Society of
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[9] S. Rolt, Nortel Networks, private communication to the author.
[10] K. L. Dalgleish et al., “Wireless base station—Having cooling pas-
sages,” Tech. Rep. US5 548 643, 2001.
[11] T. Zapach, Nortel Networks, private communication to the author.
[12] J. S. Moss et al., “Enhanced humidity control for small modules,” Tech.
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[13] J. G. Davy, “How to calculate the true permissible leak rates and how
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[14] A. Dyer, An Introduction to Zeolite Molecular Sieves. New York:
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molecular sieves),” Tech. Rep., 2001.
[16] Climates of the World, U.S. Dept. Commerce, Jan. 1969, reprinted 1977.
[17] M. Tencer, “Moisture ingress into nonhermetic enclosures and packages:
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midity variations,” in Proc. 44th IEEE Electron. Comp. Conf., 1994, pp.
196–209.
[18] H. Yasuda, “Units of gas permeability constants,” J. Appl. Polym. Sci.,
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[19] B. Rudra and M. Pecht, “Assessing time-to-failure due to conductive fil-
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[20] S. Brunauer, P. H. Emmett, and E. Teller, “Adsorption of gases and va-
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[21] C. G. Shirley, “Reliability of electronic packaging,” in Technical Sem-
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[22] R. M. Barrer, Zeolites and Clay Minerals as Sorbents and Molecular
Sieves. New York: Academic, 1978.
[23] ZEOCHEMO® molecular sieves type 4A, product brochure.
[24] J. A. Augis et al., “A humidity threshold for conductive anodic filaments
in epoxy glass printed wiring boards,” in Proc. Int. Reliab. Phys. Symp.,
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[25] J. P. Mitchell and T. L. Welsher, “Conductive anodic filament growth in
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pp. 80–93.
Michal Tencer received the M.Sc. degree in
organic chemistry from the Warsaw University of
Technology, Warsaw, Poland, in 1970 and the Ph.D.
degree in molecular spectroscopy and stereochem-
istry from the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1975.
From 1975 to 1981, he was with the Institute
of Nuclear Research, Swierk, Poland. From 1981
to 1988, he held several academic positions in
physical organic chemistry, polymer chemistry and
photophysics, and materials for microelectronics at
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH),
Zurich, University of Toronto, and Lehigh University. From 1988 to 1991, he
was Chief Chemist/Technical Director of the bio-materials company Acrylium-
Microbex, Inc., Unionville, ON, Canada. Since 1991, he has been with Nortel
Networks (formerly Bell-Northern Research), Ottawa, ON, where he has
worked in the area of materials, reliability, and electronic packaging. Currently,
he is Senior Member of Scientific Staff and oversees several projects related to
optoelectronics.
72 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS AND PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIES, VOL. 25, NO. 1, MARCH 2002

John Seaborn Moss was born in London, ON,

Canada, in 1939. He received the B.Sc. degree in
physics and mathematics form the University of
Western Ontario, London, and the Ph.D. in physics
(solid state) from McMaster University, Hamilton,
ON.
From 1973 to 1999, was with Nortel Networks on
the design, materials, dependability, manufacturing,
and environmental aspects of a wide range of dif-
ferent systems. Since 1999, he has been President of
Dependable Technology Planning, Ottawa, ON.

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