Authored By:
Timothy Jensen, Dr. Ron Lasky
Indium Corporation, Utica NY 13502 USA
Summary
The electronics industry continues to strive to provide more environmentally friendly products. This movement is partly due to legislation from various countries, partly due to public outcry from well publicized 3rd world recycling practices, and partly due to non-government organizations (NGOs) testing and publishing information on electronic devices regarding their content of various toxic materials. One set of materials targeted for reduction and eventual elimination are halogenated compounds. Halogens are found in plastics for cables and housings, board laminate materials, components, and soldering fluxes. Replacing these halogenated compounds can have a dramatic affect on the PCB assembly process. In this paper those challenges will be discussed as well as techniques and practices that will help ensure high end of line yields and continued reliability.
Conclusions
As the industry is moving toward promoting environmentally friendly, or "green," electronics, there continues to be a rapid minimization and/or elimination of halogenated compound use. This can have an adverse effect on material costs, product reliability, and process yields. Understanding the halogen-free material properties is key to successfully assembling more environmentally friendly electronics.
Initially Published in the IPC Proceedings
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