What's New
Your views - high temperature reliability
of FR4 laminate PCBs
The central issue to be addressed when moving to lead-free
designs is the high assembly temperatures - often 40C more
than current conventional designs. It is not just the components
that are at risk but also the PCB.
| These higher temperatures
promote warping of the board, damage to plated through
holes, growth of conductive anodic filaments and increased
levels of bromide in the board.Little substantive research
has been done in this area. If this an area of concern
or you have any comments on what needs to be done we would
be interested to hear from you. |
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Complying with Environmental
Legislation becomes increasingly urgent
2004 marks the year when both the WEEE and RoHS Directives
enter force in the EU. The UK is planning to meet the 13 Aug
2004 deadline and the DTI is currently in a final round of
consultation before the legislation is drafted. The closing
date for submissions to the DTI is 1st March 2004.
| An increased level of awareness
and recognition of the need to respond to meet the requirements
of WEEE and RoHS marked the 6th ERA
conference on recycling in November. A number of routes
to WEEE compliance were discussed from national through
to commercial compliance schemes and company collaborative
initiatives were discussed. In the RoHS arena, how exactly
the legislation will be enforced remains unclear as does
the availability of reliable lead-free components. New
legislation on Energy using Products is also looming and
will be covered in Design for Environment
training courses run by ERA this year. |
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Features
WEEE:
predicting the cost of disposal of end-of-life products
The WEEE directive will result in significant costs being
incurred by European electrical equipment producers and
importers. Individual producers need to know now how much
this is likely to cost them in order to plan for the future
and avoid selling new products at a loss. ERA has developed
a model capable of estimating these costs. |
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Cracked ceramic capacitors
- a problem that never goes away
It might be thought that most reliability problems in
electronics would occur in highly complex semiconductor
chips with hundreds of terminals. In fact, the most common
electronic component to fail, as seen by the ERA's Reliability
and Failure Analysis Service, is the multilayer ceramic
chip capacitor (MLCC). |
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New publications
Conference Proceedings: Designing and Recycling Electrical and Electronic Equipment. Electrical product environmental issues from design to end-of-life
Upcoming Events
Course
- Safe design of new products
Date: 10 March 2004 - venue Leatherhead
Description: This course gives the opportunity
to understand the fundamentals of safe design to ensure
products meet current safety legislation and will guide
delegates through the minefield of European directives
and legislation, highlighting their legal and moral responsibilities. |
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Conference and exhibition -
SEEDS 2004 (Southern England Electronics Directives Show)
Date: 18 March 2004 - venue Farnborough, Hants
Description: Anew regional event reviewing all
European Directives (current and future) that will affect
ALL the electrical/electronic industries based in the
South of England. Directives covered will include WEEE,
RoHS, EuP, EMC, GPSD and ATEX. |
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Course - Design for the Environment
(DfE) for electronic and electrical equipment
Date: 11 May 2004 - venue Leatherhead
Description: Design for the Environment techniques
offer cost savings, can pre-empt future legislation and
demonstrate a "green" image to customers. |
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Course
- Changing to Lead Free Solders
Date: 12 May 2004 - venue Leatherhead
Description: The Restriction of certain Hazardous
Substances (RoHS) directive bans the sale within the EU
of a wide variety of electrical equipment containing tin-lead
solders from July 2006. Find out what the major risk are
and how to make the transition. |
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Reliability
and Failure Analysis News - Issue 7
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