Reliability and Failure issues
The RFA Group at ERA is continuing to investigate a wide variety of failures for customers. Many are familiar problems that occur on a regular basis such as cracked ceramic capacitors and fires within electrical equipment but several new failure types are being seen. Lithium ion batteries have been in the news recently and ERA has investigated a couple of failures that have occurred (unrelated to the Sony laptop batteries problem). ERA is increasingly being asked to assess the quality of lead-free circuit boards. Lead-free production is not straightforward; quality issues are not uncommon and one example of failures due to solder joint cracking has been seen. ERA has extensive experience with all types of failures and with lead-free quality issues and can give advice on strategies to avoid failures and maximise reliability. Understanding the cause of failures is key to resolving reliability issues.
RoHS is now in force in the EU The RoHS Directive came into force on 1st July 2006 and is being enforced in many EU States including the UK. Enforcement bodies will expect producers to have documentation to show compliance. Past legal cases on similar legislation has shown that, where there is a risk of non-compliance, chemical analysis will be expected.
Final report of the ERA review of Categories 8 & 9 for the RoHS Directive published ERA has completed the review of the RoHS Directive for the European Commission concerning monitoring and control equipment and medical products and the final report has been published on the EC’s website. ERA is recommending a date of 2012 for inclusion of categories 8 and 9 in the scope of RoHS although with some exceptions and exemptions.
RoHS exemptions status The European Commission recently published nine new exemptions to the RoHS Directive but producers are still awaiting decisions on many more. The Commission’s consultants Öko Institut has published its reports on the EC website and these have been reviewed in the ERA Re 4view newsletter. The final outcome on the debate over the deca-BDE exemption is still unknown with Member States having differing views on this issue.
EC RoHS & WEEE FAQ revised
The European Commission has updated and revised its frequently asked questions guidance in August 2006. There are no significant changes of interpretation but there are several new sections including one on “put onto the market” and others have been expanded and clarified.
China RoHS China RoHS comes into force on 1st March 2007 giving manufacturers very little time to comply. Products that are not correctly labelled cannot be sold in China from this date. ERA is helping individual manufacturers with in-house training, auditing product portfolios to determine what actions will be required and is also running public courses at ERA.
WEEE Directive The EU WEEE Directive is being implemented in a growing number of EU States but problems are being encountered in almost all. As a result the Commission has brought forward its review of this Directive and has started consultations with Stakeholders. The UK has yet to transpose the Directive into legislation but the UK Government expects to have this in place before the end of 2006. Further information can be found on the Commission’s website and the DTI’s website and any news will be included in future editions of RE4view.
Diagnosing failure in Ball Grid Array (BGA) solder bonds ERA’s failure analysis service is seeing an increasing number of failures to ball grid array packages. These components are one of the most susceptible to failure but ERA is able to identify the cause and recommend corrective action
New Course:Counting the cost of failure Date: 16 November 2006
When a plant, system or component fails there is almost always valuable forensic evidence which provides clues as to how and why the event occurred. By careful control of the “scene of the crime”, application of the appropriate techniques and expert interpretation it is possible to extract this information and elucidate the root cause. Armed with this it possible to help quantify costs, define appropriate actions, quantify risks of reoccurrence, define design and operational changes to reduce the risk of this happening and throw light on where responsibility may lie.
This course is aimed primarily at plant operators, asset managers, loss adjusters, lawyers and risk managers. Experienced forensic engineers will explain the stages in a forensic investigation and how to obtain the maximum benefits from an investigation.
Conference:Designing and Recycling Electrical and Electronic Equipment Date: 28-29 Nov 2006 - venue Gatwick Airport, UK
ERA’s 9th international conference on all environmental matters pertaining to electrical and electronic products and regulation world wide including WEEE, RoHS, EuP, REACH etc. and with eminent speakers from the US, Japan, China and Europe including UK DTI, DEFRA, Dell, Avaya, Honeywell, Price Waterhouse Coopers and the medical trade association COCIR.
New Course:Compliance with China RoHS Date: 12 December 2006
Chinese RoHS legislation comes into force on 1 March 2007 and is not only more complex than the EU legislation but also more far-reaching and will require compulsory certification for some products in order to sell them in China.
New Course:Practical RoHS Compliance training Date: Dates to be decided - venue Leatherhead, UK
Now that RoHS is in force, this new course has been designed for those who have to ensure that their products comply and provides training for employees on all aspects of “due diligence” that will be expected by enforcement bodies.
Course - Achieving Compliance with the Energy Using Products (EuP) Directive Date: 7 February 2007 - venue Leatherhead, UK
The EuP Directive is now in force with implementing legislation planned for many products from 2007. This expanded full day, designed for all those in the electronic products supply chain, provides a briefing in the legislative requirements, status of developments and explains what actions are needed to comply.
ERA Guide to RoHS Compliance and similar legislation worldwide, 4th Edition ERA’s highly popular guide provides comprehensive guidance on all aspects of RoHS - technical, legal, compliance, processes and enforcement. This 4th edition has been greatly expanded and revised to include worldwide developments on RoHS-like legislation including China, South Korea, the US and Japan.
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Reliability and Failure Analysis News - Issue 14 - November 2006 
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