Impacts of Pb-free legislation on European HDP

July 2006 shall see the enactment of European legislation to remove lead (Pb) from electronics products. For the majority of the electronics industry there are readily available drop-in solutions in the form of SnAgCu, SnAg, Sri and SnCu based alloys. There are also a number of industries that have opt-outs from the legislation, such as aerospace, defence, medical and automotive sectors. However, there are challenges facing the European based manufacturing industry. The first is the lack of understanding of the effects of reducing scale in solder joints with these new materials systems: As the joint sizes reduce we have to consider how the reducing volumes of materials affects the characteristics of the joints as regards performance and lifetime. Another issue particularly pertinent to the strategic European industries relates to the manufacture and subsequent maintenance of long-life, and in some cases highly regulated, product platforms (e.g. aircraft or medical infrastructure), where the supply of compatible metallization on components may lead to cross-contamination of lead-free and lead-containing solders.