John Lau, Ricky Lee, Ning Chang Lee and Wong
McGraw-Hill

The book consists of 600 pages, 20 chapters, illustrated with diagrams and many photographs and SEMs

Yet another title edited by John Lau, C P Wong, Ricky Lee and featuring chapters from Ning Chang Lee of Indium Corporation. There can't be many people in the industry that have not heard or seen these engineers at exhibitions or conferences, they are all well known internationally.

This is a very good reference for all that is going on in electronics linked to the environmental lobby and, of course, lead-free which is the issue on everyone's lips.

Chapter 5 cover the issues of lead-free alloys at chip wafer level, the impact on moulding compounds, PCBs and the laminate constructions. What John Lau has done has collected together much of the research and practical results with success and failure.

Ning Change Lee has contributed four chapters to this textbook. His contribution mainly covers lead-free materials and the use of lead-free assembly techniques I guess the only issue not covered in detail is the equipment issues.

Chapter 1 & 11 updates the reader on the legislation, a subject that leaves this reviewer cold but is the driving force for change. The current and proposed legislation is discussed and its impact on the industry. There is reference to the different timescales per country, what will happen and when. However, this changes on a monthly basis.

Although there are countless patents for alternative solder alloys chapter 6 rightly highlights that only a limited number will be used. Ideally every engineer wants a simple choice and the decision made for him. It would seem in the industry that Sn/Ag/Cu will be the most common choice.

Final verdict, it is worth the investment, there is not much competition currently in the marketplace for a book of this type; only the lead-free book by J Hwang is close to this. Yes I think it is worth the investment but don't forget the handbook by Katsuaki Suganuma of Osaka University with a new title out mid 2003.

Many thanks to the publishers for the opportunity to review another lead-free title, it may cover lots of other topics but it will sell for lead-free. Also thanks to Ning Chang Lee for my signed copy.