Bannockburn, IL - As the electronics industry races to meet the EU's RoHS Directive, IPC and Soldertec Global --a division of Tin Technology-- are sponsoring the third International Conference on Lead-Free Electronics on June 7-10 in Barcelona.                                                  

Critical lead-free issues include new alloys and materials evaluations, inspection changes, tin whiskers, lead-free on advanced packages like chip scale and flip chip, and reliability. Assembly operations will face increased assembly costs (perhaps 15% higher) and will impact areas beyond manufacturing such as field support, sales, marketing and training. 

Conference topics and educational courses will cover:

Policy development: European/Asian/other legislation or voluntary activity on hazardous materials and recycling; Legislative compliance and policy enforcement methods; 

Supply chain issues: Standards for marking and test; Materials declarations, part number, obsolescence, etc.;

Production issues: Design for lead free production; Component solder, board development, availability and lead-free compatibility; Examples of implementation; Reflow, wave, hand soldering, inspection, repair, rework and test; 

Cost issues: Tin whiskers; Reliability test data and method developments; High reliability product sectors (automotive, aerospace, etc.)

Environmental considerations: Toxicity and risk; Recycling; Substitutes for other hazardous substances.