Pemstar Inc., a provider of electronics manufacturing services, has received full qualification status for lead-free SMT processing. A third-party firm conducted the audit, company officials told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY today.

In a statement, Roy Bauer, president and COO, said, "We have been working closely with our supply chain and with our OEM customers to proactively prepare for the new design and manufacturing requirements resulting from these environmental initiatives. This qualification milestone builds on the lead-free manufacturing processing that Pemstar has been providing to its customers over the past 15 months in its North America, Europe and Asia facilities."

Company facilities in North America, Europe and Asia passed Pb-free validation based on visual inspection per IPC-A-610D, cross-section and microscopic analysis for intermetallics, coating integrity and general defects, and for solder wetting and fillet quality, and vVoiding analysis on BGAs.