For me, and I believe for most others my age (older than dirt), SMT
technology was welcomed as a long-awaited logical next step in
electronics design. Of course there were many voicing concerns, because
through-hole was by-and-large a more robust technology.
But SMT was not thrust upon the industry by a bunch of EU political
hacks, without any thoughts regarding its implications. Rather, SMT was
thoroughly qualified, primarily by companies such as IBM and Motorola,
Bell Labs, Honeywell, and many others. Its advantages and added value
were quite recognizable, as were its limits at the time.
Same with BGA technology, which again was a natural next phase of
development.
SMT enabled tremendous strides in overall performance capacity, with
solutions for impedance issues, packaging, and in fact even reliability
over through-hole in many situations, because of the smaller leads with
better compliancy than larger hard wire leads anchored into holes. It
solved so many issues related to through-hole design I cannot even begin
to list them all. I still think that ease of rework without harm to the
pwb is one of its single biggest advantages that is often overlooked.
The primary instigators of both SMT and BGA technology, as well as
further technology developments such as CSP, flip-chip, and even MEMS
nanotechnology have been engineers, research scientists, and industry
professionals.
Not self-serving politicians with no idea of what they were doing.
To compare the lead-free techology with SMT; well, it is already
well-known fact that the whole lead-free RoHS movement was not a natural
development, was not a needed technology, was not beneficial to the
industry as a whole, was not effective in meeting its original goal
(reduction of environmental hazardous waste and ease of recycling) and
was in fact counterproductive to those goals. It did not provide any
improvements or solutions to problems or limitations with existing
technology, was not fully researched, qualified, or otherwise validated
prior to being legislated, and was not always developed by engineering
professionals who knew what the hell they were getting into. Most were
forced to respond to political posturing that drove a market dynamic,
they knew of the potential negative impacts but were powerless to do
anything about them.
RoHS was now law, and damn the issues, full speed ahead. We want to put
a green sticker on the blister pak and sell, sell, sell.
I'm sorry, but reliability of cell phones, mobile phones,
telecommunications systems, brown goods, and white goods has suffered
with the onset of RoHS and lead-free solder processes and materials.
Cell phones are now throw-away items much more than they were before.
Facts, figures, and logic about "no great decreases in reliability" do
not tell the truth as much as a cell phone that quits working at the
worst possible time, and this is becoming a very, very familiar story.
Same with modern televisions, sound systems, cd video players,
computers, hearing aids, you name it.
No, perhaps the problems are not "huge", and they may never be, but only
thanks to the professionals I just mentioned. The point is that there
was never a need to do what we as an industry had to do. The money the
industry spent ended up in the pockets of politicians and industry
vultures. To their credit, it was a well-planned and well-carried out
theft.
And all of us are the ones who were robbed. You, me, and the common man
and woman.
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eric CHRISTISON
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 11:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] [LF] Why EU Not Busting for RoHS Violations Yet
Richard,
> Many mobile phone manufacturers have been lead free for some time now,
> I'm talking years in the case of one very large manufacturer. I'm sure
> there will be problems but for consumer products at least, I don't
> expect them be huge.
>
> Tell me, I'm too young to know, were there similar cries of doom and
> gloom when IBM started forcing the electronics industry over to SMD
> technology in the 80'S?
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Stadem, Richard D. wrote:
>> "And we haven't yet seen the reliability blow-ups and resulting
>> fall-out, yet."
>>
>> Where did that come from? More solid facts, figures and logic?
>>
>> The electronics industry is indeed seeing some fallout, mostly within
>> the factories in terms of process issues as discussed within these
>> forums. The issues that have been reported are wetting problems,
>> delamination, reduced component reliability, open vias and copper
>> pads dissolving away during soldering and rework with Sn100, great
>> increases in tombstoning and spattering, to mention just a few
reported here.
>>
>> I would expect more problems experienced in terms of shorter
>> reliability about July of 2007, if not sooner. Get ready, Werner.
>>
>> And that's just what we know for sure. How many of the problems
>> associated with lead-free product reliability do you think will be
>> openly reported? Or even detected accurately, for that matter?
>>
>> Is anyone going to announce to the world that they are getting more
>> field returns than they did before they switched? Swatch is going to
>> be an exception to the rule.
>>
>> Somehow, I don't think that Airbus is going to announce, "Well,
>> folks, we tried out that there fancy new-fangled lead-free teknolchy,
>> and by golly it didn't work as well as we thought it would. Shoulda
>> seen the size of the hole in the ground."
>>
>> But, then, perhaps we should report it. I can't think of a better way
>> to end this nonsense...........
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Leadfree [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harvey Miller
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 2:25 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: [LF] Why EU Not Busting for RoHS Violations Yet
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> Penetration of lead-free solder in North America is about 50%. If
>> you substitute U.S., Canada, and Mexico for China you'll be closer to
>> the mark.
>> But the idea you express is probably correct. The EU will indeed
>> have an enforcement problem.
>>
>> And we haven't yet seen the reliability blow-ups and resulting
>> fall-out, yet.
>>
>> Go back to the drawing board, EU, and do it right. Exempt lead in
>> electronics!
>>
>> --- Brian Epstein <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> It has occurred to me that enforcement bodies in the EU have
>>> probably done a significant amount of product testing for the six
>>> substances and have found that products from European companies
>>> generally comply and products from China generally don't. Since
>>> China exports so much,
>>>
>>
>>
>>> the Europeans might not know how to deal with these products because
>>> of the anticipated market disruptions, the resultant economic chaos,
>>> and the political fallout.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Brian Epstein
>>> Sr Regulatory Compliance Engineer
>>> Veeco Instruments
>>> ph: 805-967-2700 ext 2315
>>> fx: 805-967-7717
>>> ce: 805-591-9587
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Leadfree [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Kirschner
>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 9:05 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: [LF] EU Not Busting for RoHS Violations Yet
>>>
>>> Rob Spiegel spoke, at our behest, to Steve Andrews to get a clear
>>> response on why we haven't seen any visible cases of non-compliance
>>> in
>>>
>>
>>
>>> the EU yet. He has more credibility on this topic than just about
>>> anyone, even DCA ;o)
>>>
>>> You can read his story, entitled "EU Not Busting for RoHS Violations
>>> Yet", at
>>>
>>> http://www.designnews.com/article/CA6387098.html
>>>
>>> So the bottom line is that they're trying to find that first case to
>>> go public with.
>>>
>>> Mike Kirschner
>>> Design Chain Associates, LLC
>>>
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>
> --
> Eric Christison Msc
> Mechanical Engineer
> Home Personal, Communication Sector
> Imaging Division
>
> STMicroelectronics (R&D) Ltd
> 33 Pinkhill
> Edinburgh EH12 7BF
> United Kingdom
>
> Tel: +44 (0)131 336 6165
> Fax: + 44 (0)131 336 6001
>
>
>
--
Eric Christison Msc
Mechanical Engineer
Home Personal, Communication Sector
Imaging Division
STMicroelectronics (R&D) Ltd
33 Pinkhill
Edinburgh EH12 7BF
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)131 336 6165
Fax: + 44 (0)131 336 6001
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