Elviz Georgea, Michael Pechtb
aUniversity of Maryland, USA
bOracle, San Diego, CA, USA
Abstract:
In some safety- and reliability-critical applications, electronic products are subjected to harsh operating conditions
for a lifetime ranging over ten years. For instance, the Emerson DVC6215 remote mount sensor has operating
requirements from −52 °C to 120 °C along with the ability to withstand high rates of temperature
fluctuations during manufacture and vibration up to 50G's during use. Since safety- and reliability-critical products
are designed for use in industries with specialized operating conditions, there is no standardized set of operating
conditions for these products. As a result, such products were exempt from the EU's Restriction of
Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive passed in 2006. However, specific deadlines have been set for exempt industries
in the 2011 recast version of the RoHS directive. This paper provides a systematic lead-free transition
plan in safety- and reliability-critical products. Existing lead-free solder options for harsh environmental operating
conditions are evaluated along with the pros and cons in RoHS compliance.
This article is available to CALCE Consortium Members for personal review.