iNEMI Initiatives Support Supply Chain Conversion to HFR-Free PCBs
April 10, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) is organizing initiatives to help the electronics industry manage the elimination of halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) from printed circuit board (PCB) materials.
According to iNEMI, an industry-wide conversion to HFR-free materials faces challenges such as:
- Reliability of materials with alternative flame retardants has not been fully qualified.
- Complete "technology envelopes," or technical specifications, have not been established for various product applications.
- Incomplete design knowledge in segments of the supply chain increases risk of conversion issues.
- A rapid, complete conversion of computer products will have an impact on the supply chain and needs to be coordinated.
"Several major OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] have already announced they will eliminate halogenated flame retardants from their PCBs and several others are considering doing the same," said Jim McElroy, CEO of iNEMI. "Although not required by legislation, companies are taking this proactive approach because of concerns that certain electronic materials containing halogenated flame retardants [HFRs] will produce toxic materials during combustion."
"Obviously, flame retardants are needed and industry has begun looking for alternative materials to reduce the risk," he said. "Our activities will focus on orchestrating the effort and making sure that solutions are based on sound science and do not affect product quality or reliability."
iNEMI will work with its OEM and supply chain members to assess the feasibility of a broad conversion to HFR-free PCB materials, according to iNEMI.
"Even though IPC and JEDEC are developing halogen-free specifications and numerous companies have 'compliant' materials, there are still significant questions regarding overall readiness to broadly transition to these materials," said Martin Rausch, chair of the iNEMI HFR-Free Leadership Program. "We need to define electrical and mechanical material requirements and identify where design changes can overcome material property differences."
As a result of discussions to date, iNEMI organized this work as two initiatives: HFR-free signal integrity and HFR-free PCB materials. Both will closely collaborate to deliver an assessment of HFR-free technology readiness.
The HFR-Free PCB Materials Project, chaired by John Davignon, Intel Corp., plans to identify technology limitations involved in transitioning to HFR-free PCB materials.
The team will identify key mechanical performance characteristics and determine if they are in the "critical" path for the HFR-free PCB material transition, according to iNEMI. The initial focus will be on delamination, via and plated through hole reliability, pad cratering and solder joint reliability.
The HFR-Free Signal Integrity Project, chaired by Stephen Hall, Intel Corp. and co-chaired by David Senk, Cisco, will focus on ensuring there is no degradation of electrical signals in HFR-free PCB materials. Plans include investigating permittivity and loss as well as how they are affected by moisture absorption in new HFR-free materials.
Both project teams will identify key performance characteristics, characterize candidate materials to establish performance limits and design test vehicles and test methodologies, leveraging standards where possible.
They will also assess technology readiness and identify gaps, determine where design tradeoffs can overcome marginalities and assess manufacturing capability and supply capacity.
Source: International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI).