No Lead / Lead Free Soldering Information and Resources

As the electronics industry adapts to new ways of producing product, ECD, with our leading MOLE Profiling Products, will ensure that you have the tools that allow you to implement these new technologies.

This site is designed to help you to find the tools and resources to learn about Lead Free Soldering and how Profiling with ECD products will help you to manufacture your assemblies and maintain, if not increase, quality and productivity. With Lead Free soldering the process window that exists for trouble free soldering narrows significantly and the need for profiling increases to ensure that you are operating within this window. ECD has the products and tools to help you meet this demanding new process and assist you in producing quality products, consistently!

With ECD's M.O.L.E.® Profiler based products and software you can:

• Use the Prediction feature in our SPC software to predict what will happen to your profile as you adjust zone temperatures
• Use the FREE ProfilePlanner to show you the most "Robust Profile" using your oven and the paste that you are going to use
• OvenRIDER® can show you if you oven is in spec and can measure its performance after you adjust it to meet the new paste specifications
• The ECD WaveRIDER ® has a high temperature coupon and new barrier and is ready for no-lead wave soldering
• AutoM.O.L.E.®Xpert allows you to all of this automatically, generate the most "Robust Profile" and set up the oven to meet this new profile.
  • The oven must be Xpert Ready or upgraded to add this feature
  • Click here to get a list of the manufacturers that support AutoM.O.L.E®Xpert
• With OvenWATCH™ you have 24 hour continuous process monitoring of this narrow process windows with notification by pager, e-mail, and alarms when any set parameter is out of spec.

Solder Paste Resources

To get a list of the paste manufacturers that we are aware of click here. Many of the manufacturers are excellent resources for information on Lead Free Soldering

For a representative sample of a number of No-Lead solder pastes from our ProfilePlanner and AutoMOLE®Xpert Software that have specifications for Liquidous high enough for No-Lead Soldering click on the image. You should contact the manufacturers directly for more information. This is not an endorsement for any paste or manufacture.

To see the profile for these pastes in your oven, click here to download our free Profile Planner software. Profile Planner allows you to look at these pastes in a variety of ovens. It is easy to add ovens and paste specifications for any application that you are considering. There are over 250 solder pastes currently in our database.

Many of the oven manufacturers are building Reflow Systems to accommodate these new requirements. You can go to our Oven links page to investigate further

Industry Associations - No-Lead Resources

• IPC - IPC hosts the Get the Lead Out! Web site. Users of this site can peruse the technical library, stay abreast of legislative and marketing moves and download the IPC Roadmap for Lead-Free Electronics Assemblies; all for free!!!!
• SOLDERTEC is based at ITRI Ltd, the world technology centre for tin, and a pioneer in lead-free soldering research.
  As a centre of excellence, SOLDERTEC will provide information products and a leading-edge research portfolio to the lead-free soldering community.
• NEMI Lead Free Interconnect National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, Inc
• National Physics Laboratory - News on Lead Free
• Pb-Free.com - Pb-Free.com is intended to help you be better connected, better informed, and more confident regarding the entire Pb-free solder issue
• National Center for Manufacturing Sciences - Lead Free Solder CD Rom.
• NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Database for Solder Properties with Emphasis on New Lead-free Solders
• The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) - The Institute is helping Massachusetts companies meet the challenge of transitioning to lead-free electronics

Industry No-Lead Sources

• TI - Lead Free solutions
• Amkor -Green / Pb Free Packaging Technology Solution
• Epson - The Road to Lead-free Soldering
• Cookson Electronics - Lead Free soldering resource
• Heller - Articles on Lead Free soldering
• Intel - Lead Free Solutions
• National Semiconductor - Lead Free status
• Kester Solder
• Aim Solder - Lead Free information
• Fujitsu Lead Free Package
• Oki Silicon Solutions Converting to lead free packages

Technical Articles

• EMS group urges component makers to go lead free - Article from EBN June 7, 2002 By Claire Serant
• Amkor - Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Connections for Area-Array Packages
• Selecting Material and Process Parameters for Lead Free SMT Soldering Using Designs of Experiments Techniques - Word Document
  • by: Dr. Sammy Shina and Hemant Belbase - Dept of Mech Eng, U of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Karen Walters - BTU International
  • Tom Bresnan - Sanmina Corp, Tech Center East
  • Peter Biocca, Tim Skidmore - Multicore Solder
  • David Pinsky - Raytheon Corp
  • Phil Provencal - Solectron Massachusetts Corp
  • Don Abbott - Texas Instruments
  • Published at Apex 2001 - San Diego
  • Word Document
• Design of Experiments for Lead Free Materials, Surface Finishes and Manufacturing Processes of Printed Wiring Boards - Word Document
  • by: Dr. Sammy Shina and Hemant Belbase - Dept of Mech Eng, U of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Karen Walters - BTU International
  • Tom Bresnan - Sanmina Corp, Tech Center East
  • Peter Biocca, Tim Skidmore - Multicore Solder
  • David Pinsky - Raytheon Corp
  • Phil Provencal - Solectron Massachusetts Corp
  • Don Abbott - Texas Instruments
  • Published at SMTA - Chicago 2000
• Lead -Free Research: Optimizing Solder Joint Quality - Word Document
  • by: Tim Skidmore and Karen Walters
  • Published in Circuit Assembly - April 2000
• EP&P Article titled "Reflow Technology Ready for Lead-free Challenge" -Equipment innovation and upgrades, plus strategic partnering, prepare manufacturers to meet new technology challenges. - Learn more about the importance of Profiling using the Lead-free process.
• PIHR process and Paper by Bob Willis
  Pin-in-hole, intrusive, pin-in-paste, multi-spot soldering are all terms used to describe a reflow process that allows through hole components to be soldered without the need for wave soldering or purchasing selective soldering systems. With the growing interest in lead-free soldering there is also a need to simplify the process stages in manufacture, particularly with many companies in Europe looking to adopt an environmentally friendly process.

Profile Planning tool and a comparison of No-lead and SnPb solder

Click on the above image to see a larger view This example assumes a 7 Zone oven with a total heated length of 334.7 cm. Temperature points used were the mid points of the paste manufacturers recommended specifications

In the profile comparison on the right between a typical Sn-Pb solder paste and a No-Lead formulation, the Peak temperature needed by a No-Lead paste (243 Deg C is 25 Deg C higher than a typical Sn-Pb solder (218 Deg C). More significant is that the range or process latitude between Liquidous and Peak temperature for Sn-Pb is 35 Deg C while for No-Lead it is only 22 Deg C, over a 1/3 drop in process flexibility. The Lead-Free solder paste has not even obtained Liquidous at what used to be the Peak temperature of Sn-Pb Solder.

As temperatures approach those that can destroy components, process freedom is lost. It becomes even more critical that the process used is monitored and fine tuned. Profiling is the only way to ensure that quality results are achieved and that the materials are not harmed that are being working with. Profiling will be an integral part of any No-Lead soldering operation.

As the machine settings are developed, the most "Robust Profile" will need to be known for the paste and oven being used. Once this is determined, profiles will need to be run so adjustments can be made to achieve these results.

ECD's Free Profile Planner Software allows one to test out and see what the most "Robust Profile" is for the solder pastes that are currently in house or that may be implementing into the production line.

With SuperM.O.L.E.®Gold SPC Software, the Drag and Drop Prediction can be used to recommend the oven settings will be needed to achieve the most "Robust Profile" in the reflow oven.