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Prevailing Lead-Free Materials

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Assembly and Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Joints

Abstract

Lead-containing solders, particularly tin-lead solders, have been widely used in electronics industry for a long time. This is primarily due to a combined merit of low cost, good soldering properties, adequate melting temperature range, and proper physical, mechanical, metallurgical, and fatigue resistance properties. However, the concern about the toxicity of lead has led to an increase in controls and legislation on the use of lead. As a result, the use of lead in non-solder related materials such as gasoline, and paint have been banned for years [1, 2]. More recently, lead containing solders have been banned for use in potable water piping, food and beverage cans and automobile bodies where they were used in repair applications. As to the electronic industry, the concern on lead-containing solder mainly resides in the potential pollution from the landfill. Although the use of lead in solders for electronics assembly has not been completely banned yet, the strong trend of moving toward a green world is driving the industry to develop lead-free solder alternatives with an immense enthusiasm. In this chapter, the status of lead-free developmental works are reviewed and briefly discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unimicron Technology Corporation, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    John H. Lau

  2. Indium Corporation (United States), Clinton, NY, USA

    Ning-Cheng Lee

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  1. John H. Lau
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Lau, J.H., Lee, NC. (2020). Prevailing Lead-Free Materials. In: Assembly and Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Joints. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3920-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3920-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-3919-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-3920-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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