Trends and challenges in lead free soldering

The implementation of new EU environmental directives, the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS) and waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) which involve ban of lead from electronic and electric products and equipments introduced constrains in all the value chain. Soldering new design lead free devices and equipments, testing and comparison with service behaviour and life cycle waste management, introduced a challenge to all the actors and mainly to SMEs. This paper summarizes the work and results developed by ISQ in several in-house and multi-partners projects in the last ten years taking into account the barriers still existing in some industrial sectors and end users, due the reliability and standard proceedings.