iNEMI HFR-Free Leadership Project report

Recent environmental concerns over the safety of the halogenated flame retardants (HFR) used in commonplace FR4 based printed circuit boards (PCB) has prompted market demand for HFR-free computer systems. Unfortunately, this transition has been made difficult by concerns of the Thermo-Mechanical and Electrical properties on the HFR-Free laminates. As an example, the critical electrical properties of most HFR-free dielectrics currently on the market make high-speed bus designs such as DDR3 problematic without increasing the cost of the system. The iNEMI HFR-Free Leadership Project was developed to address these industry concerns. This paper shows the project plan and status to date.