Warren, i don't claim to know what all the manufacturers in the world are going to end up doing
If I did I'd be playing the stock market!!
But I reckon most will comply, in the long run its less $ to have 1 process instead of 2.
"Lead free or Die" is the new motto!
many companies are having trouble understanding what to do as a result of losing so many industrial/electrical/component/manufacturing, etc engineers these past 5 years due to outsourcing
this is a shock for now these companies have to figure out how to approach this, a lot of upper management is lacking in technical knowledge………."i have to spend $ to get the what Pb out of what"? …. lol
Distributors are going crazy as well with WEEE right now, having to have bodies and $ to document a crossed out wheelie bin for recycling products (that have hazardous material )..but
the electronics industry in general is going to have to adopt RoHS for EU business, and in 2007 California will have something similar under SB50 (an off version of SB20) ( probably adopt RoHS )
Japan has 26 or 29 chemical banned and has for a couple of years vs. the 6 in RoHS. China is following with their own RoHS.
how much pollution is going to be generated as a result of the "savings" has of yet not been determined...or may not ever be....(same case as EV vs. oil )
for the Pb-free soldering typically requires a short dwell time (4-6 sec) up to 260 Cel for reflow, with prebake around 160 to 220 Cel, standard ramp-up depending on the assembly size, # of components, board thickness, etc.
i haven't hear that manufacturers are not going to be able to met this, most will ...its high temp, but for a very short time period.
the trade industry is claiming ya need to hit 280 deg Cel for 3 second. Your soldering iron tip temps should be around 343 Cel for Pb-free compared to 315 for Pb.
finishes will be grainy instead of shiny.
quite a few smt components have been around w/out PB for years, smt ceramic caps, resistors for example
most of the industry is going with tin matte plate for leads w/out the Pb.....the difficult part for semi packages is after plating the lead frame is chopped off and oxidation begins at the edges..and that makes it even harder to get a good joint with that extra oxide, ( Pb was added to help, lower temp more time to burn off the oxide))…moisture plays a part with the higher temps causing cracked packaging, thus look for the 2a Jedec spec
then there's tin whiskers and tin plack to worry about....(hot and cold effects on the Pb-free solder joint). ( i think its called plack)
For the sensitive components there is always the hand assembly option, [but i did not read that in the Lumileds datasheet]
there is lots more and tons of literature to read, trade magazines have info/articles every issue, big time for consultants as well….i think a lot of companies are hoping the date will get pushed out for another year.
rob