Events

Getting the Lead (Pb) Out: Reflections on the Implementation of Environmentally Friendly Materials in Electronics The European Union’s (EU) Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (or RoHS Directive) took effect on July 1, 2006, restricting the use of six hazardous substances in the manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market in the EU. When the Directive was first announced and executed, there were permitted exemptions to allow the use of these otherwise restricted substances for certain product applications or functions. Exemptions were valid until suitable replacement materials became available. Examples of exemptions included the use of lead in solders for servers and lead in solders for flip chips. Substantial research and development activities by IBM, academia, industry consortia and numerous other companies in the electronics industry were required to comply with RoHS requirements and to introduce replacement materials and processes. The exemption for the use of lead solders in servers expired in July 2016. IBM Systems completed a successful transition prior to the required deadline, capping more than 10 years of progress in lead-free alloy and process development. This presentation will provide background on the initial implementation of RoHS with a focus on the multi-year effort to overcome significant technical challenges in eliminating lead solder from IBM Systems server and storage hardware. The IBM Supply Chain Engineering and Development teams received numerous industry accolades for their advancement of the technology required for this transition. All are welcome! You do not need to be an IEEE Member to attend. Speaker(s): Marie, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/513957