Implementing Lead-Free Electronics

Rating:
Summary: Implementation: the crucial step to lead-free electronics
Review: Dr. Jennie Hwang's second major book on lead-free electronics plays the ministerial role to its magisterial predecessor. It is the facilitator, carrying us from the calm of the laboratory to the clamor of the factory floor, where theories and realities collide. In the lead-free as in other worlds, implementation, not theory, ultimately determines survival.

The book follows the flow of factory implementation, moving from selecting the best approach, to choosing proper materials, to controlling the soldering operation, to concerns about compatibility, costs, and reliability. The prelude is a reality check of present manufacturing practices. Here Dr. Hwang shows us how the actual conditions of use for today's eutectic lead-tin solders, rather than theoretical arguments, justify the "drop-in" approach to lead-free replacements.

The key to manufacturing implementation is recognizing the interdependence of process decisions, to insure compatibility at every stage. Solder selection summarizes some of the voluminous technical detail of Dr. Hwang's prior book, supplemented with side-by-side solder comparisons.

Mass reflow soldering and wave soldering comprise separate chapters, again starting from a solid base of "real-world production demands." For mass reflow soldering, these include the difficulty of monitoring and controlling temperatures in a fast-moving environment. Wave soldering is dismembered in detail. New hobgoblins here are dross, corrosion, turbulence, and compositional stability. Again, case studies tie the text to factory-based data.

The open, bullet-point format of much of the material will make this a handy reference book, as well as a worthy supplement to its predecessor. Dr. Hwang has enlisted her long industry experience, her understanding of solder manufacturing, and her sensitivity to the concerns of students in her lead-free training courses to present an exhaustive, normative, two-volume approach to lead-free technology and implementation.