Featured Story: Leaded parts still in high demand

Monday, 02 February 2009 00:00

Most electronic components are now lead-free. Yet even in a post-ROHS world, components that contain lead are in high demand. Industries such as defense, aerospace, and medical equipment are currently still exempt from government legislation calling for lead-free parts. And these exempt industries need highly reliability parts that come with lead solder and coatings. The components industry, however, has shifted overwhelmingly to lead-free parts, leaving the exempt industries scrambling to find parts that still contain lead.

For decades, defense and aerospace manufacturers used COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) components. They were both cheap and reliable. These components had decades of field testing, so manufacturers that require high reliability parts were comfortable using commercial parts even in the high-stress environments of space and military settings. The parts held up.

Lead-free components don’t inspire the same confidence because they haven’t been subjected to years of field testing. Plus, tin solder without a small portion of lead can grow tin whiskers in extreme environments. When those whiskers break off, they can short out, causing the system to fail. “There are quality concerns about lead-free components because they have not been field-tested for a long time,” said Dennis Zogbi, CEO of Cary, NC-based market researcher and business consulting service Paumanok Publishing Inc. “Components that go into an airplane have to be robust. They have to be tested for high vibration over a long time.”

Read more in the January 20, 2009 EDN

"Leaded parts still in high demand "

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