Development of lead-free solders for hybrid microcircuits

Extensive work has been conducted by industry to develop lead-free solders for electronics applications. The driving force behind this effort is pressure to ban or tax the use of lead-bearing solders. There has been further interest to reduce the use of hazardous chemical cleaners. Lead-free soldering and low-residue, ``no clean`` assembly processing are being considered as solutions to these environmental issues. Most of the work has been directed toward commercial and military printed wiring board (PWB) technology, although similar problems confront the hybrid microcircuit (HMC) industry, where the development of lead-free HMC solders is generally lagging. Sandia National Laboratories is responsible for designing a variety of critical, high reliability hybrid components for radars. Sandia has consequently initiated a project, as part of its Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing program, to develop low-residue, lead-free soldering for HMCs. This paper discusses the progress of that work.