Why Halogen Free?
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Electronics industry takes action to minimize or eliminate certain potentially dangerous halogen containing materials, including Halogen Flame Retardants.
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Why Halogen Free?
- 1. an Alent plc Company Halogen Free Positioning in Market Place
- 2. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Why Halogen Free? • Electronics industry takes action to minimize or eliminate certain halogen containing materials, including Halogen Flame Retardants • There are 2 common types of halogen flame retardants in ROHS list of restricted materials – Polychlorinated Biphenyls – Polybrominated Biphenyls
- 3. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Why Halogen Free? • Many electronics are burned at the end of their life – During this process these halogen bearing materials release toxic by-products (dioxins) – Dioxins increase the risk of cancer • Several BFRs – Have known toxic properties – Are highly resistant to degradation in the environment
- 4. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Who is pushing for Halogen-Free? • RoHS/JIG guidelines recommending controls on certain halogenated compounds including BFR’s – This is the only government regulated initiative with the goal of reducing the use of halogens • The current halogen-free initiative in electronics assembly is driven by 2 main groups – Non Government Organizations (NGOs) – OEMs
- 5. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Who is pushing for Halogen-Free? • NGOs like – Continue to push OEMs to become more environmentally friendly
- 6. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Group (Column) VIIA = Halogens What are Halogens?
- 7. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Halogen vs. Halide When a halogen takes in one electron, it becomes a halide, for example Br + e Br – Bromine electron Bromide
- 8. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Halogens and Halides are NOT the same • Halogens – covalent and have a neutral charge – primary source for Halogens in Assemblies is BFR’s in Laminates – present a potential toxicity problem when burned – when used in solder paste and wave solder flux can enhance activity without reducing reliability • Halides – ionic and have a charge – added to certain wave solder fluxes and solder pastes to improve activity only – like to absorb water which can cause printing and reliability problems – because they carry a charge, if left uncontained, can result in electrical reliability problems on finished assemblies
- 9. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Definition of Halogen-Free • Only the JEITA, IEC and JEDEC Standards / Guidelines affect Alpha products • JEITA differs from IEC and JEDEC as it measures halogens, from any source, in solid portion of soldering materials and included Fluorine • IEC and JEDEC are similar except for Br / Cl levels
- 10. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Halogen Content Test or Combustion Process Volumetric Flask Filtration Centrifuge Ion Chromatograph • Halogens have a neutral charge and cannot be detected by standard Ion Chromatograph • Must first be converted to ionic Halides − using combustion process
- 11. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Halogen Free Certification & Testing • Declarations based on our knowledge of the formula • EN 14582 (Oxygen Bomb Test) – For Paste, Liquid Flux and Solder Wire – Provided it can be done • New method – Extract solids using IPC Test Method 2.3.34 from products – Submit the extracted solids for EN14582 – Results can be used for determining all Halogen Free (HF) classes
- 12. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company AMG Current Halogen Free Products • Paste / Paste Flux • Multiple options • Halogens have little impact on thermal stability and activity. • Liquid Fluxes • Few options • Halogens provide thermal stability and activity. Difficult to replace. • Cored Wire • Few options • New products under development
- 13. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Conclusion • Current Halogen-free initiative being driven by NGOs and OEMs – The only halogens that are legislated to be removed are polybrominated and polychlorinated biphenyls - RoHS – Important to know what level of Halogen-free is required by your OEM • Halogen-free and Zero Halogen pastes and fluxes have existed for many years – Soldering performance can be equal to halogen containing materials – Selection of the appropriate product is driven by your process and reliability requirements
- 14. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company Glossary of New Terms • ROHS - Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive • Periodic Table – List of all elements discovered on earth • Zero Halogen – No halogen intentionally added to the formulation • Low Halogen - <1000ppm Br and <1000 ppm Cl in the final product (i.e. flux residue) • Halogen-free – often used to mean the same thing as Low Halogen • NGO – Non Government Organization • OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer • Ion Chromatograph – An instrument used to measure ions, such as halides for example, at ppm level • ppm – parts per million • Covalently bonded halogens – a non-ionic structure of a halogen chemical • Oxygen Bomb Combustion or combustion process – A burning process to convert halogen into halides • Centrifuge – a high speed mixing process to separate solid and liquid in a mixture • Filtration – a process to filter or separate the solid and liquid in a mixture
- 15. Highly Confidential and Privileged Information of Alpha an Alent plc Company For more information on ALPHA products go to: www.Alpha.Alent.com
Editor's Notes
- Good understanding of what halogen is and its effect on our products. Providing highlights of our existing halogen free products Highlighting challenges faced in improving the soldering performance Reviewing standards created by different consortia and how our products fared against them Formulation strategy Most importantly is the discussion session where we hope to receive feedback from all of you on the next steps the organization should undertake in executing the halogen free strategy.
- Why Halogen Free, reason is that Electronics industry has started to take action to minimize or eliminate certain halogen containing materials and that includes Halogen Flame Retardants. There are 2 common types of such flame retardant listed in the ROHS list of restricted materials and they are Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Polybrominated Biphenyls This is how the chemical structure looks like for Polybrominated Biphenyls.
- In addition many electronics are burned at the end of their life. The burning process can release toxic by-products, dioxins being one of them. Dioxins can increase the risk of cancer. There are also other known toxic properties of these BFRs, the bromine flame retardants. These toxic materials are also highly resistant to degradation in the environment.
- The push for Halogen Free was likely initiated from ROHS/JIG guidelines, recommending controls on certain halogenated compounds such as BFR’s. So far this is the only government regulated initiative with the goal of reducing the use of halogens. In the electronics industry, the NGOs, the non government organizations, and OEM’s are two groups currently working on halogen free initiative.
- Greenpeace in one NGO that has been aggressively pushing hard for OEMs to become more environmentally friendly. In fact they have created this chart in 2006, the 1 st version, depicting OEMs in different ‘GREEN’ positioning. Being in red means less environmentally friendly, while in green indicates the company is greener in their business approaches. For example in Year 2006, only Nokia and Dell are in the green zone. Many OEMs since then became more conscious about their ‘GREEN’ reputation. Many of them have shown improvement in terms of their action plan implementation and positioning as reflected in the Version 14 chart launched in Dec-2009.
- To gather better understanding to the halogen definition let us look at the Chemical Periodic Table, which basically highlights all elements that are present in our earthly system. Halogens are positioned under Group (Column) VIIA in the Periodic Table as F for Fluorine, Cl for Chlorine, Br for Bromine, I for Iodine and At for Astatine.
- In the industry, there is another term related to halogen known as halides. Halides have been extensively used and known for a long time in soldering materials to provide good soldering performance. Hence it is beneficial to understand the relationship between halide and halogen. When a halogen takes in 1 electron, which is a negative charge particle, the halogen becomes a halide. For example Br, being a bromine, a type of halogen, by accepting an electron will be converted into a Br ¯, bromide.
- Halogens and Halides, though are related, are NOT the same. They exhibit different chemical attributes since Halogens are neutral and Halides are negatively charged. Let’s us dwell in detail their respective differing attributes. Halogens are covalent and have a neutral charge. They are primary contributor to the flame retardant property of laminates. However, they present potential toxicity problem when burned. In solder paste and wave solder flux, they are useful material used to enhance activity without reducing reliability. Halides are ionic and have a charge. They are added to certain wave solder fluxes and solder pastes for activity improvement only. They like to absorb water which can cause printing and reliability problems. Since they carry a charge, if left uncontained, can result in electrical reliability problems on finished assemblies.
- Few standards have been created in the market to define Halogen Free. However, presently only JEITA, IEC and JEDEC Standards affect Alpha Products JEITA differs from IEC and JEDEC as it measures halogens not only from flame retardants but also from other sources. In addition halogen measurement is taken on the solid portion of soldering materials, and includes Fluorine. Solid portion of soldering materials refers to paste flux in solder paste, solid content in liquid flux and solid flux in cored solder wire. IEC and JEDEC are similar. They only cover Br and Cl levels from flame retardant source and halogen measurement is on post soldering residues. Fluorine is not listed in IEC and JEDEC as a restricted item. The only difference between IEC and JEDEC is in the Br and Cl level. IEC specifies less than 900 ppm while JEDEC specifies less than 1000 ppm. IEC has another requirement which is the sum of Br and Cl content in the material also needs to be less than 1500 ppm. No such specification was highlighted by JEDEC. Hence it is important that we understand accurately customer requirement for halogen free. One easy way is to ask them which standard would they prefer to refer to in defining the halogen free status for the materials. Lastly if the product is Zero Halogens, a condition where no halogenated compounds have been intentionally added to the product, we can conclude that this product meets all these standards requirement.
- For the Halogen Content Determination Test we should take note that Halogens have a neutral charge and cannot be detected by standard Ion Chromatograph. The halogens must first be converted to ionic halides. This is done using the combustion process During the combustion process, the weighed sample of material placed on the platinum basket will be burned. After the burning process the whole flask will be swirled or shake to thoroughly mix the burned sample with the alkali solution. This process will convert the halogen into halides. The mixed solution in the flask will then be transferred to the volumetric flask, diluted further in proportion with deionized water. After some proper mixing in the volumetric flask, the solution is to be filtered or centrifuged. This will separate the liquid portion from the precipitate or solid. The separated liquid will finally be injected into the Ion Chromatograph. This equipment will measure the halides content, which is a representation of the amount of halogen present in the original sample.
- In considering soldering products for a Halogen Free process, customers, most of the time, will seek for Halogen Free Certification and Testing Reports. There are 3 possible ways we can accommodate this request. First , we being the soldering materials supplier have knowledge of the formulation. Hence we will be in the position to make declaration reports on the halogen content status in the products. In cases where the declaration report is not acceptable, product submission to third party institution such as SGS for example can been made. They will perform the EN14582 method, where the Oxygen Bomb test is perform, to generate the halogen content result report. The challenge for them will be in measuring the small quantity of solid content in liquid flux and cored solder wire that we have submitted. Alternatively we can consider the new method of first extracting the solid portion the product using IPC Test Method 2.3.34. The extracted solids can then be submitted to third party institution for the EN14582 Oxygen Bomb test. Results obtained can then be used for determining all Halogen Free classes.
- AMG Current Halogen Free Products are available in Paste, Paste Flux, Liquid Fluxes and Cored Wire. For Paste and Paste Flux there are multiple options because halogens have little impact on thermal stability and activity of such products. In other words, replacement of halogens in solder paste formulation is not too difficult. However, not the same can be said for Liquid Fluxes and Cored Wire. The low solid content in liquid fluxes and low solid flux content in cored wire make replacement of halogens in these products very difficult. This means not easy to find another chemical to replace the halogens. Development works are now ongoing to address this challenge In anyway presently there are still some Alpha offerings for all the products types – solder paste, liquid flux and cored wire - as reflected in the table. Some of these products such as OM338-series for example have been in existence for quite a while, placing us in a good position to introduce our halogen offerings in the market place. R & D is also now developing new halogens free products. For more up to date information about the launch of these new inclusions, we can visit the alpha.cooksonelectronics.com website.
- In conclusion: The current Halogen-Free initiative currently is being actively driven by NGOs and OEMS. As far as legislation on halogen is concern, ROHS is the only one regulatory body posing such restriction.. However it only highlights restriction on polybrominated and polychlorinated biphenyls. It is thus important to know what level of Halogen Free is required by your OEM. On other important point to take note is that Halogen-free and Zero Halogen –free soldering materials offerings have been in existence for many years as far as Cookson is concerned. The soldering performance of these products can have equal or close to that of halogen containing materials. Finally, which products to select will very much driven by the process and reliability requirements.
- Now for explanation of some new terms used in the presentation… ROHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive Periodic Table is a list of all elements discovered on earth Zero Halogen classifies materials with no halogen intentionally added Low Halogen refers to materials with less than 1000 ppm Bromine and less than 1000 ppm Chlorine in the final product, which is the flux residue Halogen Free is often used to mean the same thing as Low Halogen NGO is Non Government Organization OEM is the Original Equipment Manufacturer Ion Chromatograph is an instrument used to measure ions, such as halides for example, at ppm level ppm stands for parts per million Covalently bonded halogens is a non-ionic structure of a halogen chemical Oxygen Bomb Combustion or combustion process is a burning process used to convert halogen into halides Centrifuge is a high speed mixing process to separate solid and liquid in a mixture Filtration is another process that can be used to separate solid and liquid in a mixture Thank you for taking this course. Hopefully it is useful to enhance your understanding of the Halogen Free requirement in the assembly industry. Now you can proceed to the course assessment.