Potential impact

Contribution to standards

The developments made during the project will, for the first time, establish Europe wide process data parameters for production of lead-free flexible circuitry throughout a wide range of industry sectors. This will in turn lead to guidelines on the optimum procedures to use for these processes. These guidelines have the potential to form a basis for a new standard in the use of such circuitry. Its availability will increase confidence in the use of flexible circuits and to promote the test methods. It should also encourage best practice throughout Europe.

The guidelines will be made available to the appropriate European standards committee and by individual partners to national standards authorities for their consideration and possible adoption as a guidance note to national industry.

Improvement of SME competitiveness

Market overview

In the EU, the manufacture of PCBs is an important part of the electrical/electronics industry. The engineered products are used in a wide variety of industrial sectors: telecommunications, automotive, aerospace, domestic appliances and personal computers. The market for PCBs is 25.2 billion Euro of which cheaper manufacturers from outside the EU are supplying an estimated 30%. This trend is expected to continue as greater cost pressures are being brought to bear on the PCB manufacturing industry. Although the market is in a slump it is anticipated that this will recover strongly within two years. Growth in the PCB industry is important to the EU because of: (1) the boom in the use of intelligent devices, (2) the extensive experience of this industrial sector and (3) the current perception of the EU as a high tech manufacturing location. The PCB manufacturing industry employs around 1.2 million in the EU. It is dominated by SMEs with the majority of manufacturers employing fewer than 100 people.

The growth of the EU PCB manufacturing industry is under severe competition and is being limited by several key challenges and the need for better process control. The EU is currently known as a high tech manufacturing location but other more cost-effective areas are also improving their production techniques. It is well known that defects in production add significantly to the overall cost of the product. To maintain the position of leadership the EU needs to improve its current level of quality, complexity and to reduce its cost. This will lead to savings of 20-25% in cost. The factors that would produce cost savings are primarily 1) batches are not wasted if a defect is found and 2) better and cheaper manufacturing processes.

Sector overview

Flexible circuit boards are a functionally pivotal and rapidly growing technology for electronics goods in all industrial sectors. Applications include: computer peripherals (e.g. flat panel displays, ink-jet printers, disc drives), hand held devices (e.g. GPS, personal digital assistants, membrane keyboards), telecommunications (mobile phones), automotive (e.g. engine controls, dashboards/connections), smart cards (antenna foils), aerospace (lightweight, compact systems) RFID tagging (e.g. security, food) and medical devices (e.g. sensors). The drive to use flexible circuits is based on the technologies ability to: reduce size, weight, assembly time and cost, accommodate relative movement between component parts, increase system reliability (reduced interconnect), improve controlled impedance signal transmission and heat dissipation and enable three dimensional packaging.

These benefits have resulted in a significant increase in the use of flexible circuits for electronics and systems assembly, particularly consumer products. The global market size has been estimated by various bodies to be between 4 billion to 7 billion with anticipated growth rates up to 15% per year.

Strategic impact on partners and users of RTD results

The strategic impact of the project will be on the flexible printed circuit board (PCB) and electronics assembly industries. The PCB industry will significantly increase the sales of flexible circuits over the next few years. This will be driven by the increased use of wireless technologies and portable devices containing flat panel displays. The continuing use of electronics and sensors with the European automotive, aerospace and medical industries is also likely to further stimulate demand for flexible circuits. The use of flexible circuits offers the ability for a circuit board to fit into a limited or awkwardly shaped space. In addition the weight benefits with regard to the use in vehicles will contribute to the effort to reduce overall vehicle weight, improving fuel efficiency and reducing the environmental impact.

This project will assist SMEs in electronics assembly by establishing solutions to the assembly of flexible circuits when lead-free soldering is introduced. The project will help assess the current materials available for flexible circuit assembly and highlight any need for the development of new lead-free compatible materials. It will help the materials supplier industries to develop new attachment materials, i.e. lead-free solders and conductive adhesives. The electronics assemblers will have flexible circuit solutions capable of lead-free processes in accordance with the legislation coming into force in 2006. It will help develop the profile prediction and reliability modelling techniques that will increase the process window and ultimately improve the process yields and long term reliability of flexible-circuit systems.

The overall strategic impact will be a better understanding of the techniques for assembling flexible circuit boards using lead-free attachment materials, the greater understanding of the reliability of the assembled systems and therefore an increase in the productivity achievable.

The impact on the specific SMEs participating in the project is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Impact on SME partners

Risk assessment

There are no perceived risks associated with the technologies being developed in this project, other than those already established in existing manufacturing processes.

Direct applications, patents and benefits to SMEs

On the completion of the project the following deliverables will be available for exploitation:

• Flexible substrate materials optimised for lead-free processing conditions.
• Component solder attachment processes optimised for lead-free processing conditions on flexible circuits.
• Optimised alternate processes using conductive adhesives and tapes for attaching components at low temperature.
• Optimised alternate processes using localised laser re-flow for attaching components at low temperature.
• Knowledge of reliability and failure modes for flexible circuit assemblies.
• Life prediction and reliability modelling tools for flexible circuits.
• Design for manufacturability and life guide.

GTS Flexible Materials: will have developed a range of substrate materials optimised for processing using lead free soldering conditions. They will have knowledge of how these perform with a variety of component attachment methods under different environmental conditions, enabling to advise their customers on appropriate material selection. They intend to use this to gain a competitive advantage and increase sales and employment.

Eldos: will have access to range of substrate materials optimised for processing using lead free soldering conditions with which to manufacture patterned flexible circuits for their existing customer base. They will have knowledge of how to process these to give the best characteristics, have analytical data to support cost vs. performance judgements and the Design Guide. This will also give them the opportunity to expand their current component attachment capability and offer additional services.

Flexible Technology: will have access to range of substrate materials optimised for processing using lead free soldering conditions with which to manufacture patterned flexible circuits for their existing customer base. They will have knowledge of how to process these to give the best characteristics, have analytical data to support cost vs. performance judgements and the Design Guide. They intend to use this to gain a competitive advantage and provide a value added service to their customers thereby increasing sales and employment.

Flex-Ability: will have access to range of substrate materials optimised for processing using lead free soldering conditions with which to manufacture patterned flexible circuits for their existing customer base. They will have knowledge of how to process these to give the best characteristics, have analytical data to support cost vs. performance judgements and the Design Guide. This will also give them the opportunity to expand their current component attachment capability and offer additional services. They intend to use this to gain a competitive advantage and provide a value-added service to their customers thereby increasing sales and employment.

Komed: The use of Design for manufacturability and life guide together with the life prediction and reliability modelling tools will allow them to make the transition to lead free solder in their medical devices with reduced risk.

Epigem: will have proven processes and life performance results for their innovative techniques for the fabrication of very fine line flexible circuits. This will enable them to expand into a completely new (to them) electronic markets and application areas (e.g. flat panel displays) with high growth potential.

ICR: The experience and knowledge gaining within this project will allow them to increase their ability to win consultancy and contract work from the electronics products and materials manufacturers.

Solving problems at the European level

The results of this project will encourage the acceptance and use of lead-free solder for flexible circuit boards. There is an urgent need to reduce emission and toxic waste problems in the sector. Also, there are additional defect examination problems with higher temperature lead-free based processes. The net effect is to expand both the PCB manufacturing sector in the EU, and its percentage of the PCB market worldwide. The opposite result would be lost revenue, markets and a weakening of the EU's position against manufacturers in lower cost countries where low operational costs and high defects are compensated by over production.

This industry is currently languishing in the EU and this project may provide a much-needed impetus for another expansion phase. However, the manufacture of such products suffers from problems of joint and substrate defects that generally lead to a high scrap rate. The net effect is increased vulnerability to competition from lower cost countries. The characterisation and quantification of risks and the development of predictive techniques for lifetime and reliability risks from this project will enable decreased reject rates and increased competitiveness of the PCB industry. The project will strongly facilitate industry growth and lead to sustainable job growth in the creation or retention of some 150,000 jobs within the EU as a result of the improved competitiveness offered by the outcomes of Flexible Circuits project. This contributes to social and economic cohesion. Competitiveness, from a 20% reduction in cost of quality control in PCB assembly plants through reduction in defect rate and the elimination of batch testing and 40% reduction in faulty PCBs assembled into complex electronic systems.

Community Societal Objectives (quality of life, health, safety, working conditions, environment)

Quality of Life: Lead is non-degradable and there is a worldwide increase in the consumption of lead. The consumption in Europe is about 33% of global consumption. In 1990 lead solder in electronics was 47000 tonnes Pb. (OECD.1993). There are risks to health and the Environment related to the use of lead in products. There have been some reviews WHO, 1995 and the recent recommendation for lead from the EU's Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL, 2000). This proposal addresses lead exposure in the solder used in the factory and leakage from landfill to soil. In humans, children and pregnant women are more sensitive to the toxic effects of lead shown in the lead blood level and there are clear indications that high levels of lead cause adverse effects on both male and female reproductive functions. Occupational exposure to lead used to be primarily through inhalation, though with the low current OELs ingestion now also becomes relatively relevant.

In the EU the treatment of waste is regulated by a number of Directives (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment 2002/96/EC). There is and will be more of a shift from landfill to incineration in the EU. About 60% of global lead consumption is derived from recycled or re-used material in Europe. One of the largest constituents of existing landfill is electronic waste. Some of this is due to the low quality nature of electrical and electronic components. The lower life cycle is partly due to the quality of the devices and the PCBs used in their fabrication. In the assembly process the complexity of the products make recycling at the end of the manufacturing process difficult. Improvement in the quality of PCBs will lead to lower wastage. The PCBs themselves will have a longer life cycle and a good quality programme in manufacturing will lead to less wastage in production. The target is to reduce defects by 20% and thus a corresponding 40% decrease in the wastage materials is expected. The examination is intended to be in-line, hence there is a greater opportunity to rectify assemblies if a defect is located prior to the end of the production cycle.

Since the 1980s the Commissions overall strategy has been to protect workers from the risks related to exposure of dangerous substances. The Commission listed 13 pollutants of which lead is one. The Directive 80/1107/EEC established provisions for lead, to keep the exposure of workers to hazardous agents to a limit value. In the amending Directive 88/642/EEC, compulsory limits would continue to be laid down by Council Directives. The Council of the European Union published its Common Position on the proposed Council Directive on Ambient air quality assessment and management in 1996. The deadlines for setting limit values were the 31^st December 1999, which has since been extended.

Health and safety: The toxic effects of lead are independent of the route of exposure, and are correlated with the internal exposure expressed in the Pb blood level. The rate of disposition of particle airborne lead in adult humans is approximately 30-50%, and is modified by factors such as particle size and ventilation rate. Once deposited in the lower respiratory tract, particulate, elemental lead is almost completely absorbed, and all chemical forms of lead also seem to be absorbed. These health effects are, in general, related to the absorption dose of lead, as expressed in the Pb blood level, and are mostly a consequence of multi-route exposure. Lead is considered an animal carcinogen, and may be a human carcinogen. Occupational exposure to lead used to be primarily through inhalation, but for the public in general, most exposure is through ingestion, with some exposure through inhalation. The critical effects that occur as a result of exposure to lead are; changes in levels of certain blood enzymes, acute skin and eye irritation, elevation of blood pressure, sensitivity of the immune system in such a way that, on subsequent exposure, a hypersensitivity reaction is elicited, and neurobehavioral deficits in children occur at exposure levels (measured as blood lead) so low as to be essentially a threshold.

In children, signs of encephalopathy and even death were observed at Pb blood levels of 90-800Ug/dL while other symptoms of acute lead poisoning were observed at levels of 60-450mg/dL. The acute encephalopathy caused by lead leads to greatly increased incidence of permanent neurological and cognitive impairment. Lead poisoning without symptoms on encephalopathy also have increased incidents of lasting neurological and behavioural damage.

This project will accelerate the reduction in use of lead by establishing alternative technologies using non toxic materials and processes.

Environment, Conservation of Raw Materials and Preservation of Natural Resources: Plants accumulate lead in industrially contaminated areas. Levels decrease with distance from source and are lowest during the active growing season. The uptake and accumulation of lead by aquatic organisms from water and sediment are influenced by various environmental factors such as temperature, salinity and pH, as well as humic and alginic content. In contaminated aquatic systems, almost all the lead is tightly bound. Only a minor fraction is dissolved in water, even in the interstitial water of sediments. (WHO,1989),. Plants accumulate lead in industrially (and naturally) contaminated environments. In shellfish, lead concentrations are higher in the calcium rich shell in the soft tissue; they relate to concentrations in sediment. The lead uptake by fish reaches equilibrium only after a number of weeks of exposure. Lead is accumulated mostly in the gill, liver, kidney and bone. Fish eggs show increasing lead levels with increased exposure concentration, and there are indications that lead is present on the egg surface but not accumulated in the embryo. In dolphins, lead is transferred from mother to offspring during foetal development and lactation (WHO, 1989). Particularly during waste management, the lead may become available in a more mobile form, causing higher emissions.

The project will decrease the wastage of PCB components and hence reduce energy usage (by 20%) as well. This may include the epoxy substrate as well as electronic devices. Many of these components use derivatives of oil in the manufacturing process and the reduction in usage of such components will be reflected in conservation of this resource. The miniaturisation of components may also lead to less utilisation of raw materials and in some cases less usage of energy.

Employment prospects: The EU PCB industry directly employs around 1.2 million citizens. In addition, the industry sustains employment in the supplier base (polymer manufacturers, component manufacturers, electronic designers etc) estimated to be 3.6 million people. As stated earlier, 75% of the industry and supplier base comprises SMEs, which employ less than 100 people. The industry is vulnerable to competition from lower cost countries. Currently, there is a trend of sourcing of PCBs from lower cost countries driven by cost-down pressures particularly in the telecommunications and PC industries. These market conditions have resulted in the annual loss of about 250 million EU to PCB businesses or associated industries in the last two decades. To compete in the global market for PCBs, European businesses need to supply value-added products or finished products with complex components. The higher technology and design expertise required for the manufacture of such PCBs is not available in the lower cost countries.