Lead-Free Electronic Products are Attractive for Hong Kong Industry

Since the European Community is due to implement a complete ban on the manufacturing and importation of lead-containing electronic products, many local electronic packaging industries are now struggling with lead-free production. One company called Advanced Interconnect Technology (AIT) Ltd. has received a matching grant of HK$ 2 million from the Hong Kong Industry Department for the development of lead-free bump fabrication technologies.

Total Ban on Lead in Europe and Japan

Dr. Karim, the Technical Director of AIT, said that poisonous lead may leach out when electronic products are disposed of in landfills. This has the potential to pollute the drinking water system. The European Community has therefore decided to ban the use of lead-containing solder in electronic products starting from January 2004.

The lead-free trend is now also spreading to USA and Japan. Dr. Karim pointed out that Japan has passed a "Recycling Law" to take back all lead-containing products starting 2001. The State of California in the US is also preparing to legislate a ban on the disposal of lead-containing products in landfills.

In the meantime, many European and Japanese electrical appliance companies have already started to replace lead-containing electronic products. For example, Sony and Hitachi have implemented some new technologies regarding the lead-free issue and they expect to entirely remove the use of lead from their production materials in the coming year.

Dr. Karim mentioned that since Matsushita promoted their lead-free minidisk player in October 1998 and highlighted the environmental friendly nature of this new product, its market share rapidly increased from 4.6% to 15% in just six months. Therefore, Hong Kong manufacturers should not look down on the prospects of developing lead-free electronic products.

Dr. Karim thought that the local manufacturers of printed circuit board and lead-frame packaging should pay greater efforts to search for proper lead-free materials and lead-free solder pastes. This is to cope with the rapidly changing market and to prepare for new business opportunities.

Regarding the lead-free issue, AIT is currently in the process of developing six different types of lead-free bumps, which it will test qualify and evaluate with regard to their suitability for commercial wafer bumping and flip-chip electronic packaging applications.

Research on Lead-free Bumping Technology

Dr. Karim pointed out that their research on lead-free bumping technology will require a total budget of HK$4 million. Besides the company1s own investment of HK$2 million, AIT has received an industrial matching grant of HK$2 million from the Hong Kong Industry Department in order to complete this urgent and challenging research work.

Dr. Karim believed that their first phase work will be completed in the coming September after which the second phase research work will be started immediately and finished by next year. At that time, AIT will be able to provide a service for the manufacture of lead-free bumps, lead-free fabrication technologies, and a consultancy service to local manufacturers.