Lead-free
Company Leads the Way
A
North Tyneside company which has won funding from the Department of
Trade and Industry to develop a new environmentally friendly
electronic material product.
The
firm, tCORE Ltd, is driving forward high temperature lead-free
soldering thanks to the DTI SMART award scheme, which gives grants
to help small and medium sized companies commercially exploit their
clever ideas.
Through
the 18-month funded study the company aims to demonstrate the
feasibility of creating a unique high temperature, lead-free,
soldering material targeted primarily at the electronics industry.
The
novel solder paste system, HOTSOL (High Operating Temperature
Solders with Zero Lead) will enable lead-free soldering to be
conducted at much higher temperature regimes than those currently
possible.
The
firm hopes to thereby address the requirements of ‘cascade’
soldering and high temperature electronics.
Managing
Director, Mr Gary Shorthouse, said: “There is a need, which has
been recognised by the European Commission, to remove lead from the
environment. Lead is used extensively in soldering in electronics
and other applications."
“People
have already developed lead free solders which will work at
temperatures of up to 230 degrees centigrade but there are many
soldering applications that need much higher temperatures –
250-400 degrees centigrade - and these solders tend to contain even
more lead.
“What
we are developing is a new kind of solder which is lead-free and
will operate in that higher temperature regime.”
The
company hopes to market HOTSOL in the high temperature electronics,
automotive, aerospace and deep oil extraction industries.
One
year into the feasibility study the firm is showing extremely good
results.
Patents
are being filed and results are to be published in the next six
months. From January the firm is to work with a major German car
manufacturer on evaluating the solder through a new development
programme.
The
company, which was incorporated in March 2000, majors in high
temperature electronics and electronic components testing. It also
co-ordinates international networks of excellence such as EEENET
(Electronics for Extreme Environments Network) and SETNET (the
Semiconductor Test Network).
Mr
Shorthouse said the SMART award had been very valuable. “It’s
been very valuable. It has opened doors into related fields and if
this is successful it will be a material which will be manufactured
and marketed worldwide which will be of major benefit to the company
and to the local economy.”
tCORE
partners EU project PROCURE to promote safety and
environmentally friendly vehicles
The potential benefit of high temperature
electronics to automotive industry is enormous. According to the
HITEN report released in 2000 by the High temperature Electronics
Network (HITEN), the world market for high temperature electronics
is expected to more than double from $177 million in 1998 to $377
million in 2003 and further expand to $887 million by the year 2008.
The automotive industry, aerospace as well as equipment used for the
oil and gas logging industry are the predominating applications for
high temperature electronics today. However, the importance for
automotive applications is expected to expand, accounting for two
thirds of the overall market for high temperature electronics by
2008, according to the HITEN report.
Applications for high temperature electronics
in the automotive industry are primarily driven by customer
demands for safety, security, comfort, and convenience as well as
legal and political requirements asking for more efficient and
environmentally friendly vehicles. In order to perform those
functions there is an urgent need for electronic systems working
under harsh ambient conditions with temperatures up to 175°C or
more. Currently, electronic standards only specify components up to
125°C.
To maintain Europe’s leading position in the
automobile electronics market, the research project PROCURE
(Program for the development of passive components used in rough
environments) was initiated by 12 European partners. The primary
goal of PROCURE is the development of materials, technologies,
processes, and prototypes for passive components, which are
necessary for the realisation of the next generation of electronic
control units and system architectures suitable for operation in
harsh environments. The exploitable outputs will be components with
improved lifetime suited for high temperature operation up to
150°C, 175°C and possibly 225°C.
The Project will be partially funded within
the fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission under
the specific programme "Promoting Competitive and Sustainable
Growth" and addresses key action "Innovative Products,
Processes and Organisation".
The partnership involves 6 European
countries and comprises 8 industrial partners and 4 research
partners. Participating industrial partners include Conti Temic
microelectronic GmbH, DaimlerChrysler AG (both Germany) and Etudes
et Production Schlumberger (France) as users from the automotive and
oil-exploration businesses. Involved manufacturers of components are
BCcomponents BV (Netherlands), BCcomponents Beyschlag GmbH
(Germany), Epcos AG (Germany), EVOX RIFA (Finland), and TEMEX SA
(France). Supporting research partners include TCORE Limited (UK),
IMEC (Belgium), IXL Laboratory (France) and the Microtechnology
Innovation Team of Deutsche Bank AG (Germany).
PROCURE will enable European users to
benefit from high temperature electronic systems particularly
through increased efficiency, lower overall costs, and reduced
levels of pollution, enhancing overall European competitiveness.
Gary Shorthouse,
managing director of tCORE limited comments that
"PROCURE will enable European users to benefit from
high-temperature electronic systems particularly through increased
efficiency, lower overall costs, and reduced levels of
pollution."
"
The role tCORE will play is important to the success of the project.
tCORE is the leader of a major work package dealing with testing of
the new advanced high temperature components"
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