Objective
With the issue of the WEEE (Waste from Electrical & Electronic Equipment)- and RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances)-guidelines by the EU, the use of lead solders will be restricted starting from July 2006. This ban of lead enforces developments of new joining techniques in the entire electronic and micro system technology. First attempts of lead free soldering still show many shortcomings due to their higher temperature. Here, laser spot welding (LSW) becomes a promising complement to the conventional soldering process. Lead free, high durability, high thermal and mechanical stability, minimum heat diffusion during the process and transferability towards three-dimensional printed circuit boards (PCB) are the key advantages of this process. JOITEC aims to establish the LSW as the future joining technology in the electronic industry. In the LSW process a new laser with an adapted wavelength will be employed leading to a dramatically increased coupling efficiency and to an improved process control. An in-process quality management will also be developed which will evaluate the correlation between the welding-specific process emissions and the weld quality. A complete system design combining research technology with industrial standards will result in a LSW prototype. Additional key feature of JOITEC is a specialised design of PCBs in order to take full advantage of this new technology. Not only will this environmental-friendly technology be directly implemented into the production lines of the participating SME end users, the technology will also allow the SME participants to meet the EU guidelines right in time. With the available system technology and its sub-components laser source and monitoring system, the requirements of a huge sub section of the electronic mass production can be satisfied, having the potential to reinforce the European position in the sector of manufacturing systems for electronic industry, which is currently dominated by Asian industry.
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
FP6-2002-SME-1
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Cooperative - SMEs-Co-operative research contractsCoordinator
HANNOVER
Germany