The company is taking these significant steps to remove lead from its product packaging in order to make it more environmentally friendly.

Intel will begin shipping the lead-free technology with select microprocessors and chipsets in Q3, 2004, and embedded IA processors in Q2, 2004. The company shipped its first lead-free memory chips in 2003. Additional products will be transitioned as manufacturers become able to handle them. The new packages use lead-free solder balls, about the size of salt crystals, and represent the majority of lead used in Intel microprocessor packaging. Intel is working with the industry to find a reliable solution for the tiny amount of lead still needed inside the processor packaging to connect the actual silicon "core" to the package.

The transition to lead-free is a massive industry-wide effort with many technological, logistical and economic challenges. Since 2000, Intel has been working with industry consortia and the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances legislation committee to come up with a solution that can be used around the world. To achieve this, the company developed reference procedures on its own research assembly lines to aide customers implement lead-free technology in their manufacturing process.

Getting the Lead Out
Lead has been used in electronics for more than one hundred years because of its electrical and mechanical properties. It has been a scientific and technical challenge for industry researchers to develop new materials that meet the performance and reliability requirements for the different ways lead is used in components, products, and assembly processes. At the same time, various national bodies around the world have been working to reduce or eliminate lead and therefore the danger it represents to the environment and general health.

Intel qualified its first lead-free Plastic Ball Grid Array package in 2001 for use with its Flash memory, and shipped its first lead-free product in 2002. The lead/tin solder previously used for connecting this package to the motherboard was replaced with a tin/silver/copper alloy. This work allowed Intel and its customers to gain valuable insight about what was required both technologically and logistically to make the transition to lead-free technology.

Intel's new Flip Chip Ball Grid Array package also uses a tin/silver/copper alloy to connect the chip package to the motherboard. However, until Intel and the industry can certify a replacement that meets performance and reliability requirements, a tiny of amount of lead/tin (about .02 grams) is still used inside the sealed package to attach the silicon core to the package.

Courtesy of Medialink