The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative’s (iNEMI’s) workshop on the availability of SnPb-compatible BGAs, originally scheduled for January 24, has been moved to Thursday, March 1, to allow greater participation of the global supply base. The meeting will be hosted by iNEMI member, Hewlett-Packard, at its Cupertino campus (19483 Pruneridge Avenue, Building 48).

This important workshop is being organized by iNEMI’s SnPb BGA Availability Task Group and is intended to facilitate discussion among high-reliability electronic product manufacturers and makers of electronic components manufactured in ball grid array (BGA) packages, in an effort to initiate closer collaboration within the supply chain. The reliability of Pb-free assembly has not been sufficiently demonstrated for long-life, mission-critical applications, and many of the manufacturers who produce these types of products will continue to use SnPb processes until Pb-free reliability can be predicted with the same certainty as SnPb assembly. However, BGA suppliers are rapidly converting to Pb-free packages, and this rapid transition of the supply chain to meet the high-volume needs of consumer electronics is affecting the availability of SnPb versions of critical components.

The use of Pb-free connection finishes often presents compatibility issues — especially with BGAs — for those manufacturers who plan to continue using SnPb assembly processes. “This workshop is not intended to develop technical engineering solutions,” said Jun Ma, director, supplier engineering at Sun Microsystems, and co-chair of the iNEMI SnPb BGA Availability Task Group. “Instead, our goal is to bring together decision-makers to discuss how OEMs, EMS providers and the BGA component supply base can work together to support SnPb-compatible BGAs, assist with questions of long-term reliability, and/or develop other solutions to address general availability concerns.” “OEMs and EMS providers want device makers to understand the extent and criticality of the need for SnPb BGAs until reliability concerns are resolved,” said Ken Stuchlik, SCN processor and I/O technical manager for Alcatel-Lucent, and co-chair of iNEMI’s task group. “At the same time, device makers need users to understand and appreciate the full impact of maintaining a dual supply chain for a relatively small portion of the device business. Our goal is to bring everyone together in this workshop to discuss their concerns and find ways to resolve the issues to the benefit of all stakeholders.”

iNEMI’s SnPb BGA Availability Task Group has assembled information that will be shared with BGA device makers, including:

• a list of critical BGA component families;

• estimated total available market (TAM) for these devices in SnPb assembly versions;

• a general business case based on TAM; and

• scenarios to support this critical market need until reliability issues are resolved for high-reliability, long-life electronic assemblies. Workshop registration information and directions are available at http://www.inemi.org/cms/projects/ese/SnPb_BGAs.html For additional information about iNEMI, visit www.iNEMI.org.