Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chrys Shea
Shea Engineering Services
Burlington, NJ USA
chrys@sheaengineering.com
pdivita@da-tech.com
© 2012 DA-TECH Corporation
Agenda
RoHS
PCB cost drivers
Conversion process
Case studies
Cost reduction strategies
Discussion and conclusions
Questions
Reduction of Hazardous
Substances Directive
Covers: Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Mercury (Hg),
Hexavalent chromium (Hex-Cr), Polybrominated biphenyls
(PBB), and Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).
Initial compliance deadline
of July 2006 exempted
many medical or other high-
reliability electronics
Next compliance deadline of
2014 includes many medical, telecom, etc.
Why Costs are Expected to
Rise
Lead-free solders are more $
expensive than traditional tin-lead
They process at higher temperatures
Higher-temperature, RoHS compliant PCB
laminates are more expensive
Laminates are more difficult to fabricate
Component cost may go up, depending on
contact metallization
How Can Costs Go Down?
Many devices exempt in 2006 but
affected in 2014 have long life
$
cycles and use mature technologies
Consider miniaturization technology
advancements in last 6, 8 or 10 years…
Cost factors include PCB area and layer
count, component type and count,
manufacturing efficiency…improving these
can overcome higher materials costs!
Conversion Process
Begins with a thorough BOM scrub
Are RoHS-compliant components available?
Are any facing obsolescence?
It’s been six years since first compliance
Can T/H components migrate to SMT?
Results of BOM scrub determine
conversion path
Conversion Paths
• Final documentation
• Production
Cost
Reduction
Component Component
Conversion Cost
Reduce PCB Size or Count
Area and layer count are the biggest
factors in PCB cost for std configurations
Area reduction may come from T/H→SMT
conversion or component count reduction
Layer count (and/or area) reduction may
come from using finer lines/spaces
Eliminating a PCB eliminates its cost
altogether
Reduce Parts Count
Lowers BOM cost (usually)
Reduces PCB area requirement
Improves manufacturing efficiency
Reduces inventory, labor, overhead and
handling costs
Component
Conversion Component Cost
Contact:
Philip DiVita
pdivita@da-tech.com
Chrys Shea
chrys@sheaengineering.com