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This document is intended for use as technical guidance by Aerospace system suppliers, e.g., Aerospace system Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Aerospace system maintenance facilities, in developing and implementing designs and processes to assure the continued performance, quality, reliability, safety, airworthiness, configuration control, affordability, maintainability, and supportability of high performance aerospace systems (subsequently referred to as AHP) both during and after the transition to Pb-Free electronics. This document is intended for application to aerospace products; however, it may also be applied, at the discretion of the user, to other products with similar characteristics, e.g., low-volume, rugged use environments, high reliability, long lifetime, and reparability. If other industries wish to use this document, they may substitute the name of their industry for the word “Aerospace” in this document.

This handbook is designed to assist program management and/or systems engineering management in managing the transition to lead-free (Pb-free) electronics to assure product reliability and performance. Programs may inadvertently introduce Pb-free elements (including piece part finish, printed wiring board finish, or assembly solder) if careful coordination between buyer and supplier is not exercised. For example, piece part manufacturers may not always change part numbers to identify Pb-free finishes, especially if the previous tin-lead (Sn/Pb)-finished piece part has been discontinued. Detailed examination of piece parts and documents at receiving inspection while crucial, may not be sufficient to identify Pb-free piece parts. Note: Pb-free technology can impact any program regardless of whether the program itself is exempt or bound by environmental regulations.

This handbook is designed to assist a program in assuring the performance, reliability, airworthiness, safety, and certifiability of product(s), in accordance with GEIA-STD-0005-1, “Performance Standard for Aerospace and High Performance Electronic Systems Containing Pb-free Solder”. Please note that the program manager, and managers of systems engineering, Supply Chain and Quality Assurance (along with their respective organizations), and the appropriate enterprise authority need to work together in ensuring that all impacts of Pb-free technology insertion are understood and risks mitigated accordingly. Herein “program management (or manager), supplier chain management (or manager), quality assurance management (or manager) and systems engineering management (or manager) and/or the appropriate enterprise authority” shall be defined as “responsible manager” throughout the remaining document (see Section 3, Terms and Definitions).

This document contains information and guidance on the use of Pb-free ball grid arrays (BGAs) in an aerospace, defense, and high performance (ADHP) product, or other products which demand a high reliability.

This document provides risk mitigation for Pb-free solders used internal to parts used in Aerospace and Defense applications. It will include mitigations applicable to encapsulated and cavity devices as the needs arise in industry. Currently this revision only addresses devices with encapsulation or underfill. Mitigations for open cavity devices are still being discussed, and will be addressed in future revisions. Microbumps with Thermal Compression Bonding (TCB) are not addressed by the mitigations in this document. The use of Pb-free microbumps with TCB are considered out of scope at this time. It is expected that this document will be primarily used by Control Levels 3 and 2C (as defined in GEIA-STD-0005-2 for programs that do not allow use of Pb-free tin or only allow its use on an exception basis). It may be used by other levels, or by applications not using GEIA-STD-0005-2.

This standard defines the requirements for fully replacing undesirable surface finishes using robotic hot solder dip. Requirements for qualifying and testing the refinished piece parts are also included. This standard covers the replacement of pure tin and Pb-free tin alloy finishes with SnPb finishes with the intent of subsequent assembly with SnPb solder. This dipping is different from dipping to within some distance of the body for the purposes of solderability; solder dipping for purposes other than full replacement of pure tin and Pb-free tin alloy finishes are beyond the scope of this document. It covers process and testing requirements for robotic dipping process and does not cover semi-automatic or purely manual dipping processes. This standard does not apply to piece-part manufacturers who build piece parts with a hot solder dip finish.

This standard defines the requirements for fully replacing undesirable surface finishes using robotic hot solder dip. Requirements for qualifying and testing the refinished piece parts are also included. This standard covers the replacement of pure tin and Pb-free tin alloy finishes with SnPb finishes with the intent of subsequent assembly with SnPb solder. This dipping is different from dipping to within some distance of the body for the purposes of solderability; solder dipping for purposes other than full replacement of pure tin and other Pb-free tin alloy finishes are beyond the scope of this document. It covers process and testing requirements for robotic dipping process and does not cover semi-automatic or purely manual dipping processes. This standard does not apply to piece-part manufacturers who build piece parts with a hot solder dip finish.

This standard defines the requirements for fully replacing undesirable surface finishes using robotic hot solder dip. Requirements for qualifying and testing the refinished piece parts are also included. This standard covers the replacement of pure tin and Pb-free tin alloy finishes with SnPb finishes with the intent of subsequent assembly with SnPb solder. This dipping is different from dipping to within some distance of the body for the purposes of solderability; solder dipping for purposes other than full replacement of pure tin and other Pb-free tin alloy finishes are beyond the scope of this document. It covers process and testing requirements for robotic dipping process and does not cover semi-automatic or purely manual dipping processes. This standard does not apply to piece-part manufacturers who build piece parts with a hot solder dip finish.

This standard defines the requirements for fully replacing undesirable surface finishes using solder dip. Requirements for qualifying and testing the refinished piece parts are also included. This standard covers the replacement of pure tin and Pb-free tin alloy finishes with SnPb finishes. This dipping is different from dipping to within some distance of the body for the purposes of solderability; solder dipping for purposes other than full replacement of pure tin and other Pb-free tin alloy finishes are beyond the scope of this document. It covers process and testing requirements for robotic and semi-automatic dipping process but does not cover purely manual dipping processes, due to the lack of understanding of the appropriate requirements for hand-dipping for tin whisker mitigation at this time. This standard does not apply to piece-part manufacturers who build piece parts with a hot solder dip finish.

This document defines: (1) A default method for those companies that require a pre-defined approach and (2) A protocol for those companies that wish to develop their own test methods.

The default method is intended for use by electronic equipment manufacturers, repair facilities, or programs which, for a variety of reasons, may be unable to develop methods specific to their own products and applications. It is to be used when little or no other information is available to define, conduct, and interpret results from reliability, qualification, or other tests for electronic equipment containing Pb-free solder. The default method is intended to be conservative, i.e., it is biased toward minimizing the risk to users of AHP electronic equipment.

This document defines: 1 A default method for those companies that require a pre-defined approach and 2 A protocol for those companies that wish to develop their own test methods. The default method (Section 4 of the document) is intended for use by electronic equipment manufacturers, repair facilities, or programs which, for a variety of reasons, may be unable to develop methods specific to their own products and applications. It is to be used when little or no other information is available to define, conduct, and interpret results from reliability, qualification, or other tests for electronic equipment containing Pb-free solder. The default method is intended to be conservative, i.e., it is biased toward minimizing the risk to users of AHP electronic equipment.

This document provides technical background, procurement guidance, engineering procedures, and guidelines to assist organizations reworking/repairing aerospace and high performance electronic systems, whether they were assembled or previously reworked/repaired using traditional alloys such as SnPb or Pb-free alloys, or a combination of both solders and surface finishes. This document contains a review of known impacts and issues, processes for rework/repair, focused to provide the technical structure to allow the repair technician to execute the task. This document focuses on the removal and replacement of piece parts. For the purposes of this document, the term “Rework/Repair” is used as applicable. NOTE: The information contained within this document is based on the current knowledge of the industry at the time of publication. Due to the rapid changing knowledge base, this document should be used for guidance only.

This standard defines the objectives of, and requirements for, documenting processes that assure customers and regulatory agencies that ADHP electronic systems containing Pb-free solder, piece parts, and PBs will satisfy the applicable requirements for performance, reliability, airworthiness, safety, and certifiability throughout the specified life of performance. It is intended to communicate requirements for a Pb-free Control Plan (LFCP), hereinafter referred to as the Plan, and to assist the Plan Owners in the development of their own Plans. The Plan documents the Plan Owner’s processes that assure their customers, and all other stakeholders that the Plan Owner’s products will continue to meet their requirements, given the risks stated in the Introduction. This standard does not contain detailed descriptions of the processes to be documented but lists high-level requirements for such processes, and areas of concern to the ADHP industries that must be addressed by the processes.

This technical report identifies the requirements for an LFCP for ADHP soldered electronic products built fully or partially with Pb-free materials and assembly processes. An LFCP documents the specific Pb-free materials and assembly processes used to assure customers their ADHP soldered electronic products will meet the applicable reliability requirements of the customer. This standard specifically addresses LFCPs for: a Pb-free components and mixed assembly: Products originally designed and qualified with SnPb solder and assembly processes that incorporate components with Pb-free termination finishes and/or Pb-free BGAs, i.e., assembling Pb-free parts using eutectic/near-eutectic SnPb processes (also known as mixed metallurgy). b COTS products: COTS products likely built with Pb-free materials and assembly processes. c Pb-free design and assembly: Products designed and qualified with Pb-free solder and assembly processes.

This Standard establishes processes for documenting the mitigating steps taken to reduce the harmful effects of Pb-free tin finishes in electronic systems. This Standard is applicable to Aerospace, Defense, and High Performance (ADHP) electronic applications which procure equipment that may contain Pb-free tin finishes.