Lead-free Research Activities and Gaps for Military and Aerospace Systems
Abstract
The aerospace and defense electronics providers have a long history of adapting consumer and commercial electronic piece parts and assemblies for use in complex qualified systems. Driven by recent legislative directives, the consumer electronics industry has eliminated lead from its products. In comparison to the heritage tin-lead systems, the new lead-free material assemblies have introduced new failure modes that lack failure models and have different fatigue characteristics that are still being evaluated. As a result, design practices and qualification methods by which commercial-off-the-shelf items are introduced into high performance products are being re-examined. The aerospace and defense community is capturing pertinent research and technical guidelines from the military, aerospace and consumer electronics sectors in standards and handbooks to facilitate lead-free risk mitigation assessment in systems. However many shortfalls still exist, particularly in areas where consumer electronics performance regimes product complexity and sustainment requirements do not overlap with aerospace and defense systems. Some existing research as well as the Lead-free Manhattan Project Phase 2 report research proposal, formulated to close those technical knowledge gaps, will be discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA554002
Entities
People
- Stephan J. Meschter