Industry group explores lead-free solder solutions for die attach

Five major manufacturers in the electronics industry have joined forces to seek standardization and acceptance of alternatives for high-lead solder for attaching die to semiconductor packages during IC manufacturing. Bosch, Freescale Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, NXP Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics have formed a consortium knows as the Die Attach 5 (DA5) this week to find a single lead-free solder for a die attach in various devices.

Freescale announced the consortium on April 21. A previous joint effort known as the E4 implemented environmentally friendly materials for semiconductor packages. Lead-free high melting temperature die attach was not in the scope of the E4 effort since this solder material was exempted from the 2006 EU RoHS Directive. The announced DA5 consortium aims to reinitiate the earlier E4 cooperation and use the formula to lead the industry into the next phase of the lead-free semiconductor evolution.