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News Release from: Dionics | Subject: RoHS component guides
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 14 March 2005
RoHS: the good, the bad and the ugly
What do franchised distribution, the independent channel and a chip counterfeiter have in common?
The rapidly approaching RoHS Directive looks set to transform their respective businesses in some way. The franchised distributor should, in theory anyway, have the easiest role in tackling the challenges presented by the directive. After all, they have direct relationships with the original IC manufacturers, so they have all of the answers - don't they?.
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Lets not forget, this is a formidable task - there are an estimated 100,000 products affected by RoHS across Europe.
Add to that some 13,000 EOL (end of life) notifications per month and the scale of the problem becomes apparent.
But precisely where is the bottleneck?.
Why, given that July 2006 is almost on us, is there so much uncertainty surrounding compliance.
Recent industry reports cite a growing sense of frustration within the distribution community regarding the lack of RoHS data emerging from the component manufacturers.
Further reading
RoHS/WEEE - where does the buck stop?
When it comes to fully satisfying the requirements of the RoHS and WEEE Directives, the devil is in the detail as Paul Chinery, Managing Director of Dionics explains
Exceptions slip through the RoHS and WEEE net
Statistics from Dionics Environmental Division for the third quarter reveal some unexpected results with regard to the RoHS and WEEE Directives
Classification clouds compliance picture
Problems with classification of equipment are clouding the issues of compliance with the WEEE and RoHS Directives, reports Dionics
This frustration has allegedly escalated to a point where some distributors are openly considering removing certain franchises from their line cards.
Only time will tell if these hollow threats mark the beginning of a change in the supply chain landscape.
One thing is certain - those distributors that have embraced the green issue will undoubtedly win market share.
Independent distribution, although not at the forefront of lead-free legislation, could still experience a period of uncertainty in the wake of RoHS.
An independents traditional activity has focused on component shortages.
With a significant number of components yet to be manufactured in RoHS compliant variants, satisfying any RoHS compliant shortages from within the channel may prove difficult if not impossible.
Although the legislation is unlikely to generate a component famine, many component manufacturers are still reporting only sporadic demand for lead (Pb)-free devices, making accurate forecasting as we go forward virtually impossible.
The sector that has the most potential to benefit from the RoHS Directive could actually be the criminal fraternity.
Counterfeit components, a growing menace in modern electronics, are not that difficult to manufacture.
In fact, they're not manufactured at all in the usual sense.
You simply take a component and remove its markings.
Now remark the device with another part number from a product that shares the same outline package and dimensions.
The part number you select should obviously be more expensive and ideally in short supply.
Of course it won't work, but that's not important as repeat orders are understandably rare within the counterfeit community.
Thankfully, forged components have been relatively easy to identify due to the primitive methods employed in remarking.
Although we're not suggesting they're printed with potatoes, they don't usually employ sophisticated laser marking.
Even if they make it past a visual inspection, they will almost certainly fail an electrical test by doing the unexpected, or perhaps nothing at all.
Now picture a more challenging scenario.
A component manufacturer has been selling a part for many years.
It's a popular device, used in various applications, but it contains lead (Pb) - a substance controlled by the imminent RoHS Directive.
After much research and reliability testing, the manufacturer releases a lead (Pb)-free variant and adds a 'G' suffix to the original part number.
However, despite this new introduction, there are still considerable volumes of the original product within the supply chain.
It would be relatively easy for the forger to 'tweak' the original part number to create a RoHS compliant counterfeit.
The goods are already in the original packaging, as they are - to all intents and purposes - original.
This 'factory new' product would be considerably more difficult to identify.
Moreover, electrical testing won't reveal the fake, as it isn't really a counterfeit in the traditional sense.
It will still perform as its datasheet suggests it should - it simply contains lead (Pb) on its terminations.
Disturbingly, this illegal use of lead (Pb) would probably only be identified by laboratory analysis, or a future audit by the enforcement authorities.
This extract comes from a series of RoHS component guides produced by Dionics.
These guidance documents have been specifically developed to assist electronics manufacturers new to RoHS by introducing elementary topics as well as exploring more advanced concepts.
The guidance documents are freely available via the company's website.
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