NASA-DoD Lower Process Temperature Lead-Free Solder Project Overview

This project is a follow-on effort to the Joint Council on Aging AircraftJoint Group on Pollution Prevention
(JCAAJG-PP) Pb-free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project which were the first projects to test
the reliability of Pb-free solder joints against the requirements of the aerospace and military community. This effort would
continue to build on the results from the JCAAJG-PP Lead-Free Solder Project and NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics
Project while focusing on a particular failure mechanism currently plaguing Pb-free assemblies, pad cratering.The
NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project confirmed that pad cratering is one of the dominant failure modes that occur in
various board level reliability tests, especially under dynamic loading. Pad Cratering is a latent defect that may occur
during assembly, rework, and post assembly handling and testing.