Electronic Source Book

Actel goes green on 100% of its FPGA products (December 15, 2004)

While a good portion of the suppliers in the electronics industry are struggling to meet the European Union’s Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations, Actel Corp. of Mountain View, Calif. has announced it is now producing lead-free versions of 100 percent of its FPGA products. The company achieved the green threshold many months ago. The regulations require manufacturers to sell products that are free of six hazardous materials including lead and mercury by July 2006. Actel joins a minority group of electronic component suppliers that jumped ahead of the curve in producing RoHS-compliant parts two years early. Many in the electronics industry are getting nervous about the impending deadline since the industry works roughly on an 18-month design-to-delivery schedule. That means that products being designed now will deliver after the RoHS deadline.

One major global contract manufacturer recently surveyed its supply base to determine which suppliers are likely to be compliant on time. Executives noted that 38 percent of its suppliers reached compliance in 2003. Another 11 percent will be compliant by the end of 2004. 7 percent are expected to become compliant in 2005, and 6 percent more will come onboard in 2006. That leaves a surprisingly large 38 percent of the component supply base with no clear path to compliance. These figures roughly correspond to the supplier study revealed by Avnet Inc. and Technology Forecasters Inc. that we reported on last month.

It’s not surprising that companies like Actel have decided to get ahead of the compliance curve. In an environment where many suppliers have not yet assured their customer base that they will ship lead-free parts in time to meet the RoHS deadline, a company with a fully-compliant line of components can potentially grab a competitive advantage. “We’ve been working on compliance since 2002, and now we’ve been compliant for more than six months,” says Cindy Newell, the tactical marketing manager at Actel.

Newell notes that Actel maintains compliance information on its website. “We’ve put together an extensive resource package to educate our customers and the public in general,” says Newell. “We provide a complete listing of our parts and their compliance status. This includes the composition of the solder in all of our packages.” She notes that the website lists a breakdown of the different materials in each package. Actel has also integrated its compliance program into its line of older parts as well as its newer offerings. “The compliance includes our older products,” says Newell. “Some suppliers are only offering compliance for new components.”

Part of the reason Actel jumped ahead of the RoHS deadline is because it has a significant customer base in Japan where electronic manufacturers are trying to shift to lead-free parts this year. “We have some Japanese customers that are requiring compliance by the end of this year,” says Newell. “That’s because they will have products they produce now that will be still be out on the market past the RoHS deadline.”

The part numbering dilemma

One of the controversies raging through the electronics industry is how suppliers intend to handle part numbering for their lead-free components. Most suppliers intend to continue manufacturing a small number of non-compliant parts for the military and portions of the telecommunications industry – the military is exempt entirely from compliance, and portions of the telecommunications industry will not have to be compliant until 2010 – so part numbering can be a potential problem.

The Avnet/Technology Forecasters study indicates that 45 percent of the component supply base does not intend to issue unique part numbers to lead-free versions of their parts. Instead, they will mark the outer packaging or indicate which components are compliant by lot or date. Distributors, manufacturers and EMS providers are strongly urging their suppliers to create unique part numbers for lead-free components.

Actel has decided to solve the problem by putting an additional code at the end of the part number to indicate that a part is RoHS compliant. The goal is to keep the part numbers similar so design engineers can quickly identify the part while avoiding any confusion about whether the part is lead-free or leaded. “We’re using an X79 at the end of the part number, which means it’s green,” says Newell.

This is the Part IV in a series of articles:

Part I: Industry braces for the lead-free conversion

Part II: Progress on lead-free components spotty

Part III: IDT: 99 percent lead free already

Part IV: Actel goes green on 100% of its FPGA products

Part V: Lead-free parts: Welcome to the messy supply chain

Part VI: Are the military and telecommunications industries off the hook on RoHS?

Part VII: Will electronic equipment fail from tin-whisker shorts?

Articles originally from Electronic Source Book