Towards sustainable solutions

Global sustainable development is based on an equally formation of requirements to environmental, economical and socio-cultural pillars. Technology as a neutral tool can help to fix the balance necessary to the interests of our without compromising those of later generations. Lead-free technologies are of such a dimension and today enough time passed by to risk a first approximation to comprehensive evaluation. Starting as an environmental topic since 15 years there are intensifying activities in the transition from the well known Tin/Lead to various alternate lead-free interconnection systems. Many projects were done to find best solutions. Tin/Silver/Copper will be the most favorite future alternative. The environmental aspects as toxicity, energy use, behavior in recycling and landfill of soldered PCB´s but also the economical impacts i.e. availability of rough materials and conversion costs will be discussed. Socio-cultural impacts like regional different behavior of companies and consumers are discussed before background of lead-free electronics becoming reality in Europe next year. From a technological standpoint the open questions and their possible solutions like i.e. exceptions, test methods for wiskers and threshold of lead in a homogeneous material. Closing some consequences of the latest development will be pointed out.