Feb 27, 2003
MONTEREY, Calif. -- U.S. companies are beginning to wake up to the lead-free electronics production movement, which was pioneered in Japan and taken up by European manufacturers.
�We�ve just started to get enquiries from US customers about lead-free products,� Julian Psaila, manager of MIPS processors at PMC-Sierra Inc., told the Globalpress Leading the Recovery conference this week.
According to Psaila, until recently, there was little interest in lead-free components in the U.S.
"A few of our printer manufacture customers are now asking about it, probably because they want to ship products to Europe and products containing lead may be banned from the European market,� Psaila said.
PMC-Sierra is already shipping some of its MIPS processors in lead-free packages and plans more.
�The lead-free movement started in Japan -- not as a legislative thing but as a voluntary movement probably to help consumer marketing,� Psaila said. �In Europe it�s more of an EC-driven thing to have lead-free products by 2006.�
Only this month Texas Instruments Inc. announced its intention to go entirely lead-free for its logic products.
»
