The past few years have seen major developments in soldering materials and processes for electronics assembly manufacture due to the movement from tin-lead to lead-free soldering. The removal of lead from electronics solders due to environmental considerations first developed with proposed US legislation in the early 1990s. At that time, the alternatives had not been fully explored, so a ban on the use of lead in electronic solders was put on hold. However the seed was sown for development with various projects initiated during the 1990s in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Based on government...