MENTOR Graphics Corporation, represented in Australia by In-Circuit Design , has announced PCB tool support that enables original equipment manufacture (OEM) customers to achieve Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliance.
Mentor's solution helps OEMs ensure compliance early and throughout the design process, eliminating costly alterations.
Customers are able to leverage the component library data field flexibility to implement filtered search and Bills of Material (BOM) capabilities, enabling OEMS to design for RoHS compliance and avoid expensive redesign time.
Using component data captured in Mentor's DxDataBook system, designers can now search for approved, hazardous material-free parts for their PCB designs, as well as produce work-in-process BOMs containing summations of hazardous material content in their products.
The RoHS regulations come into effect on July 2006, requiring electronics companies to provide proof they have complied with regulations limiting the amount of six hazardous materials, including lead, in their products.
Today, these materials can be found in the components, fabrication of the PCB and in the assembly parts. Component suppliers are being asked to document the material content of their parts in data supplied to the OEMs.
By adding this material content to the component library data and flagging parts that are RoHS compliant, OEMs can ensure that their designers have the information they need to make the proper choices.
"The compliance deadline may be over a year in the future, but many OEMs are starting to plan processes, develop the infrastructure and incorporate RoHS-compliant practices in their design methodologies," said vice president and general manager of Mentor's Systems Design Division, Henry Potts.
"We are working to provide our customers the capability to flow through the entire design process in a more efficient manner."
Mentor is also aiding its customers in making changes to new board materials required for RoHS compliance. To accommodate lead-free soldering, the external layers of the PCB are now made from different materials than the internal layers.
These new materials must be correctly modeled for their electrical characteristics when designers perform delay and signal integrity analysis.
Mentor's automated layer stack-up analysers, driven by the manufacturer's materials data, allow designers to quickly and accurately model the new heterogeneous layer stackups and accurately perform high-speed signal integrity and EMI analysis using HyperLynx.
In addition, special component placement rules and new solder mask configurations can be followed by Mentor's PADS PCB layout and manufacturing checking products.