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Materials
NIST
Helps Manufacturers Prepare for Conversion to Lead-Free Solder
U.S.
electronics companies are facing the challenge of using an alternative
to lead-tin solder in manufacturing. Japan and the European Union
have issued a ban on lead in electronic equipment, which is scheduled
to take effect in the next few years. Applying its expertise in
materials processing, NIST is actively working with industry and
university groups to develop a standard alloy that will serve
as the alternative to lead-tin and ensure lead-free products by
2001.
A critical part of assembly, the solder serves as an interconnect,
bonding components electrically and mechanically to the circuit
board. The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, a consortium
of electronics equipment manufacturers, government agencies and
universities, has chosen the tin/silver/copper alloy as the standard
alternative to lead-tin. Data that led to the standard were provided
by the NEMI Alloy Group, co-chaired by
NIST. The group now is conducting manufacturing and reliability
trials for lead-free circuit board assemblies.
NIST had been involved in earlier research on lead-free solder
conducted by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. Various
solders were classified by their behavioral properties, such as
melting point and mechanical reliability under stressful conditions
of heating and cooling on a circuit board. NIST led the development
of the final project report.
Continuing
its work with NEMI, NIST is developing a national lead-free electronics
database, which will be available to the public. The database
will contain information on the properties of the tin/silver/copper
alloy and on other types of solder materials.
For
more information about NIST’s lead-free solder activities,
contact Carol
Handwerker, chief of the Metallurgy Division and co-chair
of NEMI’s Alloy Group, (301) 975-6158.
Media
Contact:
Pamela
Houghtaling , (301) 975-5745
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Information Technology
Last
Chance to Sign Up for Cyber Security Conference
Enterprises
throughout the world are facing a host of cyber assaults on their
operational and economic well being. The threats range from mischievous
people defacing a web site to sophisticated denial-of-service
attacks that can shut down an electronic commerce operation at
a cost of millions of dollars.
As the menace to information technology systems grows, the effort
needed to combat it must stay one step ahead. Businesses, organizations
and consumers demand that their IT interactions are swift, private,
seamless and secure. Protective strategies and technologies are
the key to keeping the data on the information highway moving
freely.
For
more than 20 years, those interested in securing their IT systems
have been gathering annually at the National
Information Systems Security Conference to hear from the experts.
The conference attracts more than 2,000 participants from industry,
universities and government agencies. It provides a unique international
forum for discussing, debating and understanding such critical
topics as securing electronic commerce, Internet and WWW security,
protecting trade secrets and company assets, preventing computer
crime and cellular phone fraud, firewall technology, virus detection
and elimination, and encryption and cryptography.
The 23rd NISSC takes place Oct. 16-19, 2000, in Baltimore.
A
detailed conference agenda, program information and online registration
are available at http://csrc.nist.gov/nissc.
Media
Contact:
Philip
Bulman, (301) 975-5661
Building
Research
Collaboration
to Yield Big Dividends to the Construction Industry
R
esearch contributions to the construction industry’s high-tech
drive to reduce delivery time and life-cycle costs for industrial
facilities are expected to pay big dividends in 2005.
According
to a study by the NIST
Office of Applied Economics, the past, present and future
collaborations between the NIST
Building and Fire Research Laboratory and partners, including
two private-sector organizations—the Construction Industry
Institute and the new Fully Integrated and Automated Technologies
Consortium—will accelerate the industry’s plans for
commercial deployment of builder-relevant information-age products
by at least four years.
NIST
economists credit the partners’ work—particularly the
contributions of BFRL—on key enabling technologies, standard
communications protocols and advanced measurement techniques for
the expected advance in product and services marketplace readiness.
The analysts estimate that product and service availability in
2005, rather than 2009, represent a cost savings to industrial
facility owners, managers and contractors approaching $150 million.
The
report also describes methods for evaluating and comparing the
economic impacts of alternative research investments. It defines
the basis for the economic impact assessment and ways to reproduce
the results. The impact study is expected to be useful to other
government and private research groups wanting to evaluate the
efficiency of their budget allocations.
Copies
of Benefits and Costs of Research: A Case Study of Construction
Systems Integration and Automation Technologies in Industrial
Facilities (NIST Interim Report 6501) soon will be available
from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
Media
Contact:
John
Blair , (301) 975-4261
Optoelectronics
New
Measurement Service for Relative Intensity Noise of Lasers
The
demand for greater bandwidth in optical fiber communications has
led to the development of laser transmitters and optical amplifiers
with very low intensity noise. Transmitter noise is often specified
by its relative intensity noise, which also can be used to determine
the noise figure of optical amplifiers. Because it can have a
frequency dependence, the acronym RIN is used to denote the spectral
density of the relative intensity noise.
To
meet industry demands for precise measurement of RIN, Gregory
Obarski of NIST’s Optoelectronics
Division in Boulder, Colo., has developed a transfer standard
for calibrating RIN measurement systems that employs electrical
spectrum analyzers to resolve the spectral density of the RIN.
This new measurement service has been reviewed and certified as
a formal calibration service as well as a measurement assurance
program (known as a MAP). Customers are offered the choice of
using the transfer standard to calibrate their own RIN system
(a MAP) or sending their device to NIST for calibration.
The transfer standard is an erbium-doped fiber amplifier that
is coupled to a linear polarizer and a narrow-band optical filter
centered in the 1,550 nanometer wavelength range. The device is
characterized for frequencies between 0.1-1.1 gigahertz. The spectral
density of the RIN is stable and relatively constant to several
tens of gigahertz, rendering it suitable for calibrations at even
greater bandwidths. The transfer standard has been verified by
a combination of theory and measurement; its accuracy also has
been confirmed using a laboratory RIN measurement system and a
second RIN reference source.
For
more information, contact NIST, MC 815.01, Boulder, Colo.
80305-3328; (303)
497-5747.
Media
Contact:
Fred
McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
Standards
National
Standards Strategy Approved
A
newly
minted National Standards Strategy aims to strengthen U.S. participation
in global standards-setting activities that influence access to
export markets and to ensure that domestic health, safety, environmental
and consumer needs continue to be addressed effectively.
Two years in the making, the National Standards Strategy was approved
unanimously by the board of directors of the American National
Standards Institute during its Aug. 31, 2000, meeting. ANSI is
a federation of about 1,000 organizations, including standards
developers, industrial users of standards, consumer representatives
and government agencies.
Steps
toward a National Standards Strategy began with a 1998 challenge
from NIST Director Ray Kammer. In meetings with representatives
from ANSI, industry, government agencies and individual standards-developing
organizations, Kammer pointed out that the European Community
and other economic competitors were using standardization activities
to advance their national technology interests, sometimes to the
disadvantage of U.S. business. Efforts to champion U.S. technology
interests at the global level were uneven, he said.
In
the United States, the voluntary standards system is highly decentralized,
aligned with sectoral interests. In many other nations, the system
is more hierarchical, with a national standards body at the top.
Observers assert that the U.S. system is more open and responsive
to industrial and marketplace needs. Decentralization, however,
can complicate U.S. participation in multinational and global
standards activities.
The
new strategy establishes a framework to guide standards development
in the United States and to champion U.S. technology interests
in the international standards arena. Key to the framework is
reliance on a flexible approach, which allows individual, different
needs to be met within an overall strategy. It also stresses the
importance of key principles in the development process, such
as consensus, openness and transparency. In addition, the strategy
includes 11 tactical initiatives, from increasing government reliance
on voluntary standards to working proactively with U.S. trading
partners to further mutual (shared) technical and policy interests.
The text of the National Standards Strategy is available on the
World Wide Web at http://web.ansi.org/.
NIST Director Kammer will discuss the strategy during a Sept.
13 Congressional hearing. His testimony will be available on the
NIST web site at www.nist.gov/testimony/index.htm.
Media
Contact:
MarK
Bello, (301)
975-3776
Small
Business
Baut
Studios Says ‘Hallelujah’ for Help from Penn MEP Center
L
ocated
in Swoyersville, Pa., Baut Studios manufactures ornamental and
structural windows and sashing used primarily in places of religious
worship. Founded in 1927, Baut Studios employs 25 people.
The company recently found itself in the all-too-common position
occupied by many small manufacturing companies: it was responding
to the market and to crisis situations rather than proactively
guiding the business.
Baut
Studios turned to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource
Center, an affiliate of the NIST
Manufacturing Extension Partnership, for help in learning
how to plan more effectively and in developing company objectives.
As a result of NEPIRC’s assistance, Baut Studios developed
a strategic plan, actions for achieving specific goals, a new
performance compensation system, and formal job descriptions and
skill definitions for all employees. The company also cross-trained
employees, introduced a bonus plan based on company output and
hired several people to fill critical positions.
“The
Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center … helped
us focus on addressing sore spots that had been holding us back,
plan for the future, and enter new lines of business confidently.
We feel that in NEPIRC we have a partner that cares about and
contributes to our success,” said Conrad Baut, president
of Baut Studios.
For
further information on NEPIRC, contact Leslie Klein, (570) 819-8966.
Small manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico can reach
their local NIST MEP affiliate by calling (800) MEP-4MFG (637-4634).
Media
Contact:
Jan
Kosko, (301)
975-2767
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