Supply Vendor Adopts Two-tier Approach to RoHS

In accordance with the full range of compliance options described in the European Union’s RoHS Directive, Power-One is offering products in lead-free and lead-solder-exempted versions. This two-tiered strategy provides customers with compliance choices that may not be offered by all power-system manufacturers. This strategy also provides a migration path from lead-solder-exempted to lead-free products in the event that the lead-solder-exemption should expire when reviewed by the European Union in three years.

Power-One’s RoHS-compliant lead-free-solder (comprised of tin, silver and copper) process has been rigorously tested through 6000 temperature cycles without any failures. Because there is still some industry concern regarding the long-term reliability of lead-free-solder joints in high-availability infrastructure applications, a number of companies, especially in the communications industry, have chosen to exercise the lead-solder exemption at this time.

RoHS-compliance certificates are available at www.power-one.com by selecting the green “RoHS Update” link. Products designed for applications qualifying for the lead-solder exemption are certified as Power-One RoHS-5 (denoting reduction of five of the six listed substances). Lead-free products are certified as Power-One RoHS-6 (denoting reduction of all six substances).

All Power-One products are scheduled to be RoHS-5 compliant by the European Union’s July 1, 2006, deadline, with most being completed before January 15, 2006. No special part number designations will be required when ordering RoHS-5 products. RoHS-6 compliant versions will be designated with a “G” in the part number suffix. A listing of all product families scheduled for RoHS-6 compliance is available on the Power-One Web site.

For more information on the European Union’s RoHS Directive, and Power-One’s compliance schedule, see www.power-one.com.