BRUSSELS -- The European Union's Technical Adaptation Committee has ruled to exempt lead and cadmium in a half-dozen applications from the RoHS Directive.

Among the expemtions granted was for lead in finishes of fine-pitch components (other than connectors) with a pitch of 0.65 mm or less with NiFe copper lead frames. This could mean a new lease on life for millions of components.
The TAC also OK'd the use of lead in solders for soldering to machined through-hole discoidal and planar array ceramic multilayer capacitors.

The TAC can exempt a banned substance on technical grounds (such as the impracticality of the material's removal or substitution), on the lack of existing or commercially viable substitutes, or if the substitute would cause even greater harm to the environment or consumer safety than the original substance.

This brings to 27 the number of exemptions the TAC has granted since the RoHS Directive was promulgated.

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