The New England Lead-free Electronics Consortium is a

collaborative effort of New England companies spanning the electronics supply chain, created by the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1999 and sponsored by the Toxics Use Reduction Institute and the U.S. EPA. The consortium has completed and published the results of three phases of manufacturing and testing of lead-free Printed Wiring Boards (PWBs) with the goal of achieving zero-defect lead-free soldering processes with comparable or superior reliability to that of leaded solder processes. In this fourth phase of testing, which began in 2007, several simulated conditions of assembly and rework processes were evaluated in a matrix of multiple levels of components, PWB lead free surface finishes and solders, and compared to a baseline of leaded equivalent materials and processes. Both Through Hole (THT) and Surface Mount (SMT