RoHS / REACH Information

This page is for information purposes only, it makes no legal binding statements and does not claim to be complete or correct. For legal binding statements you should contact the proper authorities.

RoHS / REACH

We frequently get asked about the RoHS or REACH compliance of our products. Unfortunately that question is wrong and can not be answered in a simple way.

RoHS sets compliance requirements for devices, not for components. Since most of our products are components we can not declare their RoHS conformity since it does not apply. But all our products are compatible with the use in devices that need to be RoHS compliant.

REACH makes no compliance requirements at all. So we can not declare REACH conformity of our products or processes. The majority of the REACH requirements apply only to chemical substances. For products the only requirement is the information about SVHC (substances of very high concern) contained in a product. If there is more than 0.1% of a SVHC contained in a product we are required to inform our customers about this. If we do not issue this information that means there is no SVHC in the product.

At the moment the status is that none of your products contain SVHC.

Marking of Products

All our RoHS compatible chips have a "R" appended to their version numbers. This "R" will show on chip labels as well as shipping papers. Modules can be identified as RoHS compatible by the labes attached to the chips.

We have stopped to mark products with the lead free sticker as all our stock has been RoHs compatible for several years and no incompatible parts are in stock any more.

What is RoHS?

RoHS (Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances) is a EU directive (2002/95/EG, new: 2011/65/EU) to reduce the use of health and environment damaging substances in electronic products. In the US this is commonly known as the "Lead Free Initiative".

The following substances are affected by RoHS:
Lead Pb, Mercury Hg, Cadmium Cd, Chrome(VI)-compounds Cr(VI), PBBs (Polybrominated biphenyls), PBDEs (Polybrominated diphenyl ethers). The listed substances will be prohibited from being used in the production process and are limited to spurious quantities. Our products are mainly effected by the prohibition of lead. The RoHS laws affect only the EU. But a number of non-EU countries have adopted the idea and put in place similar laws or voluntary regulations to the same effect. Following is an overview of the expected consequences.

European Union (EU)
As of July 1st 2006 only products conforming to the RoHS standards are allowed to be sold in the EU. Some exemptions are specified based on specific target markets (i.e. medical and military products).
As far as we know there is no limitation against shipping non-conforming products from the EU to countries outside the EU.

China
China has a regulation commonly known as "China RoHS". Technically it is already in effect but several vital decisions have not yet been made or published, also it is unclear which executive body will be responsible for enforcement.

Japan
There are no RoHS equivalent laws in Japan, however the industry is following a voluntary program that aims to remove lead from the production process.

USA
The USA has no federal laws to reduce the use of lead. Though California is working on a law, but with no final result so far.

Korea
South Korea has recently announced a similar law which is commonly refered to as KoreaRoHS.

Other countries
As of now no other countries have similar laws. Though it is to be expected that more countries will follow the RoHS initiative either by issuing laws or by the industry voluntarily following the RoHS.