Green Commitment

Product Environmental Compliance Commitments

Our goal is to provide you with environmentally friendly products that meet regulatory requirements and your expectations/requirements on hazardous substances.

▼ RoHS Directive (on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) and its amendments

— What is the requirement of RoHS Directive?
The EEE equipment put on the EU market, the following substances are restricted to use and don’t exceed the MCV in homogenous material except for some exemption applications

• Substance / Group
  MCV by weight
  (Maximum Concentration Value)
• Cadmium (Cd) and its compounds
  100 ppm
• Lead (Pb) and its compounds
  1000 ppm
• Mercury (Hg) and its compounds
  1000 ppm
• Hexavalent Chromium (Cr⁶⁺) and its compounds
  1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBBs)
  1000 ppm
• Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs)
  1000 ppm
• Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)
  1000 ppm
• Dibutyl phthalate (DBP)
  1000 ppm
• Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP)
  1000 ppm
• Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP)
  1000 ppm

— What has AOS done to meet RoHS requirements?
Starting in August 2004, we began converting our products to RoHS compliance and achieved RoHS compliance conversion in July 2005. We continue to follow the RoHS update/amendments, to search/assess alternative materials for our customers' further “Green” products.
The RoHS compliance declaration is available: » Environmental Compliance Statement (PDF)

— Does AOS have any plan in place to remove the RoHS exemption application?
We applied RoHS exemption 7(a): “Lead in high melting temperature type solders (i.e. lead-based alloys containing 85% by weight or more lead” in some power management devices, used as 1st level internal connection (Die bonding, Clip bonding), to achieve unique properties, such as the high melting point and thermal conductivity.
The brief of exemption application explanation is available: » High Temperature Solder Statement (PDF)

▼ REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals)

— What is the requirement of REACH regulation?
REACH is a regulation of the European Union, which is adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks posed by chemicals.
In principle, REACH applies to all chemical substances, not only those used in industrial processes but also in our day-to-day lives.
REACH managed the chemicals by the ways of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction with specific conditions of Article, Preparation, and Substance put on the EU market.

— What has AOS done to meet the REACH requirement?
AOS products are articles defined in REACH and do not release substances under their regular use. Suppliers of the article should provide recipients with information on SVHC candidates if products present above a concentration limit of 0.1% on an article level. In addition, AOS products are required to meet REACH Annex XVII requirement (restricted substance under specific application).
We have reviewed our products’ BOM and obtained information from our supply chain along with SVHC candidates’ certificate. As a result, REACH declaration is available at: » REACH Declaration (PDF)

▼ Green Product (Halogen Free/Low Halogen)

— What is the requirement of Green?
More and more downstream users have required to low halogen/halogen free products, and industrial associates published the industrial standards for low halogen/halogen free definition, such as IEC 61249-2-21, JS-709, IPC 4101B, and JPCA-ES01. AOS defined Green (Halogen free/Low Halogen) below.

— What has AOS done to become a greener Company?
In 2010, all of our packages were converted to Green packages. Larger packages remain non-halogen free versions, depending on customers’ demand.
Adding the suffix “L” to part numbers is used to distinguish Green devices from non-halogen free devices. For example, AOT10N60L is a green version device, and AOT10N60 is a non-halogen free device.
AOS Green Policy is available at: » Green Policy (PDF)