Shin-Etsu Follows RoHS

TOKYO -- Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (TSE: 4063), announced that it has developed a manufacturing technology for lead-free optical isolators, which enables it to comply with the European RoHS Directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances). Until now, Faraday rotators[1], which are main component parts of optical isolators, contained lead; however, this newly developed technology has made it possible to totally eliminate the lead element in optical isolators.

In July 2006, the European Union issued a RoHS Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances such as the lead element in electrical and electronic equipment, and in principle, the decision was made to totally abolish its use. However, due to technical difficulties in fulfilling this RoHS Directive for some components and processes, including optical isolators, which are indispensable components for optical fiber communication systems, an accommodation was made in the RoHS regulations to allow exemptions for such cases and a less absolute standard of regulating lead content to below 1,000 ppm has been planned to be adopted, although it was expected that completely lead-free optical isolators would be developed soon.

The technology that Shin-Etsu has expeditiously developed fulfills the equipment makers' expectation by achieving the total elimination of lead from optical isolators. Going forward, this new technology will enable the optical communications industry to comply with the expanding scope of environmental regulations.

Shin-Etsu Chemical, by developing its own original LPE method that does not use lead oxide at all, succeeded in developing for the first time in the world the technology to grow rare-earth iron garnet crystals with a thickness of several hundred microns and reduce to zero ppm the amount of lead in Faraday rotators, which are a key component part of optical isolators.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. Ltd.