Soldering (see RoHS), has led to a change in formulation of both solders and fluxes. Water-soluble non-rosin-based fluxes have been increasingly used since the 1980s so that soldered boards can be cleaned with water or water-based cleaners. This eliminates hazardous solvents from the production environment, and from factory effluents. Those regulations have also reduced the use of lead based solders, and caused the melting temperatures of solders in use to increase by up to . "Hot-bar reflow" is a selective soldering process where two pre-fluxed, solder coated parts are heated with heating element (called a thermode) to a sufficient temperature to
Thermal copper pillar bump both having copper pillars and solder connections. The primary difference between the two is the introduction of either a P- or N-type thermoelectric layer between two solder layers. The solders used with CPBs and thermal bumps can be any one of a number of commonly used solders including, but not limited to, Sn, SnPb eutectic, SnAg or AuSn. Figure 5 shows a device equipped with a thermal bump. The thermal flow is shown by the arrows labeled “heat.” Metal traces, which can be several micrometres high, can be stacked or interdigitated to provide highly conductive pathways for collecting heat from