Responsible Product Design

Commitment to Environment

Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT) is committed to developing environmentally conscious products that, at a minimum, comply with applicable legislative requirements.

QCT & Supply Chain: Strong Partnership in Environmental Sustainability

QCT is a fabless manufacturer of integrated circuit (IC) products. Our supplier activities and management of suppliers play significant roles in QCT's effort to integrate environmental considerations into products and services. QCT works with each manufacturing supplier in all stages of design to ensure compliance with applicable global environmental legislation and various industry and QCT environmental initiatives. QCT manufacturing suppliers are required to operate their manufacturing operations in accordance with their local, regional, and national environmental laws and regulations. QCT manufacturing suppliers are multi-national companies that have a strong commitment to environmental conservation and comprehensive environmental management programs.

In addition, QCT is concerned about the social and environmental conditions associated with the electronics industry supply chain, including mining activities in regions of conflict. It is QCT’s intent not to contribute to financing of armed conflict, human rights violations, and environmental degradations in such regions. QCT recognizes the importance of cooperation and commitment from the supply base and, thus, is working with suppliers to ensure greater transparency of certain metals present in our products.

RoHS Compliance

QCT IC and module products are RoHS compliant.

Also, QCT products fully comply with the Phase 1 of the Management Methods on Control of Pollution from Electronic Information Products ("China RoHS"). The information on "Environment Protection Use Period" (EPUP) and "Names and Contents of Toxic or Hazardous Substances or Elements" are available to QCT customers. Upon release of the China RoHS "Catalog", which would list electronic information products that will be required to comply with all aspects of China RoHS, QCT intends to fully comply.

BrCl-free

QCT first began our bromine (Br) and chlorine (Cl) elimination program in 2003 by incorporating bromine-free molding compounds to the IC designs. QCT began designing all new IC products Br-free (<900 ppm) and Cl-free (<900 ppm) in January 2009. The brominated flame-retardant present in some existing QCT IC products is non-PBB, PBDE, TBBPA, TPP type.

QCT’s BrCl-free design also extends to our embedded Gobi™ – 3G module for notebooks and netbooks – that is designed to untether users from WiFi hotspots. New Gobi designs introduced from January 2010 are BrCl-free. QCT's bromine and chlorine elimination program details are available to customers.

EU REACH Compliance

The currently available alternatives are not drop-in replacements for all QCT products. Because of the immaturity of available alternative technologies, we focused on resolving technical challenges in 2008 before implementing the BrCl-free technology into new IC designs. QCT began designing all new IC products bromine-free (<900 ppm) and chlorine-free (<900 ppm) in January 2009. The brominated flame-retardant currently present in some existing QCT IC products is non-PBB, PBDE, TBBPA, TPP type.

QCT’s BrCl-free design will also extend to our embedded Gobi – 3G module for notebooks and netbooks – that is designed to untether users from WiFi hotspots. QCT is committed to introduce a BrCl-free Gobi module by January 2010. QCT's bromine and chlorine elimination program details are available to customers.

As an article (QCT ICs and modules) producer, it is QCT's intent to fully comply with the requirements of Regulation EC 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The Article 7(2) and Article 33 of REACH require article producers like QCT to provide sufficient information to their customers should an article contains substance(s) on the Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) Candidate List in a concentration above 0.1% by weight to ensure safe use of the article. QCT IC and module products do not contain any of the SVHC candidates.

As a part of the manufacturing process, a humidity indicator card (HIC) is inserted into the moisture barrier bag. QCT uses non-cobalt dichloride containing HICs. However, the products with seal dates prior to July 31, 2009 may be sealed with an HIC that contains cobalt dichloride above the threshold limit.

PFOS

QCT IC and module products are in full compliance with Directive 2006/122/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union on banning non-critical uses of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonates (PFOS).

Hazardous Substances Control

QCT IC products do not contain the “Regulated” substances identified in Table A – JIG Declarable Substance List of the Joint Industry Guide: Material Composition Declaration for Electronic Products JIG 101 Ed 2.0. Also, through QCT's controlled substance elimination program, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, organic tin compounds, PBB, PBDE, PCB, PCN, PFOS/PFOA, PVC, chlorinated paraffins, Mirex, azo compounds, formaldehyde, asbestos, ozone depleting substances, radioactive substances, phthalates (DEHP, DBP & BBP), and TBBPA are not in QCT IC products.

QCT's manufacturing suppliers consistently have reported in the last five years that CFC, HFC, HBFC, PFC have not been used in manufacturing processes.

Enabling Energy Efficiency

QCT’s efforts to design environmentally sustainable products also extends to the groundbreaking Snapdragon™ platform, targeted for mobile wireless computing devices. The Snapdragon chipsets are industry-leading in their power consumption optimizations. Snapdragon chipsets make wireless devices more environmentally friendly by enabling the battery to last longer and increasing the amount of time the device can be in use before needing recharging.

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