Environmental compliance complicates electronics manufacturing configuration management

Configuration management is a complex technical management model defined as a management system, which identifies and documents the functional and physical characteristics of an item or a system, and controls changes to such characteristics.

The configuration management function records and reports any changes to the end product and its implementation. Periodically an audit will be performed to verify conformance to requirements.

The European Union’s Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS) directives present new challenges to electronics manufacturers and the way they perform configuration management. Previously, for a specific electronics assembly, the prime consideration was tracking which electronics components went onto which printed circuit board(s). Now, electronics manufacturers are required to know what particular material characteristics component manufacturers are using.

Electronics manufacturers are also required to provide materials declarations indicating compliance with the requirements plus, to provide detailed materials content information. This is to ensure that electronics hardware does not contain banned / restricted materials. Armed with new environmental awareness, technology product customers and consumers now want to know about the presence of other materials for recyclability – in accordance with the WEEE directive, meeting sustainability targets / goals and, for environmental “green” marketing.

For aerospace electronics manufacturers, components material characteristic tracking becomes a major concern.

In June 1994, then U.S. Secretary of Defense William J. Perry issued a memorandum requiring aerospace manufacturers to use commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware where reliability and safety would not be negatively affected. However, electronics component manufacturers are not required to provide material characteristic data to their customers. This becomes critical because electronics components finished with tin (Sn) can cause tin whiskers. (Figure 1)

It is well documented tin whiskers have produced failures in commercial; medical, nuclear, and aerospace electronics. Therefore, high reliability customers require material declaration that tin finished components and assemblies are identified and, in many cases, prohibited.

In the United States, while there has been no federal legislation requiring electronics manufacturers to identify component materials, several states – i.e. California, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont – have passed legislation to minimize hazardous materials within electronics from entering landfills In late 2005, New York City passed legislation requiring electronics purchased in New York City to comply with RoHS-type restrictions.

Failure to comply with the environmental directives can lead to member states prohibiting electronics hardware from entering their country. In December 2001, the Netherlands government seized 1.3 million Sony Playstations with an estimated value of US$162 million. Cadmium was found in the product’s electronics cables that exceeded the 0.01% limit established by the Netherlands.

This confiscation highlights the importance of good configuration management systems able to identify and track materials used in electronics against environmental compliance standards and legislation.

Properly designed databases can identify and track component materials and their characteristics. Such material characteristics include:

• Component finishes
• Electrostatic discharge (ESD); based on ANSI / ESD STM 5.1-2007
• Moisture sensitivity; based on IPC / JEDEC J-STD-020D

To help accomplish the task of designing databases properly, careful planning in the database’s development phase is required.

In the diagram in Figure 2, the database integrates the product component list, the assembly parts list, material characteristics data, and component supplier data together.

The database user then provides a series of requirements that defines the requested information from the configuration management database. The output is the requested report.

The United States Navy demonstrated the above concept when developing their ManTech Lead – Free Manufacturing Guidelines. In the Navy’s example, a small battery re-charger (Figure 3) had all component material characteristics documented.

Of related interest for this article would be the product component finishes, and solders, used in the product’s assembly. The report (Table 1) that follows would be a first step toward meeting material declaration requirements documented in WEEE and RoHS directives.

To help readers further, the IPC has generated a series of standards to perform configuration management and material declaration, in compliance to the European Union’s requirements. Additionally, the Government Engineering and Information Technology Association (GEIA) developed a set of guidelines regarding the use of Lead Free hardware.

Word of caution
Information integrity is critical to the successful identification and tracking of components’ material characteristics throughout the supply chain. Component manufacturers are not obligated to notify their customers of changes to their components. If specific component finishes are prohibited from specific electronics applications, it is recommended that testing be employed to assure database information matches component finishes applied.

The WEEE and RoHS directives add a new dimension to the configuration management function. Using relational databases to track material characteristics, such as component finishes, can provide evidence indicating compliance to environmental legislation. Commercial manufacturers shipping technology product to EU member states must document the materials used in their hardware. High reliability electronics manufacturers, such as aerospace and medical electronics are currently exempt but these manufacturers will be required to comply with the WEEE and RoHS directives as early as 2010.

Therefore, in commercial and high-reliability electronics, properly designed configuration management databases that can identify; track, and document materials used in end-use-products is crucial to avoiding legal penalties from environmental legislation.

REFERENCES
Specifications & Standards – A New Way of Doing Business by William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense; Department of Defense; June 29, 1994

Tracking Specific Part and Assembly Characteristics Using Relational Databases by L. Whiteman; 2005 International Society of Logistics Conference and Exhibition; Orlando, Florida; August, 2005

Logistics Design Challenges of Lead Free Conversion by R. Morris and L. Whiteman; International Society of Logistics Conference and Exhibition; Orlando, Florida; August, 2005

Materials Declaration for Eco-Compliance by F. Abrams, IPC – Stockholm, Sweden; February, 2006

IPC-1752 Materials Declaration Management by the IPC, February; 2006 – Bannockburn, Illinois

ManTech Lead – Free Manufacturing Guidelines by Lead Free Manufacturing for Navy Systems Team; American Competitiveness Institute; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; August, 2006

GEIA-HB-0005-1 Program Management Guidelines; by the Government Engineering and Information Technology Association; Arlington, Virginia

NASA Tin Whisker Website: http://www.nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/index.html

IPC Compliance Website: http://www.leadfree.ipc.org/

Defense Lead Free – Information Website: http://www.leadfreedod.com/index.html