An approach to achieve reusability of electronic modules

Electronic devices are very complicated industrial products with a negative environmental impact. Until now, little profit can be expected from the recycling process. Faced with this situation, it will be of great benefit to enable the re-use of modules recovered from discarded devices. Besides obstacles like innovation pressure, a main difficulty in the realization of re-use lies in the lack of life history data of used modules. In this paper, an approach is presented to tackle this problem. First it is shown that re-use requires a modular product structure. A data storage unit called “identification unit” is then introduced for each module of interest in a product. Important life history data are collected and recorded in the identification unit together with information on the product and applied materials. All data are accessible through a so-called “green port” interface. The data stored in the identification units are structured according to their purposes and manufacturer´s intention. In line with demands in the market, the data stored in identification units can be used to find out which modules still have a relatively high residual value. Through the introduction of indentification units in electronic products, necessary life history information is made available which is a prerequisite for the realization of re-use as a form of high level recycling