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.<>