Environmental compliance complicates electronics manufacturing configuration management

By Lee Whiteman

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.

Figure 1: Example of a tin whisker

Photograph courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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.