what is sustainability? - file · web viewprogrammable logic devices) can be reprogrammed...

Sustainability Solutions

Name: Chris Gallagher

ID No. 12076481

Course: B.Eng in Electronic & Computer Engineering

Module: ET4407

Due Date: 4th October 2013

Bachelor of Engineering – Electronic & Computer Engineering

Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction..........................................................................................................3

What is Sustainability?...........................................................................................................3Chapter 2: Product/Re-manufacture.....................................................................................4Chapter 3: Systems..................................................................................................................6Chapter 5: Conclusions:..........................................................................................................7

List of Figures

Figure 1 Sustainability Model....................................................................................................3

Chris Gallagher Page


Chapter 1: Introduction

The purpose of this report is to identify the possible sustainability solutions that are available to the ICT sector over the coming 10 years. There are many problems facing the ICT/Electronics sector as described in a previous report entitled “Sustainability Issues” such as, the finite amount of resources, the ever increasing amount of E-waste generated from the disposal of electronic products and the Energy cost/ Climate change impact that the production of electronics is having on the environment. Over the course of this paper a few of the possible solution that have been put forward will be discussed in order to make the electronics industry more sustainable in the future. Under each of the following four heading, the possible solutions over the entire life cycle of the product shall be discussed Product/Re-Manufacture, Systems, the Cloud and Global Issues.

What is Sustainability?Firstly it is important to be able to define what is sustainability? Sustainability is the ability to endure or be maintained indefinitely. The concept of sustainability focuses on a balance between environmental, economic and social equity demands, also denoted as the “three pillars”, (or 3 E’s) of sustainability. Sustainable development refers to a mode of human development in which the resources are used to meet the human demands while ensuring the sustainability of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also in future generations to come [1].The engineering of emerging technologies such as carbon neutral fuels, compressed air energy storage, and airborne turbines are crucial to sustainable development.

Figure 1 Sustainability Model



Chapter 2: Product/Re-manufacture

There are many sustainability issues related directly to the product in the electronics sector. Such issues as how the product is manufactured how will the product be used and what happens to the product once it is no longer of any use. In order to provide more environmentally sustainable ways of producing electronic products the idea of Eco-Design can be employed. The concept is simple the product is designed with the idea of reuse over many different products in mind, and it should be designed in an environmentally friendly way. The way in which a product is designed can have a huge impact into the difficulty in remanufacturing a product, as well as the effectiveness of remanufacturing said product. By designing in this way it is ensured that much less raw materials will be required to make what would otherwise be a new product. There are several ways in which Eco-Design can be implemented, for example function modular blocks such as PLD’s (Programmable Logic Devices) can be reprogrammed and reused again and again, after the end of the products lifecycle to perform another task in a different device. Unfortunately many current electronic devices in first world countries are disposed of long before the device loses its functionality “Consumer electronics devices typically only have a lifespan of as low as 12 to 18 months, even though they would be capable of correctly functioning for a sustainably longer period of time.” [2] This is often because the device does not have the newest features or technology. If some of the components of the product could recon-figured for re-use in the next generation of product, then the disposal of these components would no longer be an issue and furthermore the cost and environmental burdens associated with producing a new product would be greatly reduced. It is important to note that the amount of waste generated during the manufacture of the PCB’s (Printed Circuit Board’s) and IC’s (Integrated Circuits) significantly exceeds the amount of material in the final product. To facilitate remanufacture a closed loop system must be established. There are two main example of a closed loop remanufacture loop, the first is based on Xerox photocopiers in Australia and the second is Remanufacturing in India. The study on the Xerox photocopiers shows that remanufacturing can reduce the resource consumption and waste generation over the lifecycle of the product by a factor of 3, with even greater results being achieved when the product is economically designed with disassembly and remanufacturing in mind. “As seen from this very study, remanufacturing of the DC 265 photocopier was far the most effective of the photocopiers included in this study and that is because it is a modular product, and is designed to be disassembled in a matter of minutes.” [3]It is shown that the DC 265 photocopier has 7 functional modules which contain the majority of the moving parts, each of which can be easily removed and replaced in minutes, making disassembly and remanufacture much quicker and easier.The second example of the efficiency of remanufacturing is based on the second hand mobile phone market in India. As an underdeveloped country India does not have an environmentally friendly way of disposing of its electronic waste, because of this a remanufacturing model suits India as a way of keeping any waste out of its dumps for as long as possible. When the phones start to become faulty they are sent back to the original company for remanufacture. It is important to note that after a product is sent back for remanufacture it must be repaired to the same standards as if the product was new and then put through the same quality tests. Once this is done the product can be put back on the market, usually at a lower price than the original product. In this way products that are no longer desired by the original user can be resold in almost new condition with the same functionality of a new product to users who could not afford the original product. Furthermore this will increase the lifespan of the product and reduce the amount of resources needed to produce new devices along with the



reducing waste created by disposing of functional but “unfashionable” products. “For example the PLD’s utilized in a cell phone can easily be re-configured and used without performance compromise in an audio system for a further two years and subsequently used in a washing machine for a further seven years. This would increase the lifetime of the PLD to a total of 13 years, well within the expected lifecycle for semiconductor devices.” [2] As mentioned above the remanufacturing model is heavily dependent on Eco-design and ease of disassembly. In the paper reviewed by Dave McNamara on “Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering of a Desktop PC” a case study was carried out in order to extend the lifecycle of a PC. Of course the most obvious method for extending the lifecycle is to promote a longer lifetime with the original user, this is done by using the time frame which is done by using the timber frame which is durable and also easy to refurbish for a new product look. Furthermore SSD (Solid State Drive) are used in the hardware with a longer life time in mind.

Figure 2 Lameco PC model [4]

Although promoting longer lifetime with the original user is a good method of sustainability the Lameco model goes further. The Lameco PC was designed with the ideal of quick and easy disassembly in mind it is possible for a qualified technician to completely disassemble the Lameco in 3 minutes and 39 seconds, using only a Philips screwdriver. Another good example of remanufacturing possibility through easy disassembly is the use of “Shape Memory alloy actuators”, by using smart material actuators it is possible for the products to disassemble automatically when heated to a certain temperature. This greatly reduces the need for robotic or manual disassembly which is expensive and automates the recycling line which lowers recycling costs. Once again Eco-Design plays an important part in automatic disassembly of the products the actuators have to physically be placed within the design to allow for effective use. The actuator can come in many different shapes, such as coiled springs that expand when heated and spherical discs that pop when heated to a certain temperature. Typical between 60° and 90° Celsius is needed to activate the smart shape, but this can be a problem as with some devices such as laptops the product itself if not properly cooled could disassemble prematurely by accident, this could be a major design flaw. The benefits of this type of disassemble are that high value electronics can be easily recycled, and a product can be quickly and easily remanufactured. Furthermore in the event that the product contains hazardous materials such as lead, there would be no need for human interaction.



Chapter 3: Systems

Another method of solving sustainability issues can be solved using a systems approach. The first such solution that comes to mind is probably the simplest to implement, a PSS (Product Service Systems).Using PSS it is possible to decouple the economic success from the material consumption of the product and hence reduce the environmental impact of the product. The model behind PSS is simple, rather than the customer purchasing the product themselves and managing all of the expenses, the customer buys a service that will provide the all the desired features of that product and the supplier will handle all the serving, consumables and disposals. Rolls-Royce provides a “power by the hour” service, in which they do not sell the jet engines to the air lines rather they supply them with the engines and ensure that they are efficiently and regularly serviced.

Figure 3 PSS model for the Cannon Photocopier

“Another example (illustrated in the image above) is Cannon Photo-Copiers. Cannon does not sell the photocopiers to the business, instead they select a photocopier from their range based on a requirements and once it is out of date/no longer fit for purpose, they take back the old one and replace it with a newer version.” [5]Although PSS sounds like the perfect solution it is difficult to be able to setup a price contract as it is a relatively new idea, also the question of how often the product should be serviced comes into question. The PSS model is more sustainable than traditional sales, because the supplier who has a working knowledge of the product, services it regularly, whereas when the customer takes the product not knowing the best practises, may not service the product regularly. Furthermore with PSS when the supplier decides to replace the product with a newer version, they know best how to recycle the older model and may even take out some of the still working parts of the device so as to service other customers with the same products. The final benefit of PSS is that rather than building the product with obsolesces, it is to the suppliers benefit if the product has a long and trouble free lifespan.



Chapter 5: Conclusions:

In conclusion the project has been an overall success this far. Each part of the project to date has been implemented in Cadence and a greater understanding of micro-electronics techniques has been gained.

The object of the project was to develop an Analog to Digital Converter on 0.35µm CMOS technology. Up to this point great progress has been made into that task.

Over the course of the project I have learned many things about ADC development, IC design techniques and research methods that will no doubt prove to be invaluable in the future.

Up to this point a simple 4-bit SAR ADC has been realised, it is planned that over the coming weeks that will be pushed into 8-bits of resolution and even possibly 10-bits. This can only be done when all other issues have first been examined

One issue that is being examined is the switching operation, currently it is being controlled by 3 control signals, but after giving it some thought, it may be possible to implement the same amount of control using only two control signals and some simple digital logic. The inputs would 00, 01, 10, and 11.

Initially there was some issues with using cadence, firstly it was quite difficult to run simulation and secondly there was some problems with importing in the SAR logic algorithm that was created using Verilog, but after much trial and error everything worked out ok.

The final conclusion is that much progress has been made, but there is still a huge amount of work to do. The ADC project is an ambitious final year project, but it has provided me with a great opportunity to learn from and work closely with other electronic engineers in an area that is of great interest to me.

References: Bibliography:

[1] “Forfas,” [Online]. Available: http://www.forfas.ie/media/ffs20120301-Research_Prioritisation_Exercise_Report.pdf. [Accessed 21 10 2013].

[2] “Understanding SAR ADCs,” Maxmim Integrated , [Online]. Available: http://www.maximintegrated.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/1080. [Accessed 10 10 2013].

[3] K. M. David A.Johns, Analog Integrated Circuit Design, 1997. [4] R. Baker, CMOS Circuit Design, Layout and Simulation, 2007. [5] B. Razavi, Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits, 2001. [6] B. Razavi, Principals of Data Conversion Systems. [7] “Writing Engineering Reports,” [Online]. Available:

http://www.eng.wayne.edu/legacy/MSE130/REPORT.html.


what is sustainability? - file · web viewprogrammable logic devices) can be reprogrammed...

Documents