Environmental impact and design parameters in electronics manufacturing - A sensitivity analysis approach

Environmental factors have become an increasingly important issue in the design of electronic products. Factors such as recyclability and product end-of-life, latent human hazards and physical hazards have migrated from secondary constraints to become integral design objectives. However the extent to which design levers can be used to meet these objectives is often unknown, since there can be many interactions taking place during the design process. One method for determining environmental sensitivity is through a multi-layered influence diagram, which maps the influence of primary design parameters to product characteristic variables, waste variables and hazard variables. The influence diagram framework is coupled with process relationships between layers and variable space constraints to form a sensitivity analysis. This approach has been shown to be effective in conveying hazard relationships to key assembly design parameters. A case example of design sensitivity to waste variables for printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) is presented.