Embedded Enhanced RFID (RFIX) for Printed Circuit Board Manufacture and Added Value Life-cycle Tracking (INBOARD)

INBOARD is a new and exciting technology for tracking electronics from PCB manufacturing to end of life. This collaborative research and development project involving several key UK electronics companies, a recycler and Loughborough University has demonstrated a new technology that enables information about an electronic product to be stored and accessed all the way from the initial printed circuit board manufacturing stage to end of life and recycling. The Technology Strategy Board supported INBOARD project has developed a novel product and process monitoring system with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) embedded into the Printed Circuit Board. This technology enables relevant information to travel with the product across the whole electronics manufacturing supply chain including printed circuit board manufacturing, assembly, and original equipment manufacturing (OEM), use and end of life /recycling. The RFID tags can be used to monitor and optimise manufacturing processes, track components, locally store life-cycle information and support dismantling and recycling. By using these embedded components, it will be possible to reduce the lifecycle costs of manufactured products radically by increasing observability.