Product life cycle information management in the electronics supply chain

Information availability and data transparency are key requirements from manufacturers when supporting products throughout the life cycle, for example when implementing product service systems. The application of embedded wireless technologies into printed circuit boards (PCBs) can help bridging current knowledge gaps and to minimise both technical and financial risk through reduced product downtime, improved quality of tracking and enhanced end-of-life decision making. The application of embedded RFID into PCBs for life cycle monitoring of electronic products to support Product Service Systems is discussed in this paper

Life cycle monitoring of electronic products

Life cycle monitoring of electronic product

RF power density measurements for RF energy harvesting in automobile factories

This paper presents RF power density measure- ments carried out at an automobile manufacturing plant in the UK. This measurement campaign was carried out in order to quantify the amount of ambient RF power available within the plant. Due to the location of the plant, low power density measurements were recorded in the base-station downlink. The dominant frequencies at the plant were GSM-1800 and 3G. Average input RF power density for horizontal and vertical polarizations showed few variations in amplitude compared to the maximum hold technique for the frequency band surveyed. The measurement campaign showed that at some locations at the plant, the input RF power density for 3G mobile transmit band was more than the base-station downlink

Delay spread emulation in machine workshops with fractals for wireless communication system planning

This paper presents a new way to estimate delay spread in machine workspaces by using fractal geometry. In this way, inventories can be created quickly and used within a ray tracing software to estimate the radio environment of machine workspaces as part of the planning process. Delay spread is an important metric in assessing the performance of wireless technologies. Predicted 5G cyber-physical systems in workplaces will require high-density use of wirelessly connected machineto-machine RF modules. In workshops, the surfaces and edges of machines, shelves, and furniture influence the multipath/power delay profile of the space. However, with the fast construction pace and high occupancy of buildings, it is impractical to characterise the location as building work progresses. Consequently, it becomes more probable that the radio communication system deployed will perform suboptimally. In this work, the Wi-Fi band was investigated. In addition, representative simulations were also carried out at millimetre wave frequencies of 28 GHz and 60 GHz

Distributed monitoring system for material handling

Reliable manufacture depends among other aspects on the supply of correct parts to the different manufacturing processes. In this paper a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system used for material handling in harsh environments is presented. The system enforces business rules to guarantee that only correct parts are supplied to the assembly line also registering unexpected manual overrides of the system (e.g. Operator manually retracting the solenoid at the entrance of the lane at the assembly station). Resulting benefits allowed include an ergonomically smoother loading operation and a reduction in misbuild levels in a flexible manufacturing environment