Advances in electronic product design have brought us amazing benefits, but rapid advances in technology mean that electronic products are becoming obsolete more quickly. Electronic waste (obsolete electronic and electrical equipment) is a growing problem. In 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the USA generated 2.63 million tons of e-waste but that only 12.5% of that was collected for recycling.

One of the reasons why recycling rates are poor is that many electronic products are not designed with the end-of-life stage of the product in mind. In other words, designers focus on the manufacturing and use of the product, but they generally ignore how the products could be recycled when they are obsolete and discarded. This was confirmed by a recent survey conducted by World Gold Council and SEMI in which 50% of chip design companies were unaware that gold reclaimed from waste electronics was a very substantial proportion of the value derived from electronic waste material. So, despite the fact that the recycling of gold from waste electronic materials is a critical component of the economic driver for recycling*, this is probably never a consideration in bonding wire selection.

Groups like the Electronics TakeBack Coalition are campaigning for improvements in electronic product design to aid end-of-life recycling. In making a choice of which bonding wire material to use, designers and engineers should be aware that using gold bonding wire is a positive contribution to the recycling of end-of-life electronics.

* gold represents 65% of the value of typical PC-circuit board waste and 67% of the value of end-of-life mobile phones (‘Improving metal returns and eco-efficiency in electronics recycling’ Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment)