Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1166358
SEPTEMBER 2019 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 57 the journey; each standard will still offer spe- cific features depending on the various sectors' needs (Figure 5). A second option could be to consider the IEC 62474 international standard as the common body and have sectorial standards adding on top of it their specific capabilities to cover sec- tors' needs. A third option would be to stay "as is" with the achieved convergence IPC-1752A Amend- ment 3 and the IEC 62474 edition 2 to give some time for solution providers to adapt their tools and clearly understand and share why a full convergence is not feasible. This first main objective is a necessary con- dition to provide good standards to businesses, but this is not enough to achieve effectiveness for the reporting process. In parallel, a second main objective would have to be established on the performance of the reporting data, pro- cess and system—for instance, with a progres- sive approach with three staged objectives de- fined as follows: 1. Data Accuracy [7] : The reporting process could not perform well without good data quality, in particular, the data accuracy for DSL definition and the substances and materials in product declarations against such lists. 2. Effective Reporting [8] : How could we achieve good reporting with quality and on time? 3. Efficient Reporting System [9] : To report with quality, on time, and on cost with the minimum burden, reporting should be considered with a systemic approach, and all stakeholders would be responsible, including the governments themselves and any substances list authority. Data Exchange Formats and Substances Lists Harmonization for Better Accuracy The first stage to ensure data accuracy is to harmonize the way all standards manipulate the data. The IPC-1754 standard, issued in May 2018, implements a new rule that any data used to establish a declaration or a list is clearly iden- tified by a unique identifier under a given au- thority ("UniqueID" type in the schema). Data groups like the query lists and the substance lists are also identified like this, plus a revision and a date ("UniqueIDextended" type in the schema). Other standards should follow and implement that rule; IPC-1752A with amend- ment 3 (amd3) and IEC 62474 with coming edition 2 have started to implement it with all their list elements identified by a unique "iden- tity" (Table 3). Some issues still exist: • These IDs are optional in IPC-1752A amendment 3; they would become mandatory in the next revision B • IEC 62474 DSL could contain a specific substance with a unique ID "7, Boric Acid," with two CAS values in the "CAS number" attribute (unique string: "10043-35-3, 11113-50-1") • The IPC-1752A amendment 3 identifies the substance categories in their lists for Class C declarations (or "Regulatory Com- pliance Declaration"—RCD) with a 5-digit code; this is well-done for substance cat- egories like in RoHS lists with heavy met- als and flame retardants, but is limited for individual substances for RoHS phthalates or REACH Candidate Lists Figure 5: Common body for data exchange formats.