Designing electronics with conflict free components

1. Statement of the problem.

What are “conflict components”?

What kind of components are extracted in conflict regions?

In which designs are they used?

Some sources of information:

http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/

http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-and-us-policy-reform-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in0A8SFL3XM

2. Do companies care about designing with conflict free components?

Some sources of information:

http://www.enoughproject.org/files/CorporateRankings2012.pdf

Apple:

http://9to5mac.com/2015/02/12/apple-conflict-minerals/

http://images.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple_Progress_Report_2015.pdf

Intel:

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/reports/form-sd-and-conflict-minerals-report.pdf

3. Certification

If I’m a designer… how can I know if I’m using conflict free components?

If I’m a designer and I want to tell to customers that my components come from conflict free areas… how can I certify it?

Some sources of information:

http://www.conflictfreesourcing.org/

http://www.lizmuller.com/services.html

http://gesi.org/files/Reports/Conflict-Free%20Smelter%20(CFS)%20FAQ%2020120330%20FINAL.pdf