Annex IA - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: Categories of electrical and electronic equipment covered by the directive: large household appliances, small household appliances, IT and telecommunications equipment, consumer equipment, electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools), toys, leisure and sports equipment, medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products), monitoring and control instruments, automatic dispensers

Homogenous Material - is defined as material that cannot be "mechanically disjointed" into different materials. Mechanically disjointed means that the materials cannot in principal be separated into other materials by mechanical methods such as unscrewing, cutting, crushing, grinding or abrasive processes. A clean separation is not a requirement and this definition is intended only to indicate that materials such as plastics, metals, coatings, etc, should not contain the restricted substances. Therefore, a semiconductor component is not homogenous, as it is made up of many other homogenous materials such as the case (plastic moulding), the leadsframe alloy, the leadframe coatings, etc., each of which must separately comply with the RoHS restrictions.

prevention - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: measures aimed at reducing the quantity and the harmfulness to the environment of WEEE and materials and substances contained therein

producer - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: This is defined by the WEEE directive as any person who, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance communication in accordance with Directive 97/7/EC on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts: 1) manufactures and sells electrical and electronic equipment under his own brand, 2) resells under his own brand equipment produced by other suppliers, a reseller not being regarded as the 'producer' if the brand of the producer appears on the equipment, 3) imports or exports electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into a EU Member State. This means, for example, if the equipment is manufacturerd and sold in one Member State using the manufacturers own brand, then the manufacturer is the producer. If however, the manufacturer sells it to another company who sells it under their brand name, then they would be the producer. For equipment imported into a Member State by a distributor, retailer or trading company, these would be defined as the producer. However, if the end user imports equipment from a different Member State, as users cannot be producers, then the exporter would be the producer. It is important to know who is the producer because they will have legal and financial obligations.

recovery and recycling - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: recovery is the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials from electrical equipment to produce materials that can be used either for the original purpose or for other purposes. Recycling is the same as recovery but excludes energy recovery from the combustion of plastics and other combustible materials, this means the use of combustible waste as a means of generating energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat as energy.

reuse - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: any operation by which WEEE or components thereof are used for the same purpose for which they were conceived, including the continued use of the equipment or components thereof which are returned to collection points, distributors, recyclers or manufacturers

RoHS - Restriction of Hazardous Substances - EU Directive 2002/95/EC: restriction on the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical or electronic equipment sold or used in the European Union after July 1, 2006. These substances are lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment - EU Directive 2002/96/EC - WEEE: electrical or electronic equipment which is waste within the meaning of Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442/EEC, including all components, subassemblies and consumables which are part of the product at the time of discarding. The Directive regulates the separate collection, specified treatment, recovery and recycling targets, and funding for handling waste electrical and electronic equipment in the European Union effective August 13, 2005.