Obsolescence does not begin only when a component is no longer available. It begins when the availability of a component no longer matches the lifetime of the product. This is especially visible in vehicles, industrial equipment and medical devices: they remain in use for years, while the semiconductors inside them can leave the market much earlier.
For companies, this is not simply a purchasing issue. It affects technical replaceability, approvals, repairability, series supply and the options that remain when a critical component reaches end-of-life.
One Component Can Determine an Entire Assembly
A microchip is mounted on a circuit board, the board becomes part of a control unit, and the control unit becomes part of an end product. If one critical chip is missing, this chain can be interrupted.
A redesign can be the right long-term answer. It can also create development work, qualification steps and renewed approvals. A last-time-buy or end-of-life production can be another option when original components and assemblies are protected for the required period. The appropriate decision depends on the product, remaining lifetime and technical risk.
Customer Case: Supplying Spare Parts for 15 Years
A Tier-1 supplier needed to secure spare-parts supply for a vehicle control unit with a long aftermarket obligation. The microcontroller used in the unit, however, reached end-of-life well before that obligation expired. The scope covered a high five-figure number of control units across two product variants; redesign was considered as an alternative.
The selected approach combined end-of-life production, storage under nitrogen atmosphere, scheduled repacking, a power-cycling concept, and demand-driven delivery over the full remaining term. Across the entire supply period, no field failures were documented; industry-standard quality audits were passed without findings against the storage chain.
Why the Storage Horizon Looks Different From Industry to Industry
Automotive isn't the only industry with this problem — just the one with the best-known deadline. An industrial equipment manufacturer needed to secure 25-year spare-parts availability for 340 critical electronic components across installed systems; internally, there were neither suitable storage conditions nor a structured long-term storage process, and distribution to multiple production sites and EMS partners wasn't organisationally feasible. Another industrial manufacturer faced a 20-year service commitment for 154 critical components — here, the required inventory level also wasn't balance-sheet feasible at the necessary volume.
Both cases used the same underlying approach: components were ordered through the existing procurement process at standard purchase price, transferred into the customer's ownership before entering long-term storage, and then managed with defined annual review intervals and active condition monitoring for moisture-sensitive and capacitor-based components.
What follows from this: the right storage horizon isn't a blanket figure — it follows from the underlying service or spare-parts obligation. 15 years for automotive aftermarket, 20 to 25 years for industrial equipment with long service life, and correspondingly longer in medical technology depending on approval requirements. Obsolescence management, therefore, doesn't start with "how long do we store this" — it starts with how long the underlying obligation actually runs.
| Industry | Typical Storage Horizons | Key Drivers |
| Automotive (OEM, Tier-1/2) | 10–25 years | Statutory spare parts obligations, EOL risk on critical ECUs |
| Mechanical engineering / Industrial automation | 15–25 years | Long plant operation, support commitments, customisation |
| Railway / Rolling stock | 20–40 years | Approval cycles, operational lifespan, regulatory traceability |
| Medical technology | 10–30 years | MDR compliance, post-market surveillance, re-certification costs |
| Energy technology / Renewables | 15–25 years | Inverters, power electronics, maintenance contracts |
| Defence / Aerospace | 20–40+ years | System lifespans, ECSS standards, safety requirements |
| IoT / Connected systems | 7–15 years | Growing device fleets, CRA compliance, firmware security |
Powering Preserves Function, Not Just Form
A component can look unchanged on the outside and still be functionally compromised — this is particularly true for control units with electrolytic capacitors. Without periodic powering, these capacitors lose function over the years even while remaining physically intact; the risk often only becomes visible on reinstallation, in the form of cold solder joints or failures that can no longer be traced back to storage.
A power-on or powering concept addresses exactly this: control units and modules are controlled and reformed on defined cycles — restoring the capacitors' insulation capacity and voltage resistance, with success confirmed via leakage-current measurement. This is a difference that only becomes visible after years: a component that was only passively stored can look brand-new and still not be functionally ready for use. Value retention, therefore, means more than protecting a component from external influences — it means actively preserving its function.
Why Value Retention Is Also a Sustainability Question
Electronic waste doesn't only arise at a product's end of life — structurally, it begins much earlier. In 2022, the world generated 62 million tonnes of e-waste, with a projection of 82 million tonnes by 2030 — an increase of roughly a third within eight years. Only 22.3 percent of it is currently formally collected and recycled in an environmentally sound way.¹
The larger share of the climate impact, too, arises before use, not during it: for digital technologies, 77 to 87 percent of emissions occur upstream — in manufacturing and the supply chain — before a product is even put into service.² How large that footprint is per component depends heavily on complexity. Based on publicly available manufacturer data, the product carbon footprint of individual semiconductors ranges from roughly 20.8 grams of CO₂e for a GaN power transistor, through 87.5 grams for a SiC power module, up to around 413 grams for a complex automotive microcontroller.³
These figures illustrate the scale of the issue — they are not a calculated saving attributed to btv. A unified, industry-wide standard for calculating the product carbon footprint of semiconductors is still under development and, according to Fraunhofer IZM and the SEMI Semiconductor Climate Consortium, isn't expected before 2027.⁴ Until then, individual manufacturers publish their figures using their own methodology — a reliable extrapolation of how many emissions long-term storage actually avoids isn't currently possible on solid ground, and we deliberately don't provide one here.
What can be said independent of the missing standard: the longer an existing component stays in use, the less often that largest share of its footprint — the part that arises in manufacturing and the supply chain — has to occur again in the first place. That's a direction, not a quantified saving.
Value Retention Can Only Be Claimed if It Can Be Proven
A statement like "this component is still as usable as it was on day one" isn't worth much without evidence — for your own quality process just as much as for an auditor or a customer who needs to rely on it. That's exactly why a resilient storage strategy needs more than physical protection: identity, quantity, storage movements, protection cycles, checks and deliveries must remain traceable, so the claim becomes proof.
Who provides that proof matters. Some storage providers require a mandatory analysis before acceptance, conducted in-house — at a separate cost per component type, repeated annually. Testing and storage sit permanently with the same party.
btv technologies had its long-term storage process independently validated once by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) — a publicly accountable research institution with no commercial interest in the outcome. Beyond this one-time process validation, btv also works with independent test houses that, on request, issue component-specific storage recommendations — not btv itself for a fee, but an external third party with no stake in the storage business. Independence isn't a minor detail here — it's the difference between a claim and a proof.
btv technologies does not take over the manufacturer's product responsibility. For the storage and process steps it performs, however, btv can provide the documented basis on which customers build their own quality, audit and documentation processes.
Value Retention Doesn't End at Storage Conditions — It Ends at Insurance
Retaining a component's value over years also means insuring that value in the event of a loss — not just controlling storage conditions. Many warehouses, particularly general freight-forwarder warehouses, are liable under the German General Freight Forwarder Terms (ADSp): liability based on the weight of the goods, capped at a few euros per kilogram, with a maximum total claim of EUR 35,000 per incident. That may be enough for a box of standard screws. For a box of microcontrollers or power semiconductors worth several hundred thousand euros, it means: in a fire or water-damage event, the actual loss is effectively uninsured.
At btv technologies, stored components are insured based on the component's actual value — not its weight — and this applies from standard storage onward. Coverage scales with the true value of the stored inventory and covers the full loss amount. For a value-retention concept, that's not a side note: a protection concept that prevents physical aging but doesn't cover the economic value in the event of a loss has a gap that only becomes visible when it's too late.
Sources
- ITU/UNITAR, Global E-Waste Monitor 2024: 62 Mt of e-waste (2022), projected 82 Mt (2030), 22.3% formally recycled
- RIfS Potsdam, "Study Reveals Hidden Climate Impact of Digital Industries": 77–87% of digital technologies' emissions occur upstream
- Infineon Technologies, public product carbon footprint data (ESG roadshow presentations 2026; CoolGaN 20.8 g CO₂e, CoolSiC G1 87.5 g CO₂e, Aurix microcontroller 413 g CO₂e)
- Fraunhofer IZM / SEMI Semiconductor Climate Consortium: industry-wide PCF standard for semiconductors not expected before 2027
Frequently Asked Questions About Value Retention in Obsolescence Management
Value retention means a component isn't just physically protected but kept functionally usable throughout the entire storage period — including moisture and ESD protection, regular powering for control units, and traceable documentation of every process step. Only this combination turns plain storage into provable value retention.
The right horizon follows from the underlying service or spare-parts obligation, not a blanket rule. Automotive aftermarket obligations typically run around 15 years, industrial equipment with long service life 20 to 25 years, and medical technology applications correspondingly longer depending on approval requirements.
Electrolytic capacitors in control units lose function over the years without periodic powering, even while the component looks unchanged on the outside. A power-on concept reforms the capacitors on fixed cycles and confirms success via leakage-current measurement — without it, a failure risk remains that only becomes visible on reinstallation.
When testing and storage sit with the same party, a provider is, in effect, checking its own result. btv had its storage process independently validated once by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) and additionally works with independent test houses for component-specific storage recommendations — neither has a commercial stake in the outcome.
At btv technologies, coverage is based on the component's actual value, not its weight — from standard storage onward. This differs from many general freight-forwarder warehouses, which are liable on a weight basis under the ADSp and often don't cover the real value of high-value electronic components in a loss event.
The underlying logic — last-time-buy or end-of-life production plus protected long-term storage, instead of a premature redesign — applies across industries. The specific setup, such as storage duration, review intervals and powering cycles, depends on the individual service or spare-parts obligation.
