Project description
Eco-friendlier printed electronics
The increased need for electronics, electronic solutions and digitalisation throughout everyday life, in both industries and organisations, has led to high pollution rates and a massive demand for resources. Thus, it results in even greater stress on our already struggling environment. Furthermore, electronics are difficult to recycle, which makes their ecological impact greater. The EU-funded ECOTRON project offers an answer to these issues. It will develop adaptable organic and eco-friendly printed electronics solutions that allow for improved and expanded recycling while impacting the environment less during production. The project will present use cases in packaging, healthcare, consumer goods and wearables to demonstrate the novel electronics' increased durability and lifetime, and decreased environmental impact.
Objective
A growing desire for continuous data collection, real time information and connectivity has resulted in increased demand for electronic functionalities that are fully integrated in everyday objects. Consumer electronics, healthcare, wearable electronics, IoT and smart packaging are examples of market segments that follow this trend. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are the state of the art to create electronic functions; however, this technology creates an ever increasing strain on the environment because recycling and/or dismantling of the PCB can hardly be done. A radical sustainability improvement requires disruptive electronics manufacturing processes, technologies and materials. Printed electronics are more environmentally friendly than the traditional PCB, due to their additive character (printing instead of etching), the absence of chemical etching materials, low energy demanding process conditions and possibility for recovery or re-use of substrates and (metallic) inks. Thereto, in ECOTRON, flexible, organic & printed electronics are advanced through a multidisciplinary approach involving biobased materials, innovative (print) processes, and device and module dismantling technologies. Furthermore, recycling technologies and standards will be developed that are eventually integrated in a process design for a printed electronics recycling plant. Simultaneously, the lifetime of printed electronics is improved for larger implementation of printed electronics into everyday products. ECOTRON will create use-case demonstrators in existing state-of-the-art electronics products in consumer electronics, smart packaging, healthcare and wearable electronics market segments to demonstrate the potential environmental enhancements.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
2595 DA Den Haag
Netherlands