Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SUSTRONICS (Sustainable and green electronics for circular economy)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-06-01 al 2024-05-31
The EU requires also electronics industry to achieve the ambitious goals of the EU Green Deal, Circular Economy Action Plan and Industrial Strategy for reduction of energy and material consumption, and utilization of circular value chains. Sustronics project is targeting to improve capabilities of European electronics industry to meet these goals and develop new business opportunities from sustainable and greener electronics combined with increase in productivity and new functionalities.
The current electronic industry poses significant environmental impacts, such as increasing amount of e-waste, great demand for critical raw materials, and high energy consumption during manufacturing. Electronics industry can specifically decrease its environmental burden by shifting from fossil-based materials to bio-based materials, decreasing use of metals, utilizing additive manufacturing processes, and developing miniaturized and integrated components, but also in broader scope by utilizing efficient circular economy business models that enable reuse, recycle and repair of critical materials and components.
Sustronics main goal is to support renewal of European electronics industry towards circular economy, eco-design, bio-based materials, and material- and energy-efficient manufacturing processes. Thereby, Sustronics will re-design electronics products into circular, compostable and reusable products, and demonstrate that there are business opportunities in sustainable electronics.
Quantification of environmental impact, definition of business models, involvement of external stakeholders, and means to guarantee compatibility with policies and standards will guide the project implementation. The pilots will focus on healthcare, diagnostics, and industrial sectors, including topics such as medical and personal health devices, single-use and wearable diagnostics, sustainable lighting solutions and embedded electronics for automotive.
The current electronic industry poses significant environmental impacts, such as increasing amount of e-waste, great demand for critical raw materials, and high energy consumption during manufacturing. Electronics industry can specifically decrease its environmental burden by shifting from fossil-based materials to bio-based materials, decreasing use of metals, utilizing additive manufacturing processes, and developing miniaturized and integrated components, but also in broader scope by utilizing efficient circular economy business models that enable reuse, recycle and repair of critical materials and components.
Sustronics main goal is to support renewal of European electronics industry towards circular economy, eco-design, bio-based materials, and material- and energy-efficient manufacturing processes. Thereby, Sustronics will re-design electronics products into circular, compostable and reusable products, and demonstrate that there are business opportunities in sustainable electronics.
Quantification of environmental impact, definition of business models, involvement of external stakeholders, and means to guarantee compatibility with policies and standards will guide the project implementation. The pilots will focus on healthcare, diagnostics, and industrial sectors, including topics such as medical and personal health devices, single-use and wearable diagnostics, sustainable lighting solutions and embedded electronics for automotive.
Along with the leading partners of WP2 and WP4, WP1 leaders have proposed and drafted a document to aid in the listing of Requirements and Specifications for Materials & Processes (WP1) and Devices & Components (WP2) for every Pilot. After several meetings with pilots leader, the information gathered was added into the Deliverables D1.1 and D1.2. Given the broad range of TRLs among all the pilots and the developments scoping through 3 generations, it was predicted that updates to specifications lists would eventually be required as new developments arise. During each Gen development, technological developments will provide more insight into the pertinence and quantifiability of the specifications. However, the most appropriate milestones for this analysis are at each Gen iteration.
After establishing specifications efforts on Materials and Processes was initiated. To better track the progress on their development, use and testing, a document was devised. The Materials and Processes Status Tracking document had the following structure:
•Listing of all materials and processes under development;
•Indication of Owner of each material or process under development;
•Indication of to which task and Pilot said material and process applies to;
•Indication of what properties of the material and process will be measured and what testing/measurement methods will be used
•Indication of Testing Owner(s)/Responsible;
•Indication of when will the materials and process will be ready for testing;
•Indication of additional and relevant information on each material and process and their testing (if appliable);
This document compiles all the information realting to T1.4 - Testing and validation of materials and processes, which in turn feeds deliverable D1.3 - Validation and testing plan.
General access was granted to this document in order to allow every partner to be made aware of what technical developments are under way in an attempt to avoid duplicate work, promote synergies and indicate who to consult for further details on a certain technology development or its respective testing strategy. An initial meeting with all partners on WP 1 was held to formalize the availability of this document and the strategy it implied, more specifically, the fairly decentralized and independent developments and communications among partners, always in accordance with the Specifications and decisions made in the pilot meetings under WP 3 leadership.
Since all developments are based on the established specifications, which in turn are aligned with the projects objectives, it must be ensured that they are fulfilled. To that end, Requirement (Specification) Traceability Matrices (RTMs) for each pilot were composed. This document was proposed and then approved by general use by all the members Project Management Team. It aggregates all the Pilots Specifications, and has status indicators for the testing, if appliable, and fulfilment of each specification. Testing strategy and validation conditions are also present as well as indication of who the testing owner is. With this information and with every partner having access to this document, it allows:
•All partners to know the status of each Specification and which partner to consult regarding either the fulfilment of the Specification itself or the testing required to meet its validation condition;
•WP1 to keep track of Materials and Processes specifications fulfilment, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP2 to keep track of Components and Devices specifications fulfilment, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP3 to keep track of general progress on each pilot under its leadership, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP4 to keep track of the status of the specifications related with sustainability, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them and ensure the fulfilment of the projects main goals;
•WP5 to keep track of most significant developments and who to contact to disseminate them more efficiently;
•WP6 to have an overview of the project’s status;
•To give insight into the need for updating, replacing, adding or removing specifications for later Pilot Generations;
With these supporting documents, the main technical developments are the following:
• T1.2 - Material development
o Substrates
♦30 substrates were selected, developed or are currently under development;
♦Some are commercially available and of those, some were solutions already developed by some of the partners;
♦Some are commercially available and used in tailored processes;
♦Some are fully developed from scratch;
♦Some will be considered in the future in case if already selected solutions are lacking in certain properties/performance;
♦Most have potential use in more than one Pilot.
o Adhesives
♦3 Adhesives were developed or are currently under development;
♦Two are commercially available and used in tailored processes;
♦One is fully developed from scratch;
o Inks
♦5 Ins were developed from scratch;
o Other materials
♦Materials/samples used as support for validating processes or pilot prototypes’ functionality;
• T1.3 - Manufacturing Process Development
o 13 processes were selected;
o 6 were developed or are currently under development;
o 7 were/are being characterized/tailored in accordance with materials used and/or pilots applied to.
After establishing specifications efforts on Materials and Processes was initiated. To better track the progress on their development, use and testing, a document was devised. The Materials and Processes Status Tracking document had the following structure:
•Listing of all materials and processes under development;
•Indication of Owner of each material or process under development;
•Indication of to which task and Pilot said material and process applies to;
•Indication of what properties of the material and process will be measured and what testing/measurement methods will be used
•Indication of Testing Owner(s)/Responsible;
•Indication of when will the materials and process will be ready for testing;
•Indication of additional and relevant information on each material and process and their testing (if appliable);
This document compiles all the information realting to T1.4 - Testing and validation of materials and processes, which in turn feeds deliverable D1.3 - Validation and testing plan.
General access was granted to this document in order to allow every partner to be made aware of what technical developments are under way in an attempt to avoid duplicate work, promote synergies and indicate who to consult for further details on a certain technology development or its respective testing strategy. An initial meeting with all partners on WP 1 was held to formalize the availability of this document and the strategy it implied, more specifically, the fairly decentralized and independent developments and communications among partners, always in accordance with the Specifications and decisions made in the pilot meetings under WP 3 leadership.
Since all developments are based on the established specifications, which in turn are aligned with the projects objectives, it must be ensured that they are fulfilled. To that end, Requirement (Specification) Traceability Matrices (RTMs) for each pilot were composed. This document was proposed and then approved by general use by all the members Project Management Team. It aggregates all the Pilots Specifications, and has status indicators for the testing, if appliable, and fulfilment of each specification. Testing strategy and validation conditions are also present as well as indication of who the testing owner is. With this information and with every partner having access to this document, it allows:
•All partners to know the status of each Specification and which partner to consult regarding either the fulfilment of the Specification itself or the testing required to meet its validation condition;
•WP1 to keep track of Materials and Processes specifications fulfilment, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP2 to keep track of Components and Devices specifications fulfilment, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP3 to keep track of general progress on each pilot under its leadership, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them;
•WP4 to keep track of the status of the specifications related with sustainability, detect any issues and who to contact to best resolve them and ensure the fulfilment of the projects main goals;
•WP5 to keep track of most significant developments and who to contact to disseminate them more efficiently;
•WP6 to have an overview of the project’s status;
•To give insight into the need for updating, replacing, adding or removing specifications for later Pilot Generations;
With these supporting documents, the main technical developments are the following:
• T1.2 - Material development
o Substrates
♦30 substrates were selected, developed or are currently under development;
♦Some are commercially available and of those, some were solutions already developed by some of the partners;
♦Some are commercially available and used in tailored processes;
♦Some are fully developed from scratch;
♦Some will be considered in the future in case if already selected solutions are lacking in certain properties/performance;
♦Most have potential use in more than one Pilot.
o Adhesives
♦3 Adhesives were developed or are currently under development;
♦Two are commercially available and used in tailored processes;
♦One is fully developed from scratch;
o Inks
♦5 Ins were developed from scratch;
o Other materials
♦Materials/samples used as support for validating processes or pilot prototypes’ functionality;
• T1.3 - Manufacturing Process Development
o 13 processes were selected;
o 6 were developed or are currently under development;
o 7 were/are being characterized/tailored in accordance with materials used and/or pilots applied to.