Task 4.1: Low environmental impact materials

Objective:

Sustainable PCB manufacturing by printing conductive inks on substrates, which are developed using materials with low environmental impact and offer possibility for easier and faster recycling, and reuse.Reduction of environmental footprint of next generation electronics developed using sustainable and recyclable substrates and inks. Improved lifecycle assessment (LCA) results compared to current counterparts by 10%.Choice of materials and development of recycling methods to facilitate easier and faster , recycling and refurbishing will lead to e-waste reduction of 30% by 2030 if current electronics are replaced by the newly developed substrates.

Description:

Task-4.1 focuses on development of low environmental impact materials for next generation of electronics to reduce their environmental footprint, enable cradle to cradle solutions for electronic components and facilitate easy recycling, and refurbishing compared to current technological solutions available in the market. This task is further divided into subtasks, where each aspect of development, manufacturing, testing and recycling will be further elaborated. Activities have been divided among the partners based on use case applications and specifications for the materials to be developed. Use of organic and sustainable materials to develop substrates and conductive inks will enable reduced environmental footprint of printed electronics. Existing technologies will be used as benchmark for testing performance of newly developed substrates and inks. Partners will conduct test to check substrate-ink compatibility along with electrical characterization, mechanical testing, reliability and failure analysis.
Each subtask will have partners working on use cases to achieve the desired performance, functionality, and environmental impact.
Research for new potentially applicable materials with low environmental impact for PCBs and substrates will be initiated with regard to actual situation within the supply chain. A technological assessment of the materials is done where criteria such as renewable resource basis, low environmental impact processing or easy recyclability are applied, next to the given requirement situation presented by respective use cases.Requirements for PCB development using low environmental impact materials (for instance, recyclable carbon or copper-based inks and use of PLA, PVA, Cellulose, paper, PET etc. as substrates) is provided for different use cases in subtask-4.1.1.
For task-4.1, developmental activities will be carried out for UC-1,2,3,4,6 and 10.
Subtask-4.1.2 aims at developmental activities for manufacturing substrates and conductive inks with low environmental impact as per inputs given by partners in subtask-4.1.1.
Subtask-4.1.3 will deal with printing processes and techniques applied for printing electronics.
Subtask-4.1.4 explains the testing procedures employed to test the compatibility, performance, functionality, and other aspects of PCBs developed with new materials. This task will also include integration of developed materials into technology demonstrators.
Subtask-4.1.5 will be focused on development of recycling activities for chosen substrates and inks. Technology demonstrators will be developed to demonstrate performance, functionality and recycling effectiveness of newly developed low environmental impact substrates and inks for all use cases involved in this task as part of deliverable D4.2.
Recycling technologies developed in WP-2 (Task 2.2) will be demonstrated for use case applications. The LCA and eco design Tools generated in WP3 will be used to rate and compare the environmental impact of different designs and materials. Suggested modifications will be made to improve sustainability of newly designed substrates/inks. The calculation and comparison of ecological footprint of newly developed materials with state of art technology will be delivered as D4.1. All the innovation that happens in WP-4 will be disseminated through WP-5. For adoption of new technology, WP-5 plays critical role in advancing the generated knowledge not only in educational institutes but also in industrial domain.

Task Leader : ORBX
Involved Partners : 4MOD, ACO, AT&S, BOSCH, CEA, CSEM, DTI, FHG-IZM, IFAG,LGE, MELSENTECH, SAL, SYNANO,THS, TST, UniPg, VITESCO
Involved Partners >>