Key Research Areas

We tackle “green electronics” on three levels:

• Materials
• Processes
• Applications

Addressing the environmental sustainability of the materials used in electronics components is increasingly complex. In the past, eliminating individual flame retardants and heavy metals from microelectronic packaging was the main task. Today, environmental sustainability in electronics concerns a far broader range of issues, including so-called conflict minerals (tantalum and niobium ores from regions experiencing war and human rights abuses), rare earths (due to impending supply shortages) and halogenated flame retardants. The demand for greater resource efficiency poses particular challenges during times of scarce and expensive raw materials. But one example is replacing fossile-based raw materials with bio-based polymers in housings and PCBs. The new materials have to meet the stringent demands of in-field electronics, must be more environmentally friendly than fossile-based plastics and, finally, have to cost-efficient in terms of both purchasing and processing.

At the earlier stage of technology development, the use of basic materials, processing chemicals (such as the global warming potential of etching gases in wafer processing), water and power (manufacturing equipment and cleanroom) have to be optimized.

At product level, researchers focus on techniques for controlling power consumption via networked equipment.  

The department “Green IT Technologies” takes the following key areas as its focus:

• Optimizing the environmental friendliness of packaging processes
• Assessing and comparing the resource efficiency of technologies and materials
• Estimating the environmental impact of series manufacturing (lab-to-fab)