Work packages

From materials and techniques all through a tangible proof of concept

Zoom on Technical Workpackages

This work package plays a critical role in aligning the future of PCB materials and assembly technologies with environmental goals while maintaining compatibility with industry standards, ensuring rapid adoption and long-term impact in the electronics industry.

WP2 - Materials and assembly technologies - Leader: BME

This work package plays a critical role in aligning the future of PCB materials and assembly technologies with environmental goals while maintaining compatibility with industry standards, ensuring rapid adoption and long-term impact in the electronics industry.

This work package is focused on advancing sustainable materials and assembly technologies for printed circuit boards (PCBs), driven by the need to explore new and environmentally friendly pathways in electronics manufacturing. The ultimate goal is to present and validate a candidate substrate for PCB fabrication that is sustainable and scalable, capable of supporting multi-layer designs (1-2, possibly to 4 layers) compatible with modern component packages. Additionally, this work package emphasizes optimizing assembly and manufacturability using conventional technologies, ensuring that the resulting innovations can be rapidly adopted by the industry.

Key Challenges:

  • Balancing sustainability with performance to ensure that the new substrates can compete with traditional materials in terms of electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties.
  • Ensuring that the newly developed substrates and assembly technologies are compatible with existing production lines, minimizing the need for costly retooling or process changes.
  • Managing the cost-effectiveness of the new materials, ensuring that sustainability goals are met without imposing excessive costs on the manufacturing process.

WP3 - Circular by design electronics - Leader: G-INP Co-leader: UCL

This work package is essential in closing the loop in electronics design by ensuring that PCBs are not only optimized for performance but also designed with end-of-life recovery and environmental sustainability as key considerations. Through the integration of advanced recycling techniques, material sustainability, and lifecycle monitoring, this package will help pave the way for circular electraonics that support both industry needs and ecological responsibility.

This work package is focused on integrating principles of circular economy into the design of printed circuit boards. It is strongly interconnected with the preceding Work Package on Materials and Assembly Technologies and the succeeding Work Package on Embedded Electronics POC Board, creating a seamless flow that considers the sustainable materials and assembly methods explored earlier while also delivering high-performance designs for the Proof of Concept (POC) boards. A key focus of this work package is to incorporate eco-design strategies that enhance resource recovery, minimize environmental impact, and extend product lifecycles, particularly through efficient recovery of critical metals, enabled by innovative techniques such as bioleaching.

Key Challenges:

  • Balancing the need for high performance in PCBs with the requirements for circularity, particularly in the context of critical metal usage and recovery, and sustainable material choices.
  • Managing the profitability and scalability of bioleaching techniques for metal recovery, ensuring they can be adopted widely by the electronics recycling industry.
  • Incorporating circular economy principles in the value chain thinking about the business model right from the PCB design and manufacturing processes, in order to ensure industry adoption.

WP4 - Embedded electronics POC board - Leader: Arduino

This work package aims to bring together the innovations from earlier stages to create a functional and impactful Proof-of-concept of embedded electronics that can be used in both educational and industrial contexts. The POC board will not only highlight the technological advancements made but will also illustrate the importance of sustainability and circular design in the future of electronics. By targeting key societal needs—such as education and sustainable industrial development—this project will pave the way for the commercial and societal adoption of next-generation embedded electronics.a

The focus of this work package is to develop and demonstrate a Proof of Concept (POC) board that showcases the commercial viability and societal potential of the advanced electronics technologies developed in previous work packages. This POC board will be centered around an open-source microcontroller platform, enhancing a modern embedded electronics product line that can serve both educational and industrial applications. By leveraging innovations in materials, sustainability, and circular design, this work package aims to create a real-world demonstration that proves the technology’s versatility, scalability, and impact across different sectors.

Key Challenges:

  • Balancing Performance and Sustainability: Ensuring the POC board maintains high performance while incorporating sustainable and bio-based materials without driving up costs or compromising functionality.
  • Cost-Effectiveness for Education: Designing the board to be affordable for schools and other educational institutions, which often face budget constraints, while still offering enough features and capabilities to serve as a valuable learning tool.
  • Scalability for Industrial Applications: Ensuring that the board is scalable and adaptable enough to meet the rigorous demands of industrial use cases while keeping low manufacturing costs for mass production.
  • Community Engagement: Building an active open-source community around the POC board that can contribute to its growth and ensure long-term support and evolution in both educational and industrial fields.

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