As sensors, electronics and artificial intelligence (AI) become more prevalent in an increasing number of areas, the energy consumption of digital technologies themselves is also rising. This can be countered by developing energy-efficient devices and technologies.
Fraunhofer EMFT can build on expertise from previous projects, such as extremely energy-efficient tracking, sensor and communication systems from the Fraunhofer lead project "Towards Zero-Power Electronics". In cooperation with other Fraunhofer institutes, researchers are also working on a process chain for the interdisciplinary co-design of digital electro-optical transceivers with reduced energy consumption and high integration density. In the future, energy-efficient reference designs will also be made available to partners and industrial customers in the form of a database, and at the same time will be continuously adapted to the latest state of research.
In order to support the longest possible service life for electronic components, researchers at Fraunhofer EMFT are also developing concepts to take account of the reparability of a product as early as the development stage. In addition to this, new approaches are being developed in the area of packaging technology to facilitate reparability such as modularization, detachable connections, repair soldering, integrated production of cables and connectors and the separability of substrate and components.