LOPEC 2024 Round Table

Sustainability, circularity, and printed electronics

Wednesday, March 6, 2024: 15:00–16:00 at the LOPEC Forum in the foyer of the ICM

Applications for printed electronics range from solar energy, medicine and pharmaceuticals, logistics, printing and graphics to lighting, just to name a few.

The potential impact of printed electronics is very broad and deep. Key features often cited in the production of printed electronics include additive, "smart" and low-temperature manufacturing processes that have a lower environmental impact than the production of conventional electronics.

The development of new large-scale solutions must not only be competitive in terms of functional performance, end-user customization and cost, but also meet an increasing number of environmental requirements.

Environmental sustainability and the circular economy are issues that clearly fall within the scope of corporate research and product development. In addition, large funding organizations such as the European Commission are co-funding research and development in functional electronics for an ecological circular economy.

The LOPEC 2024 Round Table discusses the challenges and upcoming transformation processes of the industry towards a more sustainable and eco-logical production of printed electronics:

• How does the printed electronics ecosystem relate to sustainability and circular economy in practice today?
• What can this industrial ecosystem learn and offer to others?
• What metrics can be introduced to balance application performance, sustainability or circular economy and make economic sense?
• What lessons have already been learned and what new practices can be shared?