You are here : Home > APPLIED RESEARCH > STRATEGIC AXES > Eco-innovation for more sustainable electronics

Articles & files | Files | Infrastructures | Micro-nanotechnologies | Photonics


Research Platform

Eco-innovation for more sustainable electronics

​​Reducing the impacts of electronics through science

Published on 4 September 2024


Eco-innovation for more sustainable electronics​
​​

Reducing the impacts of electronics through science​​​​​

Sustainability and eco-innovation are integral parts of CEA-Leti’s cornerstone research and development programs addressing the digital and energy transitions and health. And, as a worldwide drivers of research and innovation provider, Leti is committed to helping its partners in their journey toward a more sustainable ICT offer.​

Today, CEA-Leti has built a team of eco-innovation specialists to lead an organization-wide strategy designed to bring positive change to digital through advanced research and innovation. ​

CEA-Leti’s lab-to-fab environment is the ideal testing ground for solutions to the broad range of environmental challenges facing the electronics industry today. The institute offers a complete infrastructure and methods covering:

  • ​​​​The development and implementation of lifecycle analyses (LCA), including generating relevant LCA data to measure environmental impacts.​
  • ​The validation tes​ting of eco-innovative solutions in a production-like environment with controlled cleanroom, process, and equipment-related impacts.
  • The development of technologies and end-to-end systems to meet specific environmental criteria for identified use cases.

What expertise do industrial partners receive?

CEA-Leti's eco-innovation program is research-based, drawing on the institute's demonstrated excellence in science. Our path to real-world solutions to reduce the impacts of electronics is built on solid fundamentals:

  • ​Methods and modelling: Lifecycle Analysis (LCA) to predict the impacts of a new technology from R&D through to manufacturing and beyond.

  • Materials:
      1. Solutions to reduce, replace, and recycle materials and to implement circular economy principles. 
      2. Critical raw materials (CRM) analysis. ​​

  • Technologies and systems:
      1. Eco-innovation to leverage the advantages of ecodesign to mitigate the factors contributing to the climate crisis
      2. Analysis of value chains and rebound effects to reduce overall environmental impacts.

How to work with CEA-Leti to make your next product more sustainable?

When you partner with CEA-Leti to help you develop microelectronics, sensors and displays, photonics, data and telecommunications, power electronics, and other devices, you also get a unique opportunity to explore the potential eco-innovation can bring to your product's environmental performance throughout the lifecycle.

  • R&D: CEA-Leti’s silicon pilot line is a unique lab-to-fab environment where processes are developed with the aim to combine performance and low environmental impact.
  • Technology​: CEA-Leti can help you develop innovative technologies and systems with optimized PPAC-e (performance, power, cost, surface area, and environmental impacts).

MAIN ACTI​VITIES


LCI & LCA​

  • Full LCI (Lifecycle Inventory) & LCA (Lifecycle Analysis) capabilities on site

  • Electronics & microelectronics database compiled from our own research; constantly updated and compared with existing databases

  • Data quality expertise

  • ​Digitalization of all measurements in progress


Eco-innovation & circular economy

  • Eco-innovation methods

  • Deep scientific & technical knowledge of the technologies involved

  • Strong capacity to innovate and integrate environmental constraints

KEY FIGURES​

  • 24 projects with eco-innovation components in progress

  • 6 internships per year (avg.) - 2 PhDs

  • Annual sustainability workshop at Leti Innovation Days


LOCATION​

  • CEA-Leti, Grenoble, France​

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Auvergne Rhône Alpes regional government, the Carnot Network, Investissement France Avenir. ​ ​