Innovative Material, Processes and Devices for Low Power Flexible Electronics: Creating a Sustainable Internet of Everything

智能电子产品在日常生活中越来越重要。它们比以往任何时候都更广泛地集成到日常产品中，这从连接到物联网（IoT）的设备数量的爆炸式增长中可以看出。目前的趋势是每个设备都有自己的IP地址，但在未来，单个设备将不需要自己的IP地址，因为它们将成为本地网络的一部分，只有一个连接点连接到互联网。这允许更大的可扩展性，从而实现万物互联。塑料等基板上的柔性电子产品将成为万物互联的背后，因为它推动了电子产品与包装等日常物品的整合。PragmatIC Semiconductor是柔性基板上大面积电子逻辑和存储器的领先开发商，该技术的战略路线图的一部分是实现所谓的CMOS，它提供低功耗和更大的电路功能。实现柔性CMOS的一个重要障碍是缺乏兼容的p型氧化物半导体。这种繁荣的合作伙伴关系解决了这一需求，并通过与来自巴斯大学、剑桥大学和利物浦大学的学术团队合作，这个为期5年的项目将以新的前体和材料、制造工艺、器件和电路设计为目标，开展协调一致的研究计划。这种合作伙伴关系的额外性植根于项目团队现有的良好合作，以及该联盟汇集的广泛专业知识和世界一流的设施。基础研究的成果代表了对全球最先进技术的重大贡献。在技术和商业成果方面，PragmatIC Semiconductor处于有利地位，可以利用这一基础研究来实现其全面影响。这对英国经济的重要性怎么强调都不过分。英国拥有世界第六大电子产业，年营业额超过1000亿英镑。这种繁荣的伙伴关系将有助于通过开发物联网设备的基础电子产品来巩固英国在设计方面的领先地位。它还将使英国的新电子产品制造业获得更广泛的供应链利益。除了功能之外，柔性电子产品还为一些更可持续的成果提供了机会。全球电子行业是二氧化碳排放和其他污染的重要贡献者。该行业正在努力通过转换为100%的可再生能源供应来减少其二氧化碳足迹，但这只能减少60%的预计排放量，因为其余的固定嵌入碳存在于原料化学品和气体以及加热/冷却中。PragmatIC Semiconductor已经开发出一种制造工艺，它使用的能源和水比传统的硅“晶圆厂”少一百倍，二氧化碳排放量低一千倍。该公司还承诺到2050年实现净零排放的“零排放竞赛”承诺。实现这一目标的部分努力在于繁荣合作伙伴关系，我们正在共同评估并行而不是串行薄膜沉积的替代制造工艺。这一方法将有可能提高前体化学品消耗的效率，同时减少能源使用。该公司的循环经济团队将对该合作伙伴关系产生的过程进行生命周期评估，并将研究嵌入其技术和产品开发中。通过20世纪70年代CMOS的发展，硅基电子产品成为一种可扩展的技术。我们的目标是让这项工作对大面积柔性电子产品产生类似的影响，从而实现可扩展性，从而可持续地创造未来的万物互联。

Smart electronics are an increasingly important part of everyday life. More than ever, they are integrated into an expansive array of everyday products which is evident from the explosion in numbers of devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT). The current trend is for each device to have its own IP address, but in future individual devices will not require their own IP address as they will be a part of a local network with a single connection point to the internet. This allows greater scalability leading to the Internet of Everything. Flexible electronics on substrates like plastic will be behind the creation of this Internet of Everything as it drives the integration of electronics into everyday objects such as packaging. PragmatIC Semiconductor is a leading developer of large-area electronic logic and memory on flexible substrates and part of the strategic roadmap for this technology is the realisation of so-called CMOS which offers low-power and greater circuit functionality. A significant barrier to achieving flexible CMOS is the lack of compatible p-type oxide semiconductors.This prosperity partnership addresses this need, and by working with an academic team drawn together from the Universities of Bath, Cambridge and Liverpool, the 5-year project will target new precursors and materials, manufacturing processes, devices and circuit designs, in a concerted and cohesive research program. The additionality of this prosperity-partnership is rooted within the well-founded existing collaborations of the project team, as well as the extensive range of expertise and world-class facilities that the consortium brings together. The outcomes of the fundamental research represent a significant contribution to the global state-of-the-art.In terms of the technological and commercial outcomes, PragmatIC Semiconductor is well placed to exploit this fundamental research to realise its full impact. The importance of this to the UK economy cannot be overstated. The UK has the world's 6th largest electronics industry with an annual turnover of >£100 billion. This prosperity partnership will contribute to the consolidation of the UK's leading position in design through the development of the underpinning electronics for IoT devices. It will also enable new electronics manufacturing in the UK with associated wider supply chain benefits.As well as functionality, flexible electronics offers the opportunity for some more sustainable outcomes. The global Electronics Industry is a significant contributor to CO2 emissions and other pollution. The sector is working hard to reduce its CO2-footprint by a switch to 100% renewable energy supplies, however this will only eliminate 60% of the projected emissions, because the remainder of the fixed embedded carbon resides within feedstock chemicals and gases and heating/cooling. PragmatIC Semiconductor has already developed a manufacturing process than uses a hundred times less energy and water than a conventional silicon "fab" and results in thousand times lower CO2e. The company has also committed to the "Race-to-Zero" pledge of reaching net-zero by 2050. Part of this effort of achieving this target lies within prosperity-partnership and together we are evaluating alternative manufacturing processes for parallel rather than serial thin-film deposition. This approach will potentially increase efficiency in terms of precursor chemical consumption, at the same time as reducing energy use. The company's Circular Economy team will make Life Cycle Assessments of the processes arising from the prosperity-partnership and will embed the research across its technology and product development.Silicon-based electronics became a scalable technology through the development of CMOS in the 1970s. Our aim is for this work to have a similar impact on large-area flexible electronics, allowing the scalability that will lead to the sustainable creation of the future Internet of Everything.