For the first time in its 20-year history, the FLEX dedicated an entire session of the event to the important and timely twin topics of environmental sustainability and power consumption of electronic devices. The event planning committee recognized the urgent need to increase the awareness of how technology and electronics devices can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) overall and meet aggressive targets to curb the impacts of climate change.
Dr. Christine Ho, CEO of Imprint Energy, delivered the keynote for the session, focusing on the need for powering billions of sensors that will be deployed annually, and their role in reducing fossil fuel emissions by tracking, measuring and sharing data to build a more efficient shipping and logistics industry.
Quoting extensively from the organization Exponential Roadmap Initiative (ERI), Ho noted that “the digital sector has the potential to directly reduce fossil fuel emissions 15% by 2030 and indirectly support a further reduction of 35% by influencing consumer and business decisions and systems transformation.” The initiative’s playbook for reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius outlines how the digital sector can help remove 13 of the 27 gigatons (GT) of CO2 needed to reach this goal.
Ho believes that the rapidly emerging Internet of Things (IoT), devices and software systems are the backbone of the digital sector. The IoT is a vast network of sensors that provide the ability to take the pulse of logistics networks worldwide, reducing the 10 billion tons of products currently transported by ships, airplanes, long haul trucks, and trains – modes of shipping products that account for 17% of GGE and 4 gigatons of CO2. Just as promising is the ability to reduce the waste and inefficiency of food and pharma products destroyed due to un-trackable temperature swings or damage during shipping.
Noting that the attendees of 20 Years of FLEX Conferences were a big part of the current advancements of low-cost printed, active, shipping tags, Ho said that Imprint Energy’s flexible and thin, Zinc Alkaline-based batteries are ideal for IoT devices, since they boast a significantly smaller carbon footprint than Lithium-Ion Nickle Metal Hydride (Li-ion NMC) batteries.
Imprint Energy is working with systems designers and integrators to design the battery as an integral part of the device package and use low-power strategies such as sleep modes for unnecessary functions. Imprint recommends co-locating the battery manufacturing alongside the device printing to further minimize shipping and logistics. When manufactured separately, Imprint’s small footprint, low-temperature line (less than 80°C) provides significant energy advantages over other technologies.
Ho challenged the attendees, saying “we all need to participate in protecting our earth. We need to eliminate waste in consumables and 15% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, by deploying more than 100 billion IoT devices in 2030 and up to 1 trillion by 2050. We all need to minimize the footprint and maximize the longevity of the device by considering the power capability, as well as design for re-use and re-cycling of the critical materials.”
Following Dr. Ho’s presentation, FLEX kicked off a spirited panel discussion with experts from PowerRox, ITN Energy Systems, Birla Carbon, and Auburn University and chaired by Bob Praino and Eric Forsythe, from Chasm Advanced Materials and the Army Research Labs, respectively. The speakers summarized their on-demand presentations and looked at what is being done today to recycle Lithium-Ion batteries, how IoT devices are currently being powered, and drew comparisons between the early days of the Internet and development of the IoT.
The speakers generally agreed that the power requirements of wireless cellular and Bluetooth devices were still too high and run times too short.
FLEX 2021 was a virtual event in the 2021 SEMI Technology Series. It was organized by SEMI FlexTech, SEMI NBMC, and NextFlex. Major sponsors included E Ink and Novacentrix. The event covered technical developments in flexible, printed and hybrid electronics, featuring more than 100 presentations and networking opportunities. Technical proceedings are available until March 26 at http://flex.semi.org.
Heidi Hoffman is senior director in Corporate Marketing at SEMI.