Sustainable electronics

A question of design: How form and functions support moderate and sustainable smartphone use

RealIZM-Blog-Series “Integrative Circular Economy” – Part 3 Smartphones are both a curse and a blessing. A blessing because they offer us security and enable us to contact our loved ones anytime and anywhere, quickly retrieve information and news, reach any…

MODEST CUBE: A vision of sustainable smartphone product design

RealIZM-Blog-Series “Integrative Circular Economy” – Part 2″ Most high-end smartphones have one thing in common – they all look very similar. Take any device from a leading manufacturer, and you will see  a powerful camera, a large display, and generally…

What makes modular smartphones sustainable for different user groups?

RealIZM-Blog-Series “Integrative Circular Economy” – Part 1 The average working life of a smartphone among the over-16s in Germany lasts only around 7 to 12 months. Users opt for newer models as a result of the fast innovation cycles, driven…

ICT: How can digital technologies become greener?

At the beginning of March, the ministry invited the project partners to the online conference “Green ICT 2023 – Sustainable Information and Communication Technologies”. In the run-up to this conference, RealIZM spoke with Dr. phil. Lutz Stobbe, head of the…

RealIZM: Our top-5 posts by female scientists at Fraunhofer IZM

Even today, women remain underrepresented in science and in research-driven industry. At Fraunhofer IZM, women account for 29.3 % of all employees, with a greater proportion of women in non-scientific (50 %) than in science jobs (23.8 %).* To counter…

Start-a-Factory at 5: A Modular Hardware Development and Production Lab

The borough of Wedding, situated in the north of Berlin, gets the hearts of electronics enthusiasts, startup entrepreneurs, and the R&D teams of SMEs racing. Since the end of 2017, Start-A-Factory (SAF) at Fraunhofer IZM has been offering a unique…

Sustainable mobile devices for the environment: Long live smartphones and tablets!

Mobility matters for people and their devices, but increasingly, so does sustainability. But smartphones, tablets, and the like generate considerable carbon emissions when they are produced and when they are used. In addition, valuable raw materials are used to make…

Robust5G – How clever module design slows down the material aging of 5G components

Communication networks like 5G need the many modules and components that make them up to be robust and long-lasting, whatever the environmental conditions or other circumstances may be. Researchers at Fraunhofer IZM have now developed a testing method which allows…

The Hunger of Data Centers for Critical Raw Materials – and How We Counter It

Fraunhofer IZM is actively involved in the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) study “Raw Materials for Emerging Technologies lll”, commissioned by the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA). The project explores the likely trajectory of emerging technologies coming…

Eco-Reliability: The New Approach towards Sustainable and Reliable Electronics

Driven by the digital and ecological transition, the term “eco-reliability” has gained increased popularity within the last years. The main objective of this article is to present this new approach from its complementary perspectives “ecology and reliability” and to highlight…