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PublicationA forecast on future raw material demand and recycling potential of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehiclesThe market for electromobility has grown constantly in the last years. To ensure a future supply of raw materials for the production of new batteries for electric vehicles, it is essential to estimate the future demand for battery metals. This study focuses on the future demand for electric vehicle battery cathode raw materials lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese by considering different technology and growth scenarios. The results show that in 2040 the future material demand for lithium, cobalt, and nickel for Lithium-Ion Batteries in electric vehicles exceeds current raw material production. Depending on the growth and technology scenario, the future demand for lithium and cobalt exceeds today's production by up to 8 times in 2040. Nickel exceeds today's production in one scenario. For manganese, future demand in 2040 remains far below today's production. The recycling potential for lithium and nickel is more than half the raw material demand for Lithium-Ion Batteries in 2040. For cobalt, the recycling potential even exceeds the raw material demand in 2040. In conclusion, it remains a challenge for the industry to massively scale up resource production and focus on the recycling of battery metals in the future to meet the increasing consumption of electromobility.
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PublicationDeutsche Normungsroadmap Circular Economy(DIN, 2023-01)Die deutsche Normungsroadmap Circular Economy unterstützt den Weg von einer linearen in eine zirkuläre Wirtschaft, denn bei dem Vorhaben Stoffkreisläufe zu schließen und damit wertvolle Ressourcen zu sparen, spielen Normen und Standards eine wichtige Rolle. Die Normungsroadmap betrachtet Hemmnisse und Herausforderungen für die Transformation aus Normungsperspektive und benennt die Normungsbedarfe für sieben entscheidende Sektoren der deutschen Wirtschaft.
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PublicationA novel hermetic encapsulation approach for the protection of electronics in harsh environments( 2022-11-11)Technologies and building blocks for the realization of reliable electronic systems for the use in harsh environments are attracting increasing intention. Harsh environments are for instance high temperature, pressure, mechanical stress and/or submerge into corrosive liquids, or the combination thereof. In the first place electronic components like integrated circuits or passive components which constitute the electronic system need to be operational under harsh conditions. On system level also the interconnections and package materials need to withstand the loading conditions. Printed circuit board embedding technology is a highly promising approach to realize this kind of electronic systems. Embedded semiconductors and passive components are mechanically protected from the environmental stresses by the epoxy/glass fibre compound into which they are encapsulated. Furthermore, novel types of high temperature laminate materials are commercially available since a few years. In an electroless plating process a fully hermetic metallic encapsulation can be added to the modules. This encapsulation acts as a protective barrier when they are immersed into corrosive liquids or gases. The external electrical connections out of the package are realized by ceramics with metallic feed throughs. They are assembled onto the modules (prior to the metallic encapsulation) using sinter-lamination-technology, i.e. the simultaneous build-up lamination and a sintering process. Two application demonstrators were realized in order to show the general viability of the encapsulation process. All used materials are commercially available. Industrial process equipment was used throughout the manufacturing. Subsequent reliability tests provide evidence for the general robustness and functionality of the modules under harsh environmental conditions. This work was part of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project “eHarsh” which was funded by the Fraunhofer Society.
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PublicationSensor Systems for Extremely Harsh Environments( 2022-10-01)Sensors are key elements for capturing environmental properties and are today indispensable in the industry for monitoring and control of industrial processes. Many applications are demanding for highly integrated intelligent sensors to meet the requirements on safety, clean, and energy-efficient operation, or to gain process information in the context of industry 4.0. While in many everyday objects highly integrated sensor systems are already state of the art, the situation in an industrial environment is clearly different. Frequently, the use of sensor systems is impossible due to the fact that the extreme ambient conditions of industrial processes like high operating temperatures or strong mechanical loads do not allow a reliable operation of sensitive electronic components. Eight Fraunhofer Institutes have bundled their competencies and have run the Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project “eHarsh” to overcome this situation. The project goal was to realize sensor systems for extremely harsh environments, whereby sensor systems are more than pure sensors, rather these are containing one or multiple sensing elements and integrated readout electronics. Various technologies, which are necessary for the realization of such sensor systems, have been identified, developed, and finally bundled in a technology platform. These technologies are, e.g., MEMS and ceramic-based sensors, SOI-CMOS-based integrated electronics, board assembly and laser-based joining technologies. All these developments have been accompanied by comprehensive tests, material characterization, and reliability simulations. Based on the platform, a pressure sensor for turbine applications has been realized to prove the performance of the eHarsh technology platform.
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PublicationNovel etching process based on molten salts for optical fiber components( 2022)Optical fiber components have the potential of enabling interconnections in compact systems because they provide reliable and efficient manipulation of light in application fields such as telecommunication, sensing and high power. A variety of glasses and fiber components including tapers, tips, bundles and couplers are typically fabricated using hydrofluoric acidbased etching processes. However, such a standard approach has some limitations related to the generation of surface defects (e.g., roughness and microcracks), poor process control and high chemical disposal costs. We propose an innovative glass etching process based on molten salts that will overcome these limitations. Molten salts can be thermally activated to etch glass materials with high precision. Initial plant development and industrial manufacturing capabilities are demonstrated on a modular etching system through a research collaboration. This system also has the advantage of managing a set of fibers simultaneously with an automatic process control. First results of etched glasses and especially, biconical fiber tapers show extremely smooth surfaces, good homogeneity, high reproducibility and potential scalability for further processing of fiber couplers. With respect to the fabrication tolerances, a value of ± 1 μm over a length of 10 mm has been found for the case of etched multimode tapers. The use of molten salts as an etching tool can be extended to economically create microstructures in glass panels for optical or fluidic purposes.
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PublicationHigh Density Thin Film Flex Technology for Advanced Packaging Applications( 2022)The paper provides a latest technology review for fabrication of high-density thin film flex and related application examples. The fabrication approach utilizes the well-established processes from wafer level packaging and redistribution technology. Multi-layer routing structures are built by sequential processing of polyimide and semi-additive metal on a carrier wafer with a dedicated release layer. Depending on the number of copper routing layers with typical thickness of 3-5 μm and the required polymer inter dielectric thickness the final multi-layer stacks can have total thicknesses between 20-60 μm. A laser assisted process allows an easy detach of the thin film flex circuits from the carrier wafer. The technology allows high density routing with lines and spaces of 7/7 μm over up to four layers, custom specific front and back side contacts of Au, Cu, NiAu or solder (only front side) to enable different assembly technologies, embedding option for ultra-thin ICs, option for partial rigidness by utilizing the carrier as permanent stiffener as well as option for arbitrary shaped outlines.Three application examples for the high-density flex technology are shown. The first one is a thin film flex with embedded ICs, which is a technology demonstrator for usage as system core of cardiac monitoring patches. The second example includes rigid flex demonstrators with embedded ICs for implementation of 24/60 GHz radar sensor devices. And as a third application case thin film flex is used as polymeric substrate with front and back side contacts. Those thin substrates can be used as interposers or can be stacked on top of each other to enable a multiplication of routing layers. All details regarding the different technology options as well as application examples will be discussed in this paper.
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PublicationTemperature Dependent RF Characterization of Thin-Film Polyimide for 5G mmWave Antenna-in-Package Modules( 2022)In this paper, dielectric properties of thin-film materials in Fan-out Wafer Level Packages (FoWLP) used for the development of 5G mmWave Antenna-in-Package (AiP) modules are measured in the 5G New Radio (NR) frequency bands (26.5-29.5 GHz and 37-40 GHz) in dependency on temperature from 0°-150°C. The dielectric properties of the applied material show an increase in dielectric constant with respect to temperature and decrease in dielectric constant with respect to frequency, whereas dielectric loss has a tendency of increasing with respect to temperature and frequency.
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PublicationCharacteristics of Li-ion micro batteries fully batch fabricated by micro-fluidic MEMS packaging( 2022)A cost-effective and reliable technology allowing extreme miniaturization of batteries into glass chips and electronic packages has been developed, employing a dispense-print process for battery electrodes and liquid electrolyte. Lithium-ion micro-batteries (active area 6 × 8 mm2, 0.15-0.3 mAh) with interdigitated electrodes were fabricated, tested and finally compared with the traditional battery architecture of stacked electrodes. Commercial graphite and lithium titanate anode as well as layered nickel cathode materials were used. All the processes for the micro-battery fabrication were established during this work; in particular the micro fluidic electrolyte filling process that allows simultaneous electrolyte supply to all cells on a planar substrate. Electrode mass reproducibility was sufficient for adequate electrode balancing. Current capability similar to the conventional face-to-face electrode configuration was achieved with interdigital electrodes that can be fabricated much easily on a substrate level. The cells were successfully cycled; several 100 cycles can be achieved. Additional results of life-time characteristics and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy are presented as well. These rechargeable micro-batteries can be used for future extremely miniaturized electronic products.
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PublicationA Novel Quantitative Adhesion Measurement Method for Thin Polymer and Metal Layers for Microelectronic Applications( 2022)Advancements in packaging technologies like Fan-Out demand for a higher integration density with an increased number of RDL layers as well as novel low-k layers as interlayer dielectric. The adhesion of these layers becomes an important factor for the reliability of the packaging because an enforcement by mechanical bond is limited. This work presents a novel test method (Stripe Lift-Off Test - SLT) for the adhesion characterization of thin film layers used in RDL for Fan-In and Fan-Out. The method is based on a modified edge lift-off test (mELT) concept. A polymer layer under high tensile stress is used to force a delamination of a layer stack. A critical energy release rate (J/m2) leading to a delamination can be estimated based on the known biaxial stress in the stressing polymer. The usage of residual stress in a layer stack for driving a delamination avoids any additional clamping, gluing of additional layers or the demand of special adhesion measurement equipment. The quantified adhesion test can be integrated in any RDL production line since only coating equipment is needed as well as a dicing tool for sample generation. The sample generation complexity can be scaled regarding the purpose of the adhesion measurement - ranging from a quick, rough estimation and adhesion value evaluation in a production process to a precise prediction of the energy release rate that can be used as a basis for packaging simulation. The established mELT for the quantification of the interface's fracture toughness is limited by the fact that it is running at negative temperatures. The novelty of the SLT is a stress polymer layer with a modifiable stress state which allows the adhesion measurement at room temperature. The stress state can be tailored to investigate the delamination at a certain temperature related to the application. FE-modeling of the SLT in ANSYS is presented and these results are compared to the analytical energy release rate estimation of the SLT. These verified FEM fracture models form the basics for the integration of the SLT fracture toughness data into more complex reliability simulations of advanced packaging. Exemplary adhesion measurements are presented for polymer films as well as for sputter layers with different preconditioning.
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PublicationDesign Tool for Temperature Estimation on PCB( 2022)The paper presents a novel thermal analysis approach based on an estimation of current density, power dissipation and temperature distribution of a printed circuit board. The implemented algorithms are integrated in a design tool that can be used as an add-on tool via interfaces to commercial EDA tools. The calculations are based on imported layout data from the EDA tools and not on Gerber data. The current density is calculated with a separate PEEC solver. The developed design tool automatically generates the necessary 3D model, activates the PEEC solver and extracts its calculation results. Subsequently, the implemented thermal solver of the design tool calculates the power dissipation and temperature distribution for a previously assigned current. This efficiently supports the PCB designer already during the layout process. The method is validated by simulations and measurements on typical boards.
