Eco-efficiency for smart microsystems

Electronics, more or less highly integrated Microsystems, are the essential building blocks for digital computing and communication. The ubiquitous application of Microsystems has a good and increasing potential to improve energy efficiency in various sectors. In this paper we investigate these functional benefits with respect to an improvement of energy efficiency in different applications. The paper also analyses the possible environmental burdens of electronics and Microsystems applications particularly. In the second part we will also determine future research activities necessary for creating sustainable hardware solutions.