In recent years, the heavy reliance on semiconductor-based systems presents several weaknesses and risks for Europe. The lack of European semiconductor companies and the total dependence on non-EU suppliers (especially China and Taiwan) led the European economy to the current semiconductor crisis, which is strongly affecting some of its strategic markets (e.g., automotive). Another major issue concerns the European economy’s lack of ability to recover strategic components/materials embedded in electronic equipment and exploit them to make electronic and exploit them to make new (high-value) products.
In this context Horizon Europe has funded the CIRCU-ITS project that aims to address the emerging semiconductor material crisis by supporting value chains in the automotive and mass electronics industries.The project develops digital solutions for the design, manufacture and management of electronic components and end-of-life products. The aim is to develop sustainable methods, to produce new high added value components and products by reusing semiconductors from different sources and supporting their remanufacturing.
Erion will have the role of managing one of the project’s 4 pilot projects, Pilot 4 “Sorting Obsolete PCBs.” Which will increase the reuse of end-of-life PCBs as spare parts and the reuse of end-of-life PCB components into new PCBs through proper sorting, disassembly, and storage.
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Duration: 2023-2025
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon programme under grant agreement N° 101091490
