Speaker

Center of Excellence for Resource-Optimized Information and Communication Technology – Green ICT @ FMD

The global resource consumption of information and communication technologies (ICT) will increase steadily in the future due to advancing digitalization in everyday life as well as the new way of work with applications such as IoT, AI, Industry 4.0 and the like. In order to continue to drive digitalization, it is necessary to understand the future environmental impacts that will arise during the development, manufacture and application of microelectronics and to be aware of their changing energy and material requirements. To address this, the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany FMD (Forschungsfabrik Mikroelektronik Deutschland), together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, has launched the "Green ICT @ FMD" competence center to implement Germany`s green ICT mission. The 13 institutes involved in the cooperation are thus not only pooling their expertise with regard to microelectronics, but are also expanding the range of services to include the field of green ICT.

In this project, we not only consider the research and development side of resource optimization during the production and application of microelectronics on the basis of data-related specified life cycle assessments, but also ensure the topic-specific networking of the stakeholders with each other. This is done on several levels through the initiation of academy workshops, student camps and information events. In order to take the topic of resource-saving ICT into account during the development of new products, we are also creating a low-threshold offer for start-ups and SMEs so that new ideas and concepts can be thought of and implemented in a more ecologically sustainable way within the "Green ICT @ FMD" competence center right from the start. Another core element of the project is the offer to industry to participate directly in life cycle assessments and resource optimization advice from the 3 different technology hubs through specific validation projects and to optimize their own products accordingly. The focal points of our technological hubs are:
• Sensor-edge-cloud systems,
• energy-saving communication infrastructures, and
• Resource-optimized electronics production