NEWS 5 Power Electronics Europe Issue 1 2025 Power Electronics Europe The European Commission’s latest effort to facilitate a more circular economy - the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) - came into force last year and set in motion a series of eco-conscious actions for electronics manufacturers to follow who place products in the EU marketplace. Since this announcement, some have started their compliance journeys to prepare for the regulation’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) mandate but others simply don’t know where to start. To address the initial action needed by the electronics industry, the first stage will be identifying and validating data to support compliance - a step likely to be challenging. As a quick recap, DPPs act as a digital record of a physical product, securely keeping track of information across a product’s lifecycle, including event or transactional data, or even data concerning its sustainability credentials. For example, the carbon footprint of its production. While specific DPP requirements for each product group impacted - via the delegated acts - are yet to be published, the first crucial step of gathering and validating data can be actioned now. To start this data validation journey, collaborating with all stakeholders will prove pivotal in identifying existing environmental data. Such transparent discussions are likely to uncover hidden insights and highlight opportunities to improve data transparency. Similarly, conducting a data gap analysis early on will ensure missing information is pinpointed and enable businesses to consider the information likely to be required in the DPPs - i.e. data on production waste or carbon footprints. This will enable firms to develop strategies for closing Data Challenges amidst the EU’s upcoming DPP mandate gaps, adopt new tools, or partner with specialists. Additionally, considering a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure a product’s environmental impact across its lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal, will provide a comprehensive view to address identified gaps. Throughout these first steps, validating data sources to build an accurate, verifiable picture of each product is crucial - this includes assessing the credibility of third-party data suppliers and ensuring relevant standards are maintained. Due to the complexity, building a DPP solution won’t be possible for most businesses, so seeking out specialist partners will prove invaluable. Such partners should consider the creation and implementation of DPPs in a bespoke manner and focus on factors such as ease of use, scalability, and resource requirements for seamless adoption. By following these steps, alongside ensuring a pilot is conducted to refine processes, capture insights, and estimate the scale and timeline for full deployment, businesses can efficiently prepare for DPP integration and ensure long-term sustainability compliance. To learn more about this and get a head start on DPP integration, reach out to DPP provider Protokol here: https://www.protokol.com/services/digital -product-passport-consulting/. Infineon technologies says after announcing the world’s first 300-millimeter gallium nitride (GaN) power wafer and opening the world’s largest 200millimeter silicon carbide (SiC) power fab in Kulim, Malaysia, it has unveiled the next milestone in semiconductor manufacturing technology. The company says it has reached a breakthrough in handling and processing the thinnest silicon power wafers ever manufactured, with a thickness of only 20 micrometres and a diameter of 300 millimetres, in a high-scale semiconductor fab. The ultra-thin silicon wafers are only a quarter as thick as a human hair and half as thick as current state-of-the-art wafers of 40-60 micrometres. “The world’s thinnest silicon wafer is proof of our dedication to deliver outstanding customer value by pushing the technical boundaries of power semiconductor technology,” said Jochen Hanebeck, CEO at Infineon Technologies. “Infineon’s breakthrough in ultra-thin wafer technology marks a significant step forward in energy-efficient power solutions and helps us leverage the full potential of the global trends decarbonisation and digitalisation. With this technological masterpiece, we are solidifying our position as the industry’s innovation leader by mastering all three relevant semiconductor materials: Si, SiC and GaN.” The company says this innovation will significantly help increase energy efficiency, power density and reliability in power conversion solutions for applications in AI data centres as well as consumer, motor control and computing applications. For more information visit https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/ about-infineon/press/press-releases/2024/INFXX202410-013.html Infineon announces the next milestone in semiconductor manufacturing technology
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