The miniaturization led advances in micro/nanoelectronics over the last more than 50 years have revolutionized computing and communication and has enabled fast digital technologies touching life in almost all traditional socio-economic sectors today. Yet, as revolutionary as micro/nanoelectronics has been, in its current form, the production processes it follows are inherently and unavoidably wasteful and require vast quantities of water, energy, and land. There is clearly a need for new resource efficient and environment friendly routes for electronics manufacturing, without losing its transformative power. Electronics industry will hugely benefit by the development of such an equipment and DIELECT is an ambitious endeavour in this direction. DIELECT will develop world's first contactless roll to roll (R2R) dielectrophoresis (DEP) based equipment to obtain high-performance nanostructures (e.g., nanowire)) based electronic layers, devices, and circuits on large area (>100cm2). The overarching goal is to develop resource-efficient R2R DEP based pilot line allowing high-throughput assembly of NWs-based electronic layers and demonstrate their use for development of high-performance devices (e.g., sensors (temperature/photodetectors), transparent conductors, and CMOS circuits in various form-factors (inc. flexible electronics). The disruptive electronics manufacturing enabled by proposed equipment, will lead to low fabrication cost, and reduced material wastage and low energy usage. Through smaller and resource efficient units, DIELECT could enable the decentralized fabrication and thus bring a paradigm shift in the electronics manufacturing, i.e., from huge facilities for conventional IC fabrication, to several smaller units delivering the same output. Successful development and commercialisation of DIELECT will provide the UK with a much-needed domestic source of high-performance ICs whilst positioning the country at the forefront of green electronics and low-impact additive manufacturing. Lightweight and embedded printed electronics will resonate particularly strongly with nationally important manufacturing sectors, not least electric vehicles and aerospace. Printed electronics have the potential to replace many automotive electronic circuits, reducing system weight dramatically whilst enabling the seamless integration of electronics with the physical structure of the automobile. Leveraging innovations such as DIELECT, sensors and displays can be laminated directly into the dashboard and door trimmings, eliminating the bulk and weight of supporting PCBs and harnesses. Substituting PCBs with plastic substrates will further improve the recyclability of end-of-life vehicles. Low-cost additive manufacturing methods such as the R2R DEP techniques incorporated in DIELECT will enable the creation of a world-leading centre for the design and production of high-performance printed inorganic CMOS electronics. By eliminating the need for costly photolithography masks and UV exposure systems, SMEs and global innovators alike will more readily design and test new circuits, thereby accelerating the innovation, certification, and production cycle. The benefits of domestic IC production will transcend industry, from medical devices to aerospace and automotive electronics.

The "tsunami of electronic waste", which reached more than 53.6 million tonnes in 2019, requires a step-change in the design and fabrication of electronics for disposal, reuse or recycling. The problem is exasperated as during the manufacture of electronics, a significant amount of chemical waste is generated as by-products, and the combined impact of by- and end-products are leading to long term environmental and social damage that will outlast many generations. The issue is growing due to the increasing use of ICT devices which will become more embedded within society. Electronics underpins a lot of these technologies (internet of things (IoT), displays (including VR/XR), smart packaging, etc.) and offers an opportunity to the e-Waste issue by realising electronic systems that inherently have end-of-life (cradle to cradle) solutions built in and thus do not require the same complexity of waste management. As a sector, electronics underpins the growth of vertical sectors (e.g., health, aerospace, manufacturing and retail) and thus drives productivity and growth across virtually all sectors of the UK economy. According to Innovate UK's 'Electech sector' roadmap report, the electronics sector employs >1 million people in the UK in >45k businesses, generating revenue of around £100 billion. The enormous economic potential for end products is backed by authoritative forecasts, e.g., IDTechEx predicts a market for large area electronics of >73 billion USD by 2027. Sustainable electronics is, therefore, central to the UK's future economy, environment, security and society. To this end, a disruptive printed electronics manufacturing platform is imperative that is designed for sustainability but maintains the enabling power and stability of traditional electronics, thus can eventually supplant those traditional electronic formats. The ambition of GEOPIC (Green Energy-Optimised Printed Transient ICs) is to develop one of the world's first high-performance (at par with today's silicon-based electronics) ICs and assemblies, which, at the end of life, will physically disappear/degrade at prescribed times into eco-friendly or reusable end-products. Thus, GEOPIC will achieve the step-change needed towards zero waste. The demonstrator devices and circuits will attain performances that are at par with today's silicon-based electronics but can demonstrate biodegradability, enabling the safe disposal of materials, potentially for reuse. The project will address the urgent need for sustainability in advanced manufacturing as well as help alleviate the problem of electronic waste (e-waste). Thus, GEOPIC will achieve the step-change needed towards zero waste.

Future intelligent, autonomous platforms (autonomous vehicles, robots, satellites, ships, air planes) and portable terminals are expected to have multiple functions such as wireless communication (with satellites and/or terrestrial base stations and/or ground terminals), ultra-fast data transfer, navigation, sensing, radars, imaging and wireless power transfer. These wireless systems operate at various frequencies. As a single radio frequency (RF) system usually has a narrow bandwidth, multiple RF systems at different frequency bands are often employed, leading to a huge increase in the volume, power consumption and cost. To address this need, it requires a single-aperture ultra-wideband (UWB) phased array capable of operating over an extremely wide range of frequencies, and having a low profile, wide-angle-scanning steerable beams, high gain, high efficiency and multiple polarizations (e.g. right-hand circular polarization for navigation, dual linear polarizations for mobile communication). Such an advanced antenna system does not exist yet. This project aims to tackle the ambitious challenges of addressing this need. This multi-disciplinary research consortium, having RF/microwave/mm-wave phased array researchers working together with researchers in optical beamforming and 3D printing, are ideally placed to development a new generation of low-profile UWB phased arrays, which is expected to find wide uses for both civilian and military applications.

The electronics industry "ElecTech" sector is central to the UK's future economy, environment, and society. With over 1 million employees in sectors enabled by electronics, the contribution of electronic technologies is indispensable. At the heart of electronics are nanoelectronic semiconductor "chips", and it has a leading position in semiconductor intellectual property vendors and emerging areas such as quantum technologies, sustainable electronics manufacturing, and compound semiconductors. The UK's potential lies, and where its future role in the global semiconductor value chain lies, as evidenced in the BEIS committee inquiry. We will establish an Automated Nano AnaLysing, characterisatiOn and additive packaGing sUitE (ANALOGUE) suite. ANALOGUE will be an exemplary facility that provides a fully automated platform for semiconductor processing, from devices to applications, with centralised workflow design, data collection/capture and real-time analytics. ANALOGUE will enable wafer-scale fully automated electrical characterisation of devices including reliability and temperature cycling capabilities. A fully automated back-end processing platform is integrated enabling die- and wire-bonding, 3D printed electronics and additive heterogenous packaging, co-located with high-resolution printed circuit laser patterning. Co-located with the £35M James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC), and the Centre for Advanced Electronics (CAE), the facility will enable devices-to-systems across the ICT spectrum, towards a user-centric and responsible design approach for electronics manufacturing. With a team representing two application-oriented user groups, medical and industrial nanoelectronics, we will create an ecosystem whereby manufacturing, users, and circular economy experts are brought together as users of ANALOGUE. ANALOGUE will support research on implantables, wearables, and diagnostics, through ultrasonic devices. Embedding sustainable manufacturing and onshoring the research into the backend processes of electronics is crucial to meeting the requirements of future electronics design flows. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) buyers like Apple are already demanding commitments from suppliers to decarbonise their products, with distributors expected to assess each product's environmental impact throughout its lifecycle - from design and manufacture to end-of-life. As such, ANALOGUE allows UK researchers to explore the "black-box" of the semiconductor supply chain using automated characterisation and heterogenous packaging, encompassed by an automation and data collection framework for evaluating the efficacy of our experimental workflows. ANALOGUE will be accessible to the UK's research community across HealthTech, Beyond-Moore Computing, and Circular and Sustainable Electronics. Owing to its automated and streamlined nature, ANALOGUE will allow users from different institutions to utilise the suite remotely, facilitated by expert technical support, enabling rapid innovation across the nanoelectronics spectrum, insulating the UK's electronics research eco-system from global supply chain interruptions, e.g. chip shortages, and underpinning new research into otherwise offshore aspects of the electronics manufacturing. ANALOGUE builds on the UK's internationally acknowledged strengths in low-power IC Design, electronic materials, and applications in sustainable manufacturing. The Glasgow collaboration as an essential link in the supply chain linking materials producers (e.g., IQE), designers (Arm) manufacturers (PragmatIC Semiconductors, Printed Electronics, MTC), with academic users. The ANALOGUE team will regularly engage with these stakeholders through joint projects, meetings, workshops, and targeted events. The alignment of the proposal with the strategic sustainable systems focus of UofG will also help the envisaged research's long-term planning and strategy building.

As communications move towards higher frequencies for higher data rates, concrete structures and buildings will significantly reduce the electromagnetic signal strength compared to windows. The overarching vision of TRANSMETA is to create transparent intelligent reflecting metasurfaces that could be placed on the windows of buildings or vehicles, and which would intelligently reflect the incoming electromagnetic wave from a base station directly to the user (either inside or outside) to improve signal reception quality. Metasurfaces can also filter certain frequencies, change the polarisation, or reduce the reflections from radar. The challenges to achieving this are: 1. For transparent conductors there is a trade-off between optical transparency and electrical conductivity in terms of layer thickness and frequency response which needs to be quantified. There are also practical challenges in how to connect these materials electrically and physically to the conventional opaque electronics. TRANSMETA will address this by investigating two approaches for the conductors: i) metallic meshes on the sub-micron scale where the lines are too small for the human eye to see; ii), if the results are not as required, a complementary technique using indium tin oxide will also be investigated. To test their performance, transparent antennas and static metasurfaces, such as frequency selective surfaces, will be fabricated and measured. 2. Novel metasurfaces must be designed based on the material properties. TRANSMETA will address this by carrying out extensive studies using commercial electromagnetic software with input from the earlier measurements. The effect of the ground plane at the rear of the metasurface will be investigated and we will aim to maximise the optical transparency. As an alternative to the reflecting metasurfaces, transmitting surfaces will also be designed where no rear ground plane is required. 3. The practical challenges of fabricating these metasurfaces must be investigated. TRANSMETA will initially make static (non-intelligent) metasurfaces which can reflect the signal between two fixed positions, tested by blocking the direct signal in the anechoic chambers at Loughborough University. This will be applicable if there were known communication dead zones in buildings which will become increasingly common as we move towards higher frequencies. Of course, optical transparency is not always essential for these novel metasurfaces, but it increases the scope of applications. 4. To make the metasurface intelligent, reconfigurability must be integrated into the system. TRANSMETA will address this with two techniques: i) vanadium dioxide where the properties change from being an insulator to a conductor when a direct current is applied, ii) PIN diodes. There are challenges in integrating these techniques into the system while also maximising the transparency. The direct current bias lines can be made transparent, but their optimum position and orientation are critical to the overall performance. 5. A further challenge in achieving the intelligence is being able to sense where the transmitter and user are located in order to reflect the signal in the correct direction. TRANSMETA will develop a sensing system that uses the pilot signals from the base station and user and then applies signal processing to retrieve the directions. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) will control the metasurface behaviour accordingly. Finally, all these elements will be integrated together to create metasurface demonstrators which will be tested in real-world environments with support from our 12 industrial Project Partners. The impact of successfully completing this project will be improved capability for beyond-5G communication systems. Utilising transparent conductors will enable these intelligent metasurfaces to be employed in vehicles and building windows.