The European Commission published on 27 February its Communication on advanced materials. The Communication sets out the proposed approach to develop industrial leadership from Research and Innovation (R&I) through deployment. Electronics is one of the preliminary priority sectors in terms of potential use.

The intent of the strategy is to enhance the EU’s long-term competitiveness by ensuring the EU remains at the forefront of new material technologies, supporting development, testing and deployment capacities. The actions are also intended to strengthen the EU’s open strategic autonomy by reducing dependencies on critical materials. IPC recently provided key insights to the European Commission in expert consultations preceding the Communication. Our contributions stressed the essential “silicon-to-systems” framework, to ensure the electronics sector’s needs are fully addressed. See Jan 25 blog.

Advanced materials are intentionally designed and engineered materials to display superior performance or special functions. The demand for advanced materials is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, for instance for the production of renewable energy, batteries, zero-emission buildings, semiconductors, medicines and medical devices, satellites, space launchers, planes or for other dual-use applications as well as defence equipment.

IPC welcomes the reflection on the needs of performance in harsh environments, heightened reflection on new requirements for packaging technologies and substrates and the intent to up-date regularly the priority areas to take into account socio-economic, scientific or technological developments. IPC and our members look forward to continuing dialogue on industrial needs.

IPC invites you to let us know what your company needs to ensure availability of advanced materials in electronics manufacturing processes and products. We welcome additional input from our European members to ensure a research and innovation focus on advanced materials needed for industrial production in Europe.

For further information, contact IPC’s technical expert PeterTranitz@ipc.org or for policy, contact me at AlisonJames@ipc.org.