Mouser - White Papers

Mouser Electronics White Paper Sustainability has become a critical engineering constraint, influencing decisions across power efficiency, materials, longevity, device availability, and regulatory compliance. To help engineers work within sustainability targets, this white paper presents life cycle analysis, practical design techniques, and an example of an ultra- low-power architecture. Additionally, the paper provides information on reducing energy consumption, avoiding toxic materials and emissions, minimizing material waste, and designing high- performance systems that meet evolving environmental standards. Why Sustainability Matters in Engineering Engineering for sustainability introduces a paradox: The goal of maximizing performance while maximizing sustainability initially seems contradictory. However, the paradox can be resolved by fully accounting for the impact of the total life cycle. Consider, for example, that fabricating a 32MB DRAM chip weighing 2g can require 1.6kg of fossil fuel and 72g of chemical inputs. These figures might not have appeared in the requirements document for the designers of the original 32MB DRAM toward the end of the last century. However, by 2002, researchers emphasized that environmental analyses of semiconductors and other complex technologies should include secondary materials used in manufacturing, such as chemicals and fossil fuels. 1 In today's world, where sustainability is a key design requirement, such analyses are even more important. Resolving the sustainability paradox requires finding ways to minimize material and energy inputs without compromising a semiconductor device's performance. Of course, a semiconductor device itself will ultimately become electronic waste (e-waste), regardless of how efficiently it was fabricated or how efficiently it operated during its useful life. Currently, e-waste production is outstripping e-waste recycling. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) reports that 62 million metric tons of e-waste were produced globally in 2022, up 82 percent from 2010, with another 32 percent increase expected by 2030 (Figure 1). 2 In contrast, UNITAR notes that less than one-quarter of the e-waste generated in 2022 was documented to have been properly recycled. Electricity usage over a product's life cycle is also a critical metric. The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that global electricity consumption will grow nearly 4 percent annually through 2027. 3 The IEA also estimates that the electricity consumption from data centers and the artificial intelligence (AI) and cryptocurrency sectors is expected to increase from 460TWh in 2022 to 1,000TWh in 2026 (Figure 2). 4 Figure 1: Global e-waste is increasing rapidly while recycling efforts lag behind. (Source: UNITAR; created by Mouser Electronics) Figure 2: Electricity consumption from AI and cryptocurrency is projected to double by 2027. (Source: IEA; created by Mouser Electronics)

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