OPTNEWOPT aims to build up a Network of Infrastructure of laboratories having expertise in chemistry, physics and electronics to target the reduction of rare materials use in optoelectronic and photonic devices. Indium, gallium and germanium are very important materials for several photonic applications. Their possible shortage could hinder the capacity to produce many types of devices.
Therefore, the development of methods and new materials to reduce the use of these rare materials, or even substitute them, is an essential instrument to maintain the competitiveness of the European photonic community. So, the possibility to access to innovative design, growth and characterization techniques is a key factor. OPTNEWOPT will both establish synergies between laboratories and competences, to facilitate a multi-laboratory, multi-technique R&D, overcoming usual fragmentation and poor inter-operability of research and university laboratories, and give access of these competences and facilities to companies and other laboratories.
The project will be dedicated to:
• study new conductive transparent materials to substitute ITO (indium tin oxide) in opto-electronic devices;
• substitute the actual growth technology for the substrates, which uses Ga-based III-V or Ge bulk materials, with Si patterned substrates, for photonic devices.
The new materials and methods shall be easy to prepare, cheap, easily processable, recoverable or recyclable or reusable, non-toxic (in case of waste), and assure devices performances comparable or better than actual ones. The project will take advantage of the expertise in the KIC Raw Materials partnership (see NoI proposal Sustainability Support and Information Centre) for the assessment of the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of the technologies.
The scopes of OPTNEWOPT are:
• to reduce the use of indium, gallium and germanium in the optoelectronic industry,
• to emerge of and to support new entrepreneurship.
 

Attività svolta da ENEA

L'ENEA coordina il progetto ed è coinvolta nei seguenti work package:
WP1 - Technical operations, per l'esecuzione di studi e contratti verso l'esterno;
WP2 - Dissemination, per dare visibilità alle competenze e capacità del network.