Mission: R&D to support the manufacturing value chain and manpower training in the areas of Electronics Materials, Components, Photonics, Electronics waste recycling and Additive Manufacturing.

Social outreach: E-waste Awareness Programme, Providing technology & Skill development of SC/ST demography

EMCD R&D thrust areas: E-waste, Energy Storage (Rechargeable battery/cell; supercapacitors; hybrid packs), Integrated Photonics, Additive Manufacturing, Printed Circuit Board Substrates, Flexible Electronics, IOT Sensors Materials, Electro-Magnetic Shielding, Optoelectronic Packaging, Optical Fibres, Silicon Photonics, Antennas, Optical Computing Chips, Diamond Wafers, Graphene etc.

EMCD R&D #

Electronics Components & Material Development Programme (EMDP) has been promoting research and development (R&D) activity since 1986 to nurture electronics development in the country for boosting local manufacturing. EMDP’s core areas of research are electronics materials, components and process technology, photonics, electronics waste recycling (e-waste) and additive manufacturing. EMDP supported National MISSION under National Policy 2012 on Electronics: “Promotion of a vibrant and sustainable ecosystem of R&D design, engineering and innovation in electronics” during 2012 to 2018. EMDP is currently supporting National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE 2019): “Encourage industry–led R&D and innovation in all sub-sectors of electronics”. The strategy under this objective is to adopt top-down approach or market pull R&D to cater for local manufacturing needs in the electronics sector. EMCD’s outputs for promotion of R&D ecosystem are provided below:

To support NPE 2019 and industry led R&D, EMDP is working with industries of different manufacturing sectors. Primarily, industry demands among other things include:

• Adequate, focused and long term govt. funding for R&D projects for economically viable prototype demonstrations and IPR generation in areas of Indian electronics manufacturing
• Focus R&D on indigenous product manufacturing technologies
• Make Govt. Transfer of Technology policies suitable for SMEs and MSMEs.

To cater these industry demands MeitY is creating Centre of Excellences (CoEs) with industrial partnership where industry is playing key roles in technology roadmapping, administration, funding and self-sustenance of the R&D platform. Govt. is extending funding knowhow scientific manpower, laboratory access, and IPR (existing) for development of industry demanded product prototype, technology development and IPR generation. In this direction EMCD has initiated 7 CoEs with planned targets provided below:

 

In coming decades EMCD program will cater to the electronics manufacturing target of 400 billion USD through additional such self sustaining CoEs in EMCD thrust areas.

EMCD Social outreach #

EMCD has been working on social outreach for last five years to raise awareness in general public on menace of E-waste and also promote entrepreneurship among socially weaker sections using EMCD developed technologies for electronics manufacturing.

E-waste Awareness Program: The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has implemented “Awareness Programme on Environmental Hazards of Electronic Waste” during 2015 to 2020 to create awareness among the public about the hazards of e-waste recycling in informal sector on pan India basis. The programme had created training tools, content materials, films, printed materials, videos and jingles etc., for every strata of the society which are freely available on the dedicated website [http://greene.gov.in/] and Greene app. Further, social media platforms (Twitter handle and Facebook page) and mobile app had also been created to provide online status of the activities and show-case the activities/ workshops/carnivals etc., conducted under the programme.

The programme was successfully able to conducted 1,918 workshops and activities in various cities in 31 States/UTs, which were attended by 16,52,031 participants from school, colleges, RWA, manufacturer, informal operators, bulk consumer, dealers and refurbishers etc., The programme had covered 5,789 Government officials in various States. Besides, 1,247 GreenE Champions/trainers had also been trained. The mass awareness amongst youth of the country, nearly 20.12 crore audience, had also been created by covering 2,813 cinema halls. Suitable course content on this subject for Standard 7 to 9 class students was also developed and handed over to the Ministry of Education using NCERT’s DIKSHA digital platform.

Skill & entrepreneurship Development: EMDP programme has been building knowledge on electronics manufacturing for last several decades and as part of its outreach for weaker sections of the societies EMDP has initiated several projects on manpower training among SC/ST and North Eastern communities. These projects are supporting entrepreneurship programmes in the areas of supercapacitor based solar lanterns which can be charged in minutes, digital thermometer based on indigenous sensors, and E-waste management. Additionally, training for RoHS laboratory manpower has been initiated. In total, the outreach is for 16,440 citizens in 20 States. State Governments are also taking active participation in these projects through State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB) and Institute of Human Resource Development (IHRD). First batches of entrepreneurship programmes are already passing out and few are on process to establish MSMEs on manufacturing of digital thermometers.

• Awards and Recognitions
• Projects
• Centre of Excellences
• R&D Output (IPR)
• EMCD effort towards building products countering COVID-19 pandemic

For further information please contact:

Shri Arvind Kumar Group Coordinator & Senior Director R&D in Electronics Group Phone: +91-11-24364463 (Office) E-mail: akumar[at]meity[dot]gov[dot]in

Awards and Recognitions

National Award on Outstanding Efforts for Women’s Development through Application of Science and Technology (DST, 2018) for Technology for Early Detection and Screening of Breast Cancer

"Nari Shakti Puraskar" (Women Power Award) by President of India in Rastrapati Bhavan on 08-03-2019 for Technology for Early Detection and Screening of Breast Cancer

EMCD Projects

Environmentally Sound Methods for Recovery of Metals from Printed Circuit Boards –Phase II

C-MET Hyderabad and E-Parisara Pvt. Ltd, B’lr

Development of Aerogel Supercapacitor based Power Module for Application in Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail of EVM,

C-MET, Thrissur

Establishment of CoE on E-waste management

C-MET, Hyderabad

Capacity building through skill and entrepreneurship development on E-waste management for the North eastern states

NEILIT, Gangtok

Development of Indigenous Antennas for Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC)

C-MET, Hyderabad

Designing a cost efficient and optimized Green Broadband Access Network for Rural India using Fiber Wireless (FiWi) Access Network Architecture appropriate for NOFN

IIIT, Delhi

Development of Polybutadyne ceramic composite laminates and substrate integrated waveguides (SIW)

C-MET, Thrissur

CoE in Rechargeable Battery Technology (Pre-Cell)

C-MET, Pune

CoE on Additive Manufacturing: Optoelectronics Sector

C-MET, Pune and CIPET, Bhubaneswar

Centre for Programmable Photonic Circuits and Systems (CPPICS)

IIT, Madras`

Center of Excellence for Additive Manufacturing in Medical Device Sector

AMTZ, Visakhapatnam

Additive Manufacturing based cost Effective optical computing chips

IISC, Bangalore and CMET, Pune

National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM),

Govt of Telangana

Capacity building through skill and entrepreneurship development on e-Waste management,

Panjab University Chandigarh

Development of printable silver thick film ink for RFID Tags on environment friendly, flexible substrate for smart application

C-MET, Pune

Development of hybrid battery power module with indigenously developed supercapacitor and Li-ion Cell

NEIST, Jorhat

Entrepreneurial Training Programme for Scheduled Caste Communities to produce Digital Thermometers

C-MET, Thrissur and IHRD, Kochi

Entrepreneurial Training Programme for Scheduled Tribe Communities to Produce Solar Lanterns/LED bulbs for Lighting Applications

C-MET, Thrissur and IHRD, Kochi

Skill development training programme for Schedule Tribe students on E - Waste recycling technologies and testing of Restricted of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)

CMET, Hyderabad

Skill development training programme for Schedule Caste students on E - Waste recycling technologies and testing of Restricted of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)

CMET, Hyderabad

Feasibility study for development of process technology to recover valuable materials from end-of life silicon solar modules

CMET, Hyderabad

CoE on products based on Li-ion (Post Cell)

CDAC, Noida

Early detection of pest on Tea plantation through Multispectral imaging from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Tezpur University, Assam

Centre of Excellences

• CoE on E-waste: C-MET, Hyderabad has been actively engaged in the E-waste related research area for the past 10 years and already established environmental friendly e-waste recycling processes of spent Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) at pilot plant scale. In addition, C-MET has also established strong association with industries working in similar lines for further scaling up of the processes. The purpose of establishing Centre of Excellence (CoE) in E-waste Management is to create physical infrastructure and knowledge hub for the development of cost-effective indigenous technology for E-waste recycling and dissemination of E-waste solutions from dismantling to recycling to precious metal separation in collaboration with Government, Industries, and academia. This will enable the empowerment of informal E-waste recyclers in the country, safe disposal of end of life electrical and electronic devices, recovery of precious metals from E-waste, strengthening of current engineering ecosystem to improve the process efficiency, vanquish the export of PCB boards, safe recovery of precious metals and thereby huge savings on foreign currency, dissemination of knowledge base for human resource development, Skill development for prosperous entrepreneurs, and nurturing of start-ups. First year progress of the CoE involves launching of M. Tech program on E-waste in IIT, Hyderabad; recycling of Li-ion battery and un-shredded mobile mother board, extraction of Rare Earth materials from permanent magnet; and launching of Grand Challenge on E-waste management.
• CoE on Rechargeable Battery Technology (Pre-cell): Lithium Ion batteries are ideal power source for consumer electronics, e-mobility and power sectors. These batteries are also expected to find niche applications in e-governance electronics such as VVPAT machines. Current energy storage market in India includes applications such as mobile handsets and their accessories, solar rooftop, grid solar integration, wind integration, electric vehicles, inverter back-ups, telecom, UPS, rural micro-grid and off-grid applications, diesel replacement, railways etc. India has vibrant Lead Acid battery manufacturing industry and needs to augment Li-ion battery cell manufacturing to meet current and future demands of energy storage. India primarily imports Li-ion cells and manufactures battery packs of different capacity for various applications. Government support in form of R&D funding for development of cost-effective end-to-end indigenous technology for manufacturing of rechargeable battery (Li-ion and post lithium) suited for Indian environment is vital for meeting the future demands. The support for R&D is expected to lower up-front investment cost, utilize Indian supply chain, improve profit margin and bring SMEs into play for manufacturing industrial units of rechargeable battery cell manufacturing eco-system. In this direction, MeitY has recently initiated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Rechargeable Battery Technology (Pre-cell) at CMET for scale up and transfer of indigenous technology on Lithium ion battery and Sodium ion battery (post lithium) to Indian SMEs for manufacturing of battery cells. The CoE has now completed SME business plans for its indigenous technology showing profitability under current market conditions, provided paid services to 20 industries, achieved breakthrough in electrode manufacturing to reduce investment and running cost. CoE will create at least 25 start-ups in next five years in collaboration with its industrial partners.
• CoE on Additive Manufacturing- Optoelectronics Sector: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is disruptive set of technologies which are bringing fundamental change in how manufacturing is carried out in many sectors due to its ability for mass customization. AM is enabler for digital manufacturing which has capability in producing products directly from design data by adding layers of material to obtain the final shape with minimal waste, supporting Industry 4.0. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has initiated a Centre of Excellence on Additive Manufacturing at Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), Pune in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Bhubaneswar. The objectives of the centre are to support Indian Additive Manufacturing Eco-system through focused and coordinated research, design and development in collaboration with 3 participating industries. The centre is expected to achieve self-sustenance and focus on developing indigenous materials and machine technologies for electronics manufacturing sector. In current phase of the project, 4 technologies with 4 different machines, 13 materials and 4 different electronics application products are slated to be developed. The project is also bringing opportunities for Indian companies to develop their own AM material and machine technologies for global market at much reduced R&D cost for any sector (not limited to electronics) such as aerospace, medical, automotive etc. The centre is also going to train manpower to support growth of AM economy in India.
• Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuit and Systems (CPPICS): Field programmable photonic gate array (FPPGA) core technology is a multipurpose photonic processor platform which can cater to multiple sectors with multiple applications such as quantum computing, quantum communication, 5G/6G communications, IoT, radar and avionics etc. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has initiated a Centre for Programmable Photonic Integrated Circuit and Systems (CPPICS) at IIT Madras in collaboration with industry to design, manufacture and develop applications based on FPPGA cores using Silicon Photonics. The centre is slated to become self-sufficient in 5 years time, commercialize the products through Start-up and train manpower to boost the eco-system of such manufacturing. The centre is collaborating with M/s Si2 Microsystems, Bangalore for System-in-Package solutions for the proposed silicon photonics FPPGA cores which will create commercially viable products for proposed start-up.
• CoE on products based on Li-ion (Post Cell): Lack of design capability in Indian mobile handset and accessories manufacturing severely hampers domestic companies to introduce new models, customize features for the customers which leaves the market wide open to competitors having this coveted ability. India is also losing valuable foreign exchange to international design hubs in other countries. Thus for long term success of Indian electronics manufacturing, research and innovation supporting design centre needs to be based in India. The setting of industrial parks, creation of eco-system for electronic industries may be the only solution to reduce the import dependency. To make India self-reliant and Aatma Nirbhar in this sector, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Post-cell value chain for power bank technology is proposed to be set up at C-DAC Noida with the requisite infrastructure, equipment, R&D facilities etc. The CoE is expected to seed a design hub for SMEs in the power bank industry and other Indian mobile handset and accessories eco-system products based on Li-ion cells, leading to reduced foreign exchange outgo and employment generation.
• CoE on Additive Manufacturing- Medical Device Sector Additive Manufacturing (AM) is disruptive set of technologies which are bringing fundamental change in how manufacturing is carried out in many sectors due to its ability for mass customization. AM is enabler for digital manufacturing which has capability in producing products directly from design data by adding layers of material to obtain the final shape with minimal waste, supporting Industry 4.0. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has initiated a Centre of Excellence on Additive Manufacturing at Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone, Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh which will support Medical Device Sector. The vision of the centre is to make COE at AMTZ a hub (common facility for local AM industry which will offset disabilities for competing with global peers) for medical device innovation in India by nurturing various medical device start-ups through Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. Through this centre sustainable long-term ecosystem will be provided to start-ups and industries which will enable medical device innovation in India; build skill-sets in the AM industry, in particular AM in the medical industry to achieve competitive advantages in the global market; promote creation of Indian IPR & facilitate IPR filing activity and offer industry, academia, global linkages to provide market access to the incubated products.
• National Centre on Additive Manufacturing (NCAM) - Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has prepared a strategy paper entitled “National Strategy on Additive manufacturing (AM)” [under final approval] for promoting various verticals of the AM sector, including machines, materials, software and designs to leverage the untapped business opportunities that will unfold in the near future. The strategy aims at promoting the creation of a conducive ecosystem for design, development and deployment, and to overcome technical and economic barriers for local manufacturers to seamlessly adopt Additive Manufacturing. This is also expected to facilitate the creation of a support base of domestic manufacturers for setting up operations with supporting ancillaries in India by foreign companies as well as Global AM leaders. The draft strategy on AM identified the need to establish a National Additive Manufacturing Centre to spearhead the National Initiative for positioning India at the forefront of development and adoption of Additive Manufacturing Technologies. The “National Centre for Additive Manufacturing (NCAM)” has been initiated with Telangana State Government at Hyderabad. The centre will be a section 8 company and will nurture the growth and development of AM in the country. The vision of NCAM is to create and enable a sustainable ecosystem for product innovation in India with emphasis on research, design, development, and testing through collaborative efforts between academia, industry and government using the disruptive technology of Additive Manufacturing.

To achieve its mandate of developing the local ecosystem, the responsibilities of NCAM is broadly captured in the following five pillars:

R&D Output (IPR)

A total of 68 patents have been filed under EMCD since 2012 in the areas of electronic materials and components, e-waste, photonics.

EMCD effort towards building products countering COVID-19 pandemic

EMCD has been building efforts towards producing products for countering COVID-19 pandemic through Ministry’s Scientific Society of Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology(C-MET). In this regard following efforts are on-going:

• Development of low-cost polymer swab for COVID testing kits. Considering the acute shortage of testing kits in the country, Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), Pune, scientific society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has developed polymer swabs, consisting of polymer rod/stick and polymer fibers with locally sourced materials. Polymer rod is developed with thermoplastic polypropylene materials through injection moulding. Polymer fibers are then crimp pressed on the polymer rod. Sri Research for Tissue Engineering PVT. Ltd, Bangalore has carried out clinical and ethical trials. Result is satisfactory. Additive Manufacturing Society of India, Bangalore is now considering production of these indigenous kits in the country. A significant cost reduction is possible Italian substitutes.
• Development of indigenous technology of anti-viral and anti-bacterial masks. Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), Pune, scientific society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has developed anti-viral and anti-bacterial masks with metal/metal semiconductor nanoparticles like Ag[at]ZnO and Cu[at]ZnO as a cost effective alternative of N95 masks in Indian market. Yshawantrao Chavan Institute of Science, (YCIS) Satara has carried out testing of the masks for antibacterial properties and pathogen tests and shown encouraging results.
• Development of cost-effective point of care plasmonic portable sensor for covid 19 virus antigen in blood. Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), Thrissur, scientific society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology CMET has developed a point of care plasmonic portable sensor with disposable semiconductor based chips to detect antibody with presence of covid 19 virus in blood. The sensor was tested for food borne pathogens by Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Thiruvananthapuram. Functionalization of the sensor and the docking efficiency analysis are being carried out on the designed bio receptors with different pathogenic strains. First version of the biosensor is under validation at RGCB. This technology is now being modified for antibody testing in blood for Covid 19 patient. Such portable devices would be extremely useful for random testing of patients at affordable cost.
• Digital thermometer for screening and patient temperature monitoring for COVID-19. Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), Thrissur, scientific society of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology CMET has developed an indigenous technology for making chip thermistors (thermal sensor). Most of the commercial digital thermometers are based on thermistors because they have good accuracy, fast response, rugged and safe. Based on this thermal sensor CMET has developed an indigenous technology for low cost fast response digital thermometers suitable for point of care temperature measurements for COVID patients. Further research is on-going for to modify the technology for screening of COVID-19 infection with disposal tips.