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Electrical and electronic components, the silent orchestrators of our technological symphony, have been crucial for enabling societal advances. From the simple beginnings of vacuum tubes to the complex circuitry in today’s smartphones, the role and type of electronic components have continued to evolve. The components of electrical and electronic equipment once it has reached the end of its useful life as a product are called electronic waste (e-waste). The exponential growth of electronic devices has made e-waste management an important environmental issue. Improper disposal of e-waste to landfills has serious environmental consequences for the global ecosystem. The majority of discarded e-waste such as computers, mobile phones, televisions, printers, and so on, are embedded with printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are an essential and basic component. PCBs of e-waste contain many different metals including precious metals (Ag, Au, Pd, Pt, etc.), critical elements (Li, Ni, Ga, graphite, rare earth elements, etc.) and non-critical metals (Al and Fe) in varying percentages depending on the electronics. In the emerging era of circular economy recycling, waste printed circuit boards (wPCBs) of any e-waste are seen as an alternative to processing mining ores to meet future metals demand. Different recycling methods such as mechanical separation, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, biohydrometallurgy, pyrolysis, electrolysis and supercritical fluid technologies have been explored to extract the valuable metals from e-waste. This article aims to provide a critical review of the different recycling routes for e-waste, with a focus on the emerging supercritical fluid technologies (SFT), and their opportunities and challenges. This review will compare the emerging SFTs for existing processes used in industry and other alternative treatment methods. The specific areas of comparison include technical complexity and environmental impacts. Graphical abstract

The past several decades have witnessed great progress in high‐performance field effect transistors (FET) as one of the most important electronic components. At the same time, due to their intrinsic advantages, such as multiparameter accessibility, excellent electric signal amplification function, and ease of large‐scale manufacturing, FET as tactile sensors for flexible wearable devices, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and other fields to perceive external stimuli has also attracted great attention and become a significant field of general concern. More importantly, FET has a unique three‐terminal structure, which enables its different components to detect external mechanics through different sensing mechanisms. On one hand, it provides an important platform to shed deep insights into the underlying mechanisms of the tactile sensors. On the other hand, these properties could in turn endow excellent components for the construction of tactile matrix sensor arrays with high quality. With special emphasis on the configuration of FETs, this review classified and summarized structure‐optimized FET tactile sensors with gate, dielectric layer, semiconductor layer, and source/drain electrodes as sensing active components, respectively. The working principles and the state‐of‐the‐art protocols in terms of high‐performance tactile sensors are detail discussed and highlighted, the innovative pixel distribution and integration analysis of the transistor sensor matrix array concerning flexible electronics are also introduced. We hope that the introduction of this review can provide some inspiration for future researchers to design and fabricate high‐performance FET‐based tactile sensor chips for flexible electronics and other fields. This review focuses on FET‐based tactile pressure sensors. The working principles of this kind of tactile sensors are discussed in detail, the state‐of‐the‐art protocols for high‐performance tactile sensing are highlighted, and the major advances in large‐scale tactile sensor arrays and their applications in robotics, health care, and smart manufacturing in terms of transistor matrix are also introduced.

High‐frequency electromagnetic waves and electronic products can bring great convenience to people's life, but lead to a series of electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems, such as great potential dangers to the normal operation of electronic components and human safety. Therefore, the research of EMI shielding materials has attracted extensive attention by the scholars. Among them, polymer‐based EMI shielding materials with light weight, high specific strength, and stable properties have become the current mainstream. The construction of 3D conductive networks has proved to be an effective method for the preparation of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials with excellent shielding effectiveness (SE). In this paper, the shielding mechanism of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials with 3D conductive networks is briefly introduced, with emphasis on the preparation methods and latest research progress of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials with different 3D conductive networks. The key scientific and technical problems to be solved in the field of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials are also put forward. Finally, the development trend and application prospects of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials are prospected. Researches show that the construction of 3D conductive networks can enhance the attenuation of electromagnetic waves, achieving the remarkable EMI SE for polymer‐based composites with ultralow loading of conductive fillers. In this paper, the shielding mechanism and preparation methods of polymer‐based EMI shielding materials in recent years, as well as the latest research progress in the field of EMI shielding are reviewed, and the key scientific and technical problems that need to be solved are proposed. Finally, the development trend and application prospects of the polymer‐based EMI shielding materials are prospected.

The present study involves the experimental investigation of the heat sink aided with nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material and heat pipe for the passive cooling of electronic components, thereby increasing the reliability of the working system. In this study, RT-35HC is used as the base phase change materials along with the incorporation of Graphene oxide nanoparticles (0.003 mass% and 0.005 mass%) for different heating loads i.e., 1 KW m−2, 1.5 KW m−2 and 2.5 KW m−2. Results illustrated that after the charging phase, heat sink aided with nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material and heat pipe has shown the best results for lower heating loads of 1 KW m−2, 1.5 KW m−2, respectively, by showing the temperature reduction of 29.53% and 34.06% (at 1 KW m−2) and also 36.29% and 36.45% (at 1.5 KW m−2) for 0.003 mass% and 0.006 mass%, respectively. For high heat flux of 2.5 KW m−2, phase change material/heat pipe-aided heat sink has shown the best combination i.e., showing a temperature reduction of 42.81%, respectively, whereas, for both the concentrations i.e., 0.003 mass% and 0.006 mass%, the reduction in the peak temperature of heat sink at the end of the charging process is 32.95% and 37.54%. Hence, RT-35HC-based nanoparticle-enhanced phase change material composite-aided heat sinks are best recommended for lower power levels whereas, at higher power levels the thermal conductivity reduces due to the particles agglomeration.

The substantial heat generation due to miniaturization and high-degree integration of electronic devices is one of the major issues to facilitate efficient thermal management in power electronics. Though epoxy-based composites have shown great interest in different applications such as laminated circuit board, electronic component encapsulations, and potting, they have low application temperature (up to 150 °C) and higher mismatch of coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between the heat source and heat sink. Here, poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK) composites reinforced with hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanoplatelets have been developed by liquid mixing and re-melting method for a step change in composite materials with lower CTE and significantly improved thermal dissipation capability. The lowest achieved CTE is 2.1 µm m −1  K −1 , and the highest thermal conductivity is 1.04 W m −1  K −1 in PEEK/hBN composites at 30 wt% hybrid hBN content (hBN platelets with two different sizes, i.e. 70 nm and 500 nm, taken as 1:1 weight ratio), due to the formation of thermally conductive inter-filler networks. The composites show negligible variation in K with the working temperature up to 250 °C. The developed composites also exhibit excellent electrical insulation properties; thus, they will have good potential in thermal management for power electronic applications. Graphical abstract

The efficiency of electronic equipment is the cornerstone of technology development. Thermal conditions significantly affect the performance of electronic components. Moreover, mechanical strength, size, and mass are the parameters that impose some limitations. Thus, they should be considered in the high tech industry. Therefore, it is needed to examine both mechanical and thermal behaviors simultaneously. Microchannel and inserted high-conductivity materials are two usual cooling approaches. To improve cooling efficiency and mechanical strength, a new method named Hybrid is introduced here. This method is a combination of microchannel and high-conductivity methods. In this study, the consumed energy, the conductivity ratio of the material with high conductivity, peak temperature, and maximum Von Mises stress have been investigated and analyzed. For the hybrid method, the peak temperature and stress were minimized regarding the volume of high-conductivity change in the tangential direction of the duct. The results showed that the tangential hybrid method could decrease the peak temperature and peak Von Mises stress, up to 40% and 34% in comparison to the microchannel and high-conductivity inserts method.

Offers an overview of state of the art passive macromodeling techniques with an emphasis on black-box approaches This book offers coverage of developments in linear macromodeling, with a focus on effective, proven methods. After starting with a definition of the fundamental properties that must characterize models of physical systems, the authors discuss several prominent passive macromodeling algorithms for lumped and distributed systems and compare them under accuracy, efficiency, and robustness standpoints. The book includes chapters with standard background material (such as linear time-invariant circuits and systems, basic discretization of field equations, state-space systems), as well as appendices collecting basic facts from linear algebra, optimization templates, and signals and transforms. The text also covers more technical and advanced topics, intended for the specialist, which may be skipped at first reading. * Provides coverage of black-box passive macromodeling, an approach developed by the authors * Elaborates on main concepts and results in a mathematically precise way using easy-to-understand language * Illustrates macromodeling concepts through dedicated examples * Includes a comprehensive set of end-of-chapter problems and exercises Passive Macromodeling: Theory and Applications serves as a reference for senior or graduate level courses in electrical engineering programs, and to engineers in the fields of numerical modeling, simulation, design, and optimization of electrical/electronic systems. Stefano Grivet-Talocia, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Circuit Theory at the Politecnico di Torino in Turin, Italy, and President of IdemWorks. Dr. Grivet-Talocia is author of over 150 technical papers published in international journals and conference proceedings. He invented several algorithms in the area of passive macromodeling, making them available through IdemWorks. Bjørn Gustavsen, PhD, is a Chief Research Scientist in Energy Systems at SINTEF Energy Research in Trondheim, Norway. More than ten years ago, Dr. Gustavsen developed the original version of the vector fitting method with Prof. Semlyen at the University of Toronto. The vector fitting method is one of the most widespread approaches for model extraction. Dr. Gustavsen is also an IEEE fellow.

Point-of-care testing (POCT) in low-resource settings requires tools that can operate independently of typical laboratory infrastructure. Due to its favorable signal-to-background ratio, a wide variety of biomedical tests utilize fluorescence as a readout. However, fluorescence techniques often require expensive or complex instrumentation and can be difficult to adapt for POCT. To address this issue, we developed a pocket-sized fluorescence detector costing less than $15 that is easy to manufacture and can operate in low-resource settings. It is built from standard electronic components, including an LED and a light dependent resistor, filter foils and 3D printed parts, and reliably reaches a lower limit of detection (LOD) of ≈ 6.8 nM fluorescein, which is sufficient to follow typical biochemical reactions used in POCT applications. All assays are conducted on filter paper, which allows for a flat detector architecture to improve signal collection. We validate the device by quantifying in vitro RNA transcription and also demonstrate sequence-specific detection of target RNAs with an LOD of 3.7 nM using a Cas13a-based fluorescence assay. Cas13a is an RNA-guided, RNA-targeting CRISPR effector with promiscuous RNase activity upon recognition of its RNA target. Cas13a sensing is highly specific and adaptable and in combination with our detector represents a promising approach for nucleic acid POCT. Furthermore, our open-source device may be used in educational settings, through providing low cost instrumentation for quantitative assays or as a platform to integrate hardware, software and biochemistry concepts in the future.

Highlights This work starts the research of pseudocapacitive oxide materials for multivalent Zn 2+ storage. The constructed RuO 2 ·H 2 O||Zn systems exhibit outstanding electrochemical performance, including a high discharge capacity, ultrafast charge/discharge capability, and excellent cycling stability. The redox pseudocapacitive behavior of RuO 2 ·H 2 O for Zn 2+ storage is revealed. Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion hybrid capacitors and zinc-ion batteries are promising safe energy storage systems. In this study, amorphous RuO 2 ·H 2 O for the first time was employed to achieve fast and ultralong-life Zn 2+ storage based on a pseudocapacitive storage mechanism. In the RuO 2 ·H 2 O||Zn zinc-ion hybrid capacitors with Zn(CF 3 SO 3 ) 2 aqueous electrolyte, the RuO 2 ·H 2 O cathode can reversibly store Zn 2+ in a voltage window of 0.4–1.6 V (vs. Zn/Zn 2+ ), delivering a high discharge capacity of 122 mAh g −1 . In particular, the zinc-ion hybrid capacitors can be rapidly charged/discharged within 36 s with a very high power density of 16.74 kW kg −1 and a high energy density of 82 Wh kg −1 . Besides, the zinc-ion hybrid capacitors demonstrate an ultralong cycle life (over 10,000 charge/discharge cycles). The kinetic analysis elucidates that the ultrafast Zn 2+ storage in the RuO 2 ·H 2 O cathode originates from redox pseudocapacitive reactions. This work could greatly facilitate the development of high-power and safe electrochemical energy storage.

Optimal control theory deals with finding protocols to steer a system between assigned initial and final states, such that a trajectory-dependent cost function is minimized. The application of optimal control to stochastic systems is an open and challenging research frontier, with a spectrum of applications ranging from stochastic thermodynamics to biophysics and data science. Among these, the design of nanoscale electronic components motivates the study of underdamped dynamics, leading to practical and conceptual difficulties. In this work, we develop analytic techniques to determine protocols steering finite time transitions at a minimum thermodynamic cost for stochastic underdamped dynamics. As cost functions, we consider two paradigmatic thermodynamic indicators. The first is the Kullback–Leibler divergence between the probability measure of the controlled process and that of a reference process. The corresponding optimization problem is the underdamped version of the Schrödinger diffusion problem that has been widely studied in the overdamped regime. The second is the mean entropy production during the transition, corresponding to the second law of modern stochastic thermodynamics. For transitions between Gaussian states, we show that optimal protocols satisfy a Lyapunov equation, a central tool in stability analysis of dynamical systems. For transitions between states described by general Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions, we introduce an infinite-dimensional version of the Poincaré-Lindstedt multiscale perturbation theory around the overdamped limit. This technique fundamentally improves the standard multiscale expansion. Indeed, it enables the explicit computation of momentum cumulants, whose variation in time is a distinctive trait of underdamped dynamics and is directly accessible to experimental observation. Our results allow us to numerically study cost asymmetries in expansion and compression processes and make predictions for inertial corrections to optimal protocols in the Landauer erasure problem at the nanoscale.