Approach
Reciprocal Engineering – RE Oy, based in Helsinki, develops electrically insulating, optically transparent, ferromagnetic thin‑film materials that enable new, highly efficient manufacturing pathways for electronic devices. Our technology reduces semiconductor processing steps while meeting stringent environmental requirements — a direct response to some of the most urgent sustainability challenges in the industry.
Our work is rooted in fundamental physics and chemistry, carried out in collaboration with leading research laboratories. This includes the development of a crystallographic modelling code, research in electromagnetics, and the application of advanced materials science to disruptive product development. We have extensive experience in translating structure–property relationships into functional materials with real‑world impact.
Crystal‑structure data are routinely engineered in reciprocal space — the foundation behind our company’s name.
We invest in materials, instrumentation, and computational tools
Built in collaboration with world‑class laboratories.
A breakthrough platform for energy‑ and cost‑efficient manufacturing
Our verified magnetic, electrically insulating thin films enable cost‑effective manufacturing of sensors, memories, magneto‑optical components, and RF/microwave devices for portable electronics — including smartphones, IoT systems, and specialized solutions in medical and automotive applications.
The technology originates from the development of new functional materials, characterized using neutron and synchrotron X‑ray scattering, X‑ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and magnetic and electrical measurements at leading R&D laboratories. This foundation has evolved into advanced thin‑film fabrication, characterization, and device‑level implementation, enabling solutions to critical technical and environmental challenges.
Sustainability challenges in today’s semiconductor industry
The semiconductor industry often speaks about “sustainable governance,” “corporate responsibility,” or “green chip initiatives.” Yet despite the rhetoric, the underlying manufacturing paradigm has barely changed. True sustainability will not come from incremental improvements to legacy processes — it requires fundamentally new materials and patterning technologies.
Below we outline key structural problems in electronics manufacturing. These challenges are significant, but with the right materials platform, they are solvable.
Energy consumption of connected devices
The number of connected devices continues to grow, but the energy footprint grows with it. According to Enerdata, information and communication technology (ICT) already consumes an estimated 5–9% of global electricity, and this could rise to 20% by 2030. Reducing device‑level power consumption is essential for any realistic sustainability roadmap.
The realities of today’s chip manufacturing
Modern patterning is still based on lithography — a technique more than two centuries old. Despite countless variants, the core process remains slow, expensive, irreversible, and environmentally burdensome. Yet the industry continues to invest heavily in this legacy approach, largely through national subsidies, reinforcing a system that leaves little room for disruptive alternatives.
Lithography accounts for 30–50% of total chip manufacturing costs
A single CMOS wafer may undergo 50–100 lithography cycles. Each cycle consumes significant energy and vast quantities of ultra‑pure water. As Bloomberg reported (August 26, 2022), “TSMC is expected to soon consume more energy than the entire 21‑million‑person population of Sri Lanka,” accounting for roughly 6% of Taiwan’s total electricity use in 2020 — and rising.
Water usage is equally staggering: TSMC alone uses around 200,000 tons of water per day. Photoresists and associated chemicals introduce additional environmental and health risks.
Meanwhile, an entire ecosystem of suppliers — mask aligners, etch tools, photoresists, developers, and specialty chemicals — is required to sustain incremental progress. The result is a cost structure that only a handful of heavily subsidized companies can support, ultimately passed on to end users.
A 5 mm × 5 mm fixed block from a foundry can cost €252,000 per mm² — a barrier to innovation.
Rare earth mining
Rare earth elements (REEs) are widely used in electronics, especially magnetic materials. Maintaining supply requires new mining operations, which bring environmental, health, and geopolitical risks, as highlighted in the Harvard International Review. Many electronic applications do not inherently require REEs — better material design can eliminate them entirely. Relying on “recycled REEs” is not a long‑term solution; it reflects a lack of genuine innovation.
Waste generation
Electronic waste is one of the fastest‑growing waste streams. Valuable elements may be recovered, but toxic materials — including lead, cadmium, and beryllium — often are not. Recycling is complex, energy‑intensive, and costly. According to the World Economic Forum, approximately 50 million tons of e‑waste are generated annually, yet only 20% is formally recycled. Without intervention, this could exceed 120 million tons per year by 2050.
Recycling itself consumes significant energy and chemicals. Extending device lifetime through upgradeable materials is a far more sustainable path.
A different path
We take a fundamentally different approach. Our material platform:
(a) can be patterned directly and rapidly at room temperature through a scalable process — without photoresists, exposure, etching, deposition, cleaning steps, or expensive equipment, and
(b) can be reset to its pre‑patterned state when needed. Resetting is more sustainable than recycling or manufacturing new chips.
Disruptive solutions do not emerge from incremental improvements to legacy processes. They require scientific depth, engineering rigor, and a willingness to rethink the fundamentals. Our technology is built from basic research upward — not from the constraints of existing practice.