Circular Economy Applied To Electronic Printed Circuit Boards Based On Paper

The amount of e-waste correctly recycled does not meet the targets set by the EC. The objective of CircEl-Paper is to increase the amount of e-waste recycling by feeding it in the paper recycling process that is much more accepted by the consumer. Therefore, CircEl-Paper focusses on the widely used board technology (Printed Circuit Board PCB) and aims for replacing the fiber-composite core material FR4 by paper technology. Based on positive experiences in manufacturing of circuitry on paper, integration density has to be increased and sound evaluation of separation of used electronic materials in the recycling process has to be carried out. In order to transfer the PCB technology to circular economy each process step (lamination, gluing/soldering, manufacturing of vertical interconnects, encapsulation etc..) is scrutinized and alternative approaches are developed in order to increase the part of the materials that are recyclable, are bio-based, come from secondary raw materials or are at least harmless for the environment. Three different use cases in the field of medical application, logistics and consumer electronics, are realized demonstrating the performance of the paper-based PCB. The CircEl-Paper project is carried out by 3 RTO: Fraunhofer (project coordinator), Joanneum, RISE, that care about novel material approaches and adaptation of process techniques. Three industries: ArjoWiggins (electronic paper) replaced by F1 Paper on January, 1st, 2023, VFP (conductive inks) and Malmö Mönsterkort (Printed Circuit Board) as well as academic partners G-INP, investigating modification of recycling processes.