IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
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IPC COMMUNITY 57 WINTER 2024 technologies that give us confidence that we can achieve fully recyclable PCBs and we high- light one of those projects in this article. Understanding Circularity and the Challenge of PCB Recyclability Circularity is the practice of reducing waste at the end of a product's life by integrating that product back into the production lifecy- cle. It means that when we send an electronic product containing PCBs for waste manage- ment, we can reuse the scrapped product as raw materials in the production of a similar product. However, achieving true circularity can only be done if we have a homogeneous product, meaning the product needs to be made from the same group of materials. This, however, is not the case with PCB-containing electronic products, as they contain a mix of materials. The assembled PCB is a homogeneous inte- gration of multiple products: the bare PCB, plus components soldered on the PCB, such as semiconductor packages, resistors, and capacitors. For us to recycle PCBs effectively, we must first remove the electronic compo- nents so that we are left with the bare PCB, as that is the product that we want to recycle. To understand how that can be done, we must examine what a PCB is made of. The Composition and Bonding of PCBs: Implications for Recycling The surface of a PCB has solder mask and marking ink. Below that are copper conduc- tors in several layers inside the PCB. Addition- ally, all PCBs have surface finishes, such as tin or gold contacts or connectors. Within the PCB, we have different epoxy or other resin versions that encapsulate fiberglass cloths. All these components are bonded together, which, quite frankly, makes separation a chal- lenging task. Currently, the only way to break down the PCB is by grinding the complete PCB, result- ing in a blend of small particles of metals, fiberglass, and resins (epoxy). While there are techniques for separating the different metals