Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1517668
MARCH 2024 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 53 Infrastructure and building a system of support around the technology will be one of our biggest challenges... we can produce quite complex PCBs. Still, the product will be under development for years. Plant-based: ese are developed by the English company, Jiva Materials, with the goal of recycling back to nature instead of being reused to build a new product. For lower-end PCB technologies, this material is very promis- ing. For more complex builds, time and exten- sive R&D will be required. How long will this take to germinate? Maybe 20 years, or can it happen faster? Is govern- ment support critical, or will industry drive itself? Infrastructure and building a system of support around the technology will be one of our big- gest challenges, maybe more than the develop- ment of the materials themselves. How will we collect the waste? How will we reuse it? With any new technology or eco- system, sometimes we work on it and it seems like nothing hap- pens for a long time, but when the right people are on board at the right time, things begin to change. Government support or pressure could move this much faster. It really depends on the attention we get. One example is the momentum in the U.S. and Europe around advocacy and our respective legislation around chips. Yes. Chips are an interesting example because the carriers of those chips are made of semi- additive manufactured PCBs, which means the processes to manufacture that product inher- ently require less energy, water, and material, and a lot less copper. So, if we could move the PCB industry from traditional, subtractive processes—etching away all the copper—to additive manufacturing, it will help reduce our carbon footprint as well. There is a nexus where industry creating less waste, and using less water and fewer raw materials meets with an industry also moving toward the end game of total circularity or recyclability. Jan, what is your testing process for these new materials? We are testing FR-4-like material as we test all materials: to see that they meet IPC require- ments. ese FR-4-like materials have a qual- ity level very similar to a normal FR-4 or halo- gen-free material. So, we are subjecting these new materials to all the same stresses that tra- ditional materials must withstand. It's another story when we look into the plant-based materials that today cannot meet the same requirements and will more naturally be assimilated into the environment. ere are still huge developments that must happen to reach a stage where these materials can be used in high-reliability electronics applications. I imagine, even after significant development and testing, there will still be a technology divide as to which applications must use FR-4-like materials and which can use plant-based materials. Does that remain to be seen? Yes, I believe that is true. For both material types we will see great development in the next years. If we get attention, and ultimately, if peo- ple are willing to buy the materials at lower technology levels, the development of these alternate laminate technologies will increase faster. Where are you currently with your testing of these materials? We have just received our next delivery of the Asian version of the FR-4 style, now being tested by NCAB and some good partners. A new development of the same material has been announced, and we see another laminate factory going in the same direction; they're all Asian manufacturers.