Sustainability in printed circuit board manufacturing decreasing waste using additive technology

A recent method for printed circuit board technology is studied, which greatly reduces the amount of metallic and chemical waste by using an additive technology, as opposed to traditional processes based on subtractive technology which require the use of large amounts of acids and toxic solvents. We examined the eSurface^TM process for electroless plating, by fabricating samples from various materials and studying the quality of the deposited patterns. The results show a significant decrease in the use of chemicals, a reduction in the amount of procedures necessary for printed circuit board manufacturing, and an elimination of solvents and etching materials typically used in PCB manufacturing.