Sustainable printed circuit board substrates based on flame-retarded PLA/flax composites to reduce environmental load of electronics: Quality, reliability, degradation and application tests

Abstract

The present paper introduces a novel, sustainable approach to produce an eco-friendly Printed Circuit Board (PCB) substrate; a substitute for traditional substrates, to significantly reduce e-waste. We present the prepreg technology, the road to actual circuit assembly with application studies, life cycle analysis (LCA), and sustainability analysis. The flame-retarded prepregs and resulting PCB assemblies were based on polylactic acid (PLA), the structure is reinforced with flax textiles. After copper lamination, subtractive PCB production was performed, and thermal and mechanical reliability was investigated in the case of both laminated and bare substrates. Steps of surface roughness, peel and thermal analysis followed. After a new set of assemblies, the post-assembly analysis was extended with further shear strength analysis on the soldered components and mass analysis regarding thermal processes. The evaluation showed that PLA/Flax substrates provide reliable structural performance up to 200 °C in the reflow soldering process; this allows limited but stabilized application possibilities with specific eco-friendly lead-free solders. A basic blinker circuit and a field programmable gate array (FPGA)--based design was produced and tested; the latter has the general complexity of a commercial circuit. A vol% and wt% analysis extended our discussion with a reduction of harmful components in waste in the range of 90%, which is a disruptive and significant result. Life cycle analysis (LCA) quantified the ecological impact of the assembly, highlighting a significant ease on environmental load (∼10%) for the total assembly. Finally, a qualitative degradation study was introduced to the prepared samples to investigate short-term stability with mechanical-, colour-, mass- and scanning electron microscopy (structure) analysis. Early results show that the boards can withstand the harsh environment of a composting bin for a few days, but in the time of a few weeks, degradation starts, pointing to eventual decomposition. The work directly connects with multiple sustainability development goals.