The Effect of Lamination on Printed Silver Tracks for Plastic Circuits

Abstract

To combat the global e-waste crisis, there is an urgent need to develop a technology where environmental pollution from electronics, their manufacturing and product end of life is minimized through recycling and re-use. Circuits in Plastic (CiP) is electronic systems manufacturing technology that does not use traditional hazardous chemicals with cost and environmental advantages. This paper reports the effect of the hot lamination on different plastic materials including recycled and bioplastics, screen printed with silver ink. The use of a thermal lamination processing step forms the circuit connections and cures the screen printed silver in one process. Many different plastic types can be used to form these circuits. These observations support previous life cycle assessment arguments that CiP has a lower environmental cost compared to traditional PCB circuit formation.