All of us who have visited a PCB manufacturer knows that it
requires a lot of equipment and processes to produce advanced
PCBs. In reality, it is worse than it looks. To produce a
multilayer pcb about 50 process- steps are required which may
involve up to 100 more or less toxic chemicals, lots of
electricity and (rinse-) water. PCB manufacturers must invest in
advanced air and water treatment plants not to pollute the
environment, and a lot of process materials are used and
scrapped like drill entry and backing material, multi-layer
kraft paper and the etch removal of often most of the copper
that was on the laminate when bought! On top of that, a
significant part of every production panel become waste
materials with high content of mixed metals that does not make
it easy to recycle. Is there any way out of this really
environmentally unfriendly materials wastage? The answer is
currently no, but a solution for the future may be just around
the corner which means that it is time for electronics designers
to be