Introducing Biobased Materials into the Electronics Industry Developing a Lignin-based Resin for Printed Wiring Boards

摘要

Lignin, a biopolymer formed in the cell walls of plants, is a by-product of paper manufacturing. In research at IBM, it was incorported into a resin used in the fabrication of printed wiring boars (PWB) for the microelectronics industry. The resin and hysical and electrical properties similar t othose of current laminate resins. PWBs fabricated from the lignin-based resin passed most of the standard physical, electrial, and reliabiity tests for an "FR4"-grade laminate. A comparison of the lignin-based resin and current resins via life-cyclic assessment indicated up to 40% lower energy consumption for the biobased resin.Large-scale manufacture of lignin-based resins would require an inexpensive source of lignin with low ionic contamination.