Suissa.ca

So-called “Circuits in Plastic” (CIP) technology is making your nasty unrecyclable circuit board a thing of the past.  Professor David Thiel and MadhusudanRao Neeli at the faculty of engineering and information technology at Griffith University in Brisbane are set to shake up the computer and electronics industries by discovering a way to make circuits out of plastic.

“The circuit board is a plastic sheet in which all components are placed in divots,” Thiel said. “The conductor is screen-printed into a thin cover sheet which is then thermally bonded to the circuit board.”

I for one am looking forward to this product being widely available in manufacture.  I figure once they get the manufacturing to a point where circuits of a reasonable size can be created, portable electronics will be the first to really benefit from this.  Just imagine not having to buy a new cell phone every time you dumpy our in the toilet, or digital watches which are truly water proof, or cameras that you can actually use underwater.  I think this type of technology has implications far beyond just simple circuit boards.  I can see it used to wire cars or other transportation where short circuits would be a thing of the past.

CIP aim to be more environmentally friendly than traditional circuits as they can be made from recycled plastic, don’t contain any hazardous substances, and since packaging is part of the base circuit board there is no need additional packaging material.

How cool will this be used in actually packaging with e-ink paper… The package could be more fun than the product it holds.