Sustainable Additive Manufacturing of Printed Circuit Boards

Woo Soo Kim received his B.Sc. degree from Yonsei University and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from KAIST. He was a Post-Doctoral Associate with MIT. He was also a Senior Research Scientist with Xerox Corporation. He joined Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada, as Assistant Professor in 2010 and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 2016. From 2017 to 2018 he was a Visiting Professor with Seoul National University, Korea and with Empa, Switzerland. His research interest is broad in the field of additive manufacturing. He is a recipient of the Quadrant Award 2007 and the Hanwha New Faculty Award 2016. We discuss energy and cost analysis on three-dimensional printing (3DP), which shows great potential for energy-saving manufacturing. The 3D printed circuit board (3D PCB) has been considered as one of the next-generation green technologies thanks to less energy and materials consumption, and sustainability. We provide reliable analysis on 3D PCBs' sustainable impact on the environment and energy-saving perspective. The assessment indicates that the 3D PCB cuts energy consumption, conserves materials, and reduces waste. © 2018 Elsevier Inc.