Soluboard® Put to the Test with ipXchange and Elliot Williams

Circular electronics is often discussed as a future ambition. At Jiva Materials, we believe it must be demonstrated in practice.

In collaboration with ipXchange and hardware engineer Elliot Williams, we conducted a full industrial demonstration of Soluboard® – following a printed circuit board from schematic design through assembly, operation, and ultimately material separation.

The objective was simple:

Prove that circularity can be engineered directly into electronics manufacturing without compromising real-world performance.

👉 Watch the full demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6UEIX5GVVk

Why PCBs Are So Difficult to Recycle

Electronic recycling today focuses on recovering valuable metals such as copper, gold, silver, and platinum. Yet the largest material component of most electronics – the PCB substrate itself – remains unrecoverable.

Traditional circuit boards are manufactured using FR-4, a composite of fiberglass reinforced with thermoset epoxy resin. While durable, this structure creates a fundamental recycling problem:

• The resin cannot be remelted or dissolved.

• Fiberglass reinforcement cannot be separated economically.

• After metal extraction, the substrate becomes waste destined for landfill or incineration.

In other words, even successful recycling leaves behind a permanent material legacy.

The demonstration asked a different question:

What if the substrate could be removed before recycling begins?

Designing a Dissolvable PCB

To test this concept, Elliot Williams designed a fully functional PCB using Soluboard®.

The board – a working LED ring chaser circuit – was intentionally developed using standard electronic design workflows to demonstrate accessibility for engineers. No specialised design rules or unconventional layouts were required.

Key takeaway:

Soluboard® integrates into existing design ecosystems as a drop-in alternative substrate.

The goal was not experimentation in a laboratory environment, but validation under realistic engineering conditions.

Inside the Material: A New Kind of Substrate

Under microscopic inspection, the difference between Soluboard® and conventional FR-4 becomes immediately visible.

Instead of fiberglass bound by permanent epoxy resin, Soluboard® uses:

• Natural fibre reinforcement derived from plant-based materials

• A non-toxic, water-soluble polymer binder

• Halogen-free flame-retardant chemistry

This architecture enables mechanical strength during product life while allowing controlled separation at end of life.

The result is a substrate engineered for performance and recovery.

From Research to Industrial Manufacturing

As part of the collaboration, the film team visited Jiva Materials’ UK manufacturing facility to document how Soluboard® is produced at industrial scale.

The process transforms biodegradable polymer systems and natural fibres into high-performance laminate through:

• polymer blending and pelletisation

• fibre reinforcement layering

• precision lamination under heat and pressure

• copper cladding compatible with standard PCB fabrication

What began as a university research project has evolved into a scalable manufacturing platform designed for global electronics supply chains.

Standard Assembly – Minimal Process Changes

A critical question for manufacturers is whether sustainable materials require disruptive production changes.

The assembled boards underwent conventional SMT manufacturing, including:

• stencil-applied solder paste

• automated pick-and-place assembly

• reflow soldering in industrial ovens

The primary adjustment involved using low-temperature solder profiles – already common in modern electronics manufacturing.

No specialised tooling, redesign, or unconventional processes were required.

Performance testing confirmed the PCB functioned exactly as intended.

Circularity did not come at the expense of usability.

The Moment of Separation: Dissolution in Water

The final stage demonstrated Soluboard®’s defining capability.

When placed in hot water:

• The water-soluble binder delaminates

• Natural fibres separate and biodegrade

• Copper traces lift intact

• Components can be removed without destructive desoldering

• Wastewater remains certified non-hazardous

Rather than shredding or burning electronics, materials separate cleanly into distinct recovery streams.

Integrated circuits and connectors could be physically removed by hand – something impossible with conventional FR-4 boards without energy-intensive processing.

This is not recycling after destruction.

It is disassembly by design.

Separating Waste Streams – The Key to Circular Electronics

The most significant outcome of the demonstration is the separation of waste streams.

Traditional recycling mixes materials together, creating contamination and limiting recovery efficiency. Soluboard® enables:

• reusable electronic components

• recoverable copper layers

• biodegradable fibre material

• safe aqueous processing

By removing epoxy and fiberglass from the equation, recycling becomes simpler, cleaner, and more economically viable.

Circularity is achieved not through more aggressive recycling technologies — but through smarter material choices at the start.

What This Means for Engineers

Electronics innovation continues to accelerate. Devices surrounding us today will become obsolete within years, contributing to a growing global waste challenge.

Engineers and designers increasingly face a new responsibility:

Design not only for performance, but for end-of-life recovery.

The demonstration shows that choosing recyclable substrates does not require abandoning established workflows. Instead, it introduces an opportunity to rethink lifecycle impact without sacrificing practicality.

Circular electronics becomes achievable when sustainability is embedded at the materials layer.

Circularity, Designed from the Start

This collaboration with ipXchange and Elliot Williams illustrates a broader shift underway in the electronics industry.

Sustainability is moving upstream – from disposal solutions toward material innovation.

Soluboard® represents a new design philosophy:

Electronics should not be built to become waste.

They should be built to separate, recover, and re-enter the manufacturing cycle.

👉 Watch the full demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6UEIX5GVVk

Engineering Recovery into Electronics

The collaboration with ipXchange and Elliot Williams signals a meaningful transition within the electronics sector.

Environmental responsibility is no longer confined to end-of-life recycling strategies. It is being addressed at the material selection stage – where long-term impact is ultimately determined.

Soluboard® embodies this shift.

Rather than designing products that require complex, energy-intensive processing at disposal, it enables controlled separation of materials at end of life. Components, copper, and fibre can be recovered cleanly – supporting a manufacturing model built around reuse instead of waste.

👉 Watch the full demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6UEIX5GVVk

Bring Soluboard® into Your Next Hardware Project

The industrial validation with ipXchange confirms that recyclable PCB substrates can operate within standard engineering workflows and manufacturing environments.

To accelerate adoption, Jiva Materials is sponsoring selected prototype builds using Soluboard®.

If you are developing a PCB-based product – whether in consumer electronics, IoT, industrial systems, or research applications — this is an opportunity to evaluate performance, manufacturability, and end-of-life recovery within your own design framework.

Selected participants will gain the opportunity to:

• Assess electrical and mechanical performance in real-world conditions

• Examine practical disassembly and material separation

• Validate compatibility with existing fabrication processes

• Demonstrate measurable sustainability integration in their product development

👉 Submit your design for consideration here:
https://form.jotform.com/260214030083339

Progress in circular electronics depends on material decisions made today.

This is an opportunity to integrate recoverability into your product architecture from the outset.