Wet processed and dry phototools in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards

In the manufacturing of printed circuit boards, the pattern of the copper circuits is first generated on a photographic film (the ‘phototool’). These phototools are then used to copy the circuit patterns to the printed circuit boards. In order to generate the circuit pattern on a conventional silver film, the film is exposed to light in a photoplotter and then chemically processed. Mastertool® is a new dry phototool for the production of printed circuit boards. It is based on bismuth instead of silver and does not require chemical processing after exposure. A comparative LCA of Mastertool® and silver film shows that Mastertool® causes significantly less environmental impacts over its entire lifecycle. The underlying reasons are threefold. First, thanks to its improved technical characteristics, Mastertool® has a longer lifetime. Second, its use requires less energy because no chemical processing is needed. Finally, no photographic chemicals are needed and no silver containing chemical waste is produced in the printed circuit board production.