Jiva Material’s Soluboard: The Water Soluble Circuit Board

What if your circuit board didn’t have to outlive the planet?

At Computex 2025, we caught up with Jiva Materials—creators of a revolutionary biodegradable PCB substrate that doesn’t just aim to replace FR4… it washes it away entirely. Literally. At end-of-life, this substrate can dissolve in warm water instead of clogging up landfill or requiring expensive e-waste processing.

What is Soluboard Constructed From?

But before you assume it’s a gimmick, here’s the engineering truth: this material is made from natural fibres like jute and flax, bonded with a biodegradable thermoplastic polymer, and flame-retardant to the same level as FR4. This biodegradable PCB substrate is not a prototype—it’s already functional in two-layer plated through-hole designs and processes through existing PCB fabs.

That’s right: no need for new infrastructure, no need to compromise on performance. This is a drop-in solution. The goal from day one was clear—to build a biodegradable PCB substrate that acts as a seamless replacement for fiberglass substrates (like FR4) across most fabrication workflows.

Engineering Considerations

Now, let’s talk real-world engineering. Jiva uses low-temperature solder (around 170 °C) to accommodate the substrate’s thermal behaviour. But this change brings a surprising upside: up to 40% reduction in carbon emissions during the assembly process.

As of now, Jiva supports standard finishes and is actively developing thinner materials to support multilayer stack-ups. Dielectric properties are also improving, with current materials already showing strong compatibility with RF applications like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. For many consumer and IoT devices, this biodegradable PCB substrate is already within spec—and only getting better.

So, why isn’t it everywhere yet? Price. But not by much. At current production volumes, it’s only about 10–15% more expensive than FR4.

2035?

This isn’t a “maybe one day” solution. It’s already on the table. If your next design doesn’t require exotic stack-ups or aggressive thermal margins, you might want to consider a biodegradable PCB substrate. It could be the easiest sustainability win you ever spec into a product.

What would YOU build on Soluboard?