Need to Know

• The market for debondable adhesive tape for electronics is projected to grow rapidly, reaching $1.19 billion by 2030.
• E-waste is creating pressure for better disassembly, with global volumes projected to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030.
• Right-to-repair requirements are influencing product design, increasing the importance of technologies that enable safe component removal.
• Adhesive manufacturers are advancing controlled debonding, using triggers such as electricity, heat, induction, and infrared light to release bonds when needed.

Repairability and Recycling

Another trend driving growth in the market for debonding-on-demand adhesive tapes for the electronics industry is the need for products that are designed to be repaired, prompting growth in electronics refurbishment activities. Debonding-on-demand adhesive tapes allow devices such as cell phones, laptops, and tablets to be more easily repaired without the risk of damage to the product. According to a recent study by IMARC Group, the consumer electronics repair and maintenance market is expected to have a 5.19% CAGR from 2026 through 2034, with the market increasing from $20.2 billion in 2025 to $32.2 billion in 2034. Drivers of this trend include the rising costs of devices, which are pushing consumers to choose repair over replacement; a growing preference among consumers for products that support a circular economy and sustainability; and rising awareness of e-waste and its environmental impacts.

Another factor not always considered when looking at demand for electronics that can be repaired is the proliferation of electronic devices and their increasing complexity. With more products incorporating electronics and electronic systems becoming more complex, the number of potential failure points increases, which means higher demand for repairs.

The Right to Repair

The EU’s Right to Repair Directive, which had a July 31, 2026 deadline for EU member states to transpose the directive into national law, and the EU Battery Regulation, which shifts product design requirements toward repairability, are contributing to the need for more technologies that facilitate easy and safe disassembly of electronic devices. The EU Battery Regulation requires portable batteries incorporated into products to be readily removable and replaceable, subject to specified exceptions. Those Article 11 requirements apply beginning February 18, 2027.

And the United States is also joining the right-to-repair trend. Increasingly, Americans are living in states with enforceable right-to-repair laws. Laws went into effect in Connecticut and Texas in July and September of this year. They join California, Oregon, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington, which already had laws in place.

Credit: primeimages / iStock via Getty Images Plus

Economic Case

Finally, there is an economic case for the implementation of repairability and recyclability of electronics. High-value components such as EV batteries can represent a significant percentage of a vehicle’s cost. If non-destructive disassembly is an option, the costs of producing scrap from these products will be reduced and the aftermarket options for these components will increase.

Industry Innovation

Technologies currently used to activate debonding on demand include electricity, where an electrochemical reaction causes debonding; heat, where the substrate is heated until debonding occurs; induction, where electromagnetic fields generate heat and cause debonding; and lasers, where near-infrared lasers trigger a debonding reaction. Below are two technologies developed by major adhesive manufacturers and one end-use application from Apple.

3M: The company’s electrically debondable tape 1100-050 series is a 0.05 mm single-layer pressure-sensitive adhesive that releases in under 90 seconds using 9-30 V and can be rebonded up to three times. 3M also explicitly positions it for right-to-repair applications.

tesa: Over the past decade, the company introduced its tesa® Bond & Detach technology for residue-free tape removal. Its latest innovations include debonding tapes that respond to a number of triggers, including electricity, induction, infrared light, and heat. Tesa has submitted over 50 patents for debonding-on-demand adhesive tape technology. It reports that the average smartphone already contains approximately 70 adhesive tapes from the company, including technologies that bond the screen, battery and cameras.

Apple: In select iPhone 16 models, Apple replaced a more traditional stretch-release debondable adhesive with an electrically activated adhesive that would debond when a low-voltage current was applied, allowing the battery to be replaced more easily.

The challenge for adhesive manufacturers is increasingly about more than creating a durable bond. As electronics evolve, technologies that combine reliable adhesion with controlled debonding could become an important part of designing products for repair, reuse, and recycling.