News
Concoat Ltd. (Fleet, UK) has engineered a water-based conformal coating addition to its Humiseal range that can protect electronics assemblies at temperature extremes beyond the capabilities of existing resin-based alternatives. The performance characteristics of Humiseal 1H20 stem from a new water-based chemical formulation that was engineered by Concoat and took over a year of research and development to produce.
"1H20 is currently undergoing qualification testing between -65°C and +185°C," said Concoat's technical director, David Greenman. "Because the top end figure is at least 50°C higher than conventional resin materials, this product will be especially relevant to the automotive industry where upper performance limits are ideally rated at 180°C for engine bay electronics."
As water-based coatings, the series is also environment-friendly to meet with the drive in Europe to reduce volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Concoat's chief chemist Phil Kinner, said, "The coating is both safe and easy-to-use, it has a superior 8kV breakdown voltage that is higher than conventional resin, it is extremely flexible and offers excellent chemical and mar resistance, and is repairable. And by being non-hazardous and low odor, it greatly reduces the demands on fume extraction equipment."
Managing director Graham Naisbitt said, "It also meets the growing demand for higher performance conformal coating materials capable of protecting modern printed circuit boards (PCBs) that exploit ever greater packaging densities allied with reduced conductor widths and spacings that are now being used in increasingly hostile operating environments."
1H20 AR7 Par 2 is qualified to MIL-I-46058C and IPC CC-830B. UR3 meets requirements for IPC-CC-830B and UR4 MIL-I and CC-830-B are pending.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The Surface Mount Technology Association (SMTA, Minneapolis, MN) Medical Electronics Symposium will take place May 19-20 at the Marriott Minneapolis Airport Hotel in Bloomington, MN. It will explore devices, components, packaging and assembly technologies. The conference chairman is Jeff Kennedy, Manufacturers' Services Ltd., and technical sessions include design/reliability, manufacturing techniques and requirements, process and quality control, packaging, sensors/microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and business/regulations.
Also featured during the program will be a Plenary Session, NEMI Medical Sector Roadmap, presented by Terry Dishongh of Intel Corp. A keynote presentation will be given by J. Doug Field, vice president of product development and chief engineer for Segway Co., which is known for the world's first self-balancing, electric powered personal transporter.
A second Plenary Session on Medical Product Outsourcing and Technology Trends will be presented by Keith Robinson, Frost & Sullivan, and a concluding roundtable discussion will focus on trends and challenges associated with bringing new products to market and working with multiple partners in a complex supply chain. The panel will expose barriers to entry of service to the medical sector and the unique challenges associated with supporting the medical products manufacturing process.
www.smta.org/education/symposia/symposia.cfm
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
The IPC Association (Northbrook, IL) recently commended DEK's (Zurich, Switzerland) technological advances with its new via fill process. Awarded a slot in the Innovative Technology Showcase at the APEX exhibition in Anaheim, CA, DEK's 100% fill technology was described by the judges as groundbreaking.
As part of the new and emerging technologies showcase, the process delivers 100% fill of substrate vias with no voids and minimal surface residue. This Pro-Flow-based process offers solutions to problems such as insufficient fill, voiding, poor throughput and excessive handling of product.
The fully enclosed head is used in conjunction with a dedicated tooling fixture that ensures complete fill of vias in the minimum of print passes (typically two), with a paste pressure of 2.5 bar and a print speed of 25mm/s. In addition, the print material has been shown to have a life of over three months in the transfer head.
Traditional manual or squeegee-based systems are less clean and operator-friendly, and take multiple passes to push material into vias. They can also use a vacuum table to pull material through, resulting in both voids and inadequate deposition.
With results in throughput of over fives times faster than traditional squeegee-based fill processes, the system is repeatable and offers accuracy.
DEK is a global provider of advanced pre-placement manufacturing solutions and innovative deposition technologies for a wide range of electronic materials.
Copyright 2004, UP Media Group. All rights reserved.
