Thin Film Partners LLC have launched a complete range of high-performance fluorochemistries designed for glass and plastic.
Ultra-thin OPX features superior protection is ideal for display screens on cell phones and tablets. The fluoropolymer keeps your display free of smudges and fingerprints.
Even better, it offers unequaled protection from the wear and tear of every day use.
Chemically bonded to the surface, OPX forms a clear, scratch resistant barrier that can withstand the worst abrasion, even thousands of rubs with steel wool.
Traditional conformal coatings protect the circuit well if they are selected correctly. However, where the coating is not applied there is little or no protection.
Nano coatings (FC), ultra thin coatings of thickness <2μm, provide hydrophobic properties and don’t need masking.
The lack of need for masking is due to the coating thickness being so thin that there is no resistance to removing the material. This means the FC can coat all of the circuit including connectors and offer the protection of the coating.
However, this very fact means the FC coating is delicate to handle and may not provide the long term reliability needed like a traditional coating.
So, what if we could combine the two materials and have the properties of both?
The circuit board would have:
The long term protection due the traditional conformal coating
The hydrophobic nature due to the FC coating
Protection all across the circuit board
Nexus have been experimenting wth dual coating with both traditional conformal coatings and ultra-thin coatings.
A circuit board with both conformal coating and a fluoropolymer (FC) coating applied. The FC material in the connector repels the water droplet that would normally capillary into the component.
The results are extremely interesting for potentially increasing the protection of the circuit without adding a significant amount of cost to the process.
This week Nexus takes a look at the next generation of Fluorochemical “thin film”polymer coatings that have been entering the conformal coating market in the last few years.
These are coatings that are generally applied a lot thinner than traditional conformal coatings where typical dry film thicknesses are 1-2um.
These coatings have been around for a long time but they really are making traction in the industry.
We look at why this is happening now and the pro’s and con’s of these materials versus traditional coatings.