Safeguarding Electrical Components with Nano-coating Technology

Daniel Pulsipher, Richard Weiland
HZO Inc.
NC, USA

Thin film nano-coatings can protect critical electronic circuitry that is used throughout a variety of applications and can be a powerful solution to implement to ensure reliability. Requiring only nanometers- to microns-thin coatings, plasma-deposited coatings are dense, highly cross-linked, multi-layer films that create a physical and chemical barrier around components, producing an envelope around the circuitry at a molecular level. The result is increased device lifetime in harsh environments that may include moisture, sweat, corrosives, and more. Plasma-enhanced thin film deposition technology leverages various chemistries and precise control of the deposition environment to deliver fast, repeatable and scalable processes to meet the demands of projects of different sizes, use environments, and performance standards.

Every connected electronic device has a unique set of parameters that should be recognized and evaluated to confirm that conformal coating solutions are customized to the application and desired functionality. Whether it’s a specific engineering design, manufacturing limitation, or cost requirement, significant considerations are analyzed before a coating ever reaches an end product. There is a vast amount of data present regarding conformal coatings and plasma-enhanced coatings specifically, however fitting the data to an intended purpose can be a very time-intensive and challenging process.

In this document, we will focus on real-world examples of where significant product challenges were presented (such as water damage, humidity, temperature, or corrosion) and the investment of time and resources focused on device dependability and functional testing. Data analysis from industry-standard testing methodologies as well as application-specific approaches will be presented to demonstrate that plasma-enhanced deposition of layered nano-coating ultimately provides the protection required for challenging end-use environments encountered during everyday operation.

PECVD offers many advantages over other techniques for the deposition of thin film coatings, especially for engineered reliability. Testing of a multi-layered thin film coating demonstrates the significant reduction in thickness required compared to single-layer films to achieve a similar level of performance. This is achieved in PECVD processes by exploiting the ability to quickly switch between chemistries in a single tool to fabricate high-performing layered structures. Such multi-layered PECVD deposited coatings can provide corrosion protection for devices against moisture, salt, humidity, and other harsh environments as demonstrated by the various performance testing conducted. Leveraging multi-layered thin-film designs, thus reducing coating thickness enables process simplification and cost reductions related to masking by achieving connect-through capable functionality.

PECVD deposited and multi-layered coatings are a tool that can be implemented to protect devices from a variety of application environments where threats of corrosion are present. The main challenge is often selecting the right type of protection to fit the device application. PECVD technology can be used across a variety of industries. The data presented above is a good starting point to demonstrate some extreme application environments where electronic devices are often used, and the capability these thin coatings can possess for protection.