Mar 28 2007
Crosslink today announced the introduction to the market of a new family of conductive polymer coatings for capacitor anodes called Crosslink EMPAC™ at the CARTS USA 2007 conference. These new coatings offer upgrades in functionality and ease of application over current capacitor coating technologies.
The announcement comes as part of a presentation given by Patrick Kinlen, Ph.D., Crosslink’s chief technology officer, at the conference. In his presentation, Kinlen focuses on new varieties of soluble doped polyanilines (PANI) with tunable work functions, a property unique to these polymers. Crosslink Energy Materials, the division of Crosslink that will market Crosslink EMPAC, has developed a proprietary doping process to utilize this function.
“Crosslink EMPAC is a revolutionary new coating system with the potential to bring step-change improvements to capacitor manufacturing,” said Gary Rawlings, Ph.D., global sales and marketing manager of Crosslink Energy Materials. “We look forward to helping our customers keep an edge over their competition with the economic benefits Crosslink EMPAC can bring to the table.”
Coating capacitors is an important, yet time-consuming, process in the electronics manufacturing process. Conductive polymer coatings have long been providing advantages such as:
- Increasing the speed at which a capacitor can release its charge
- Lowering equivalent series resistance (ESR)
- Increasing capacitance per unit volume
Crosslink EMPAC offers all of these benefits with less manufacturing time, as well as attributes other coating systems can’t match.
- Simple Dip & Dry Process
Because of the way polyaniline is formulated, Crosslink EMPAC requires no in situ polymerization and significantly fewer dip steps — a mere 1-5 — while current coating systems require as many as 40. For capacitor manufacturers, this means drastic reductions in production times and polymer waste — factors that can translate into considerable cost savings and economic benefits.
- Even Coverage
Crosslink EMPAC is a true film former so it provides even coverage, ensuring corners aren’t left exposed — a problem that, when left unaddressed by current coating systems, leads to part rejects and yield loss due to leakage.
- Moisture Stability
Crosslink EMPAC is inherently hydrophobic, one of its most exciting advantages over current coating chemistries. Moisture and humidity to which capacitors are exposed during manufacturing and in practical use bear no effect on its conductivity. Accelerated aging tests on thin film samples consistently outperform the current leading coating.