May 9 2007
After a long period of development cooperation, the Swedish vendor Impact Coatings has received an order from a mobile phone manufacturer. By placing the order, the customer intents to finally qualify MaxPhase for the specific application.
MaxPhase is a newly developed ceramic material that can replace gold on electrical contacts. MaxPhase has a contact resistance at the level of gold, but much higher wear resistance. MaxPhase is deposited in a vacuum process called PVD, Physical Vapour Deposition.
Impact Coatings is a spin-off from the University of Linkoping and is today listed at First North at OMX Stockholm. Beside the development of the new coating material, Impact has developed two different deposition tools, InlineCoater and ReelCoater.
With InlineCoater, MaxPhase can be deposited on small parts like audio contacts and printed circuit boards with very high productivity. ReelCoater is a machine designed for products in strip or folio format. With these two deposition tools, MaxPhase is a cost reducing alternative to gold plating.