Processing | electrical & electronic
Two novel technologies were demonstrated at the Fakuma show last year that allow metallic circuits to be integrated into plastic moulded parts. Chris Smith reports
Making the right connections
The integration of electronic circuits into plastic mouldings has long presented a challenge to designers and manufacturers of electronic products. Techniques such as Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) are effective but involve additional additives and processing steps that can be costly and require specialist skills such as galvanic (electro) plating. During the Fakuma show last year, however, visitors were able to see production of fully functional LED heat sinks with integrated metal circuits using a new technique that combines laser ablation and plasma deposition. Developed by Austrian company Plasma Innovations
together with German laser specialist and LDS technology developer LPKF, the Laser Plasma Pattern- ing (LPP) process allows conductive metal circuits to be applied to a 3D polymer surface without the use of the special polymer additives or galvanic plating processes. The new process was shown on the PolyOne stand producing a fully integrated LED lighting heat sink using the company’s Therma-Tech thermally conductive compound as the key structural element. The LPP technology can deposit heavyweight metal
layers – up to 100 microns thick and more than 100 microns wide - which is claimed to make it well suited to high power integrated LED heat sink applications. “This is a complete revolution. We don’t have a metal heat sink. We make the wiring without any galvanic
www.injectionworld.com Left: The Plasma Innovations hardware
can be scaled to volume production
March 2015 | INJECTION WORLD 23
processes, and we don’t need a PCB,” says Plasma Innovations sales manager Malte Mussmann. Established LDS systems can deposit layers up to 15
microns thick using electroless plating techniques. These can be effective in low power applications such as radio antennae but achieving the thicker layers required for electrical circuitry – typically in the 35 to 70 micron range – has generally called for galvanic plating. The LPP process was demonstrated at Fakuma making an LED heat sink. As the specifi c Therma-Tech grade used was also electrically conductive, a plasma-
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