Parylene (Polyparaxylylene) Coating Services
Parylene Coating Chamber
Parylene Coating Technology
Parylene Operating Cell
Plasma Ruggedized Solutions offers a variety of Parylene (polyparaxylylene) coating services. This vacuum deposition process involves heating the solid parylene dimer to a vaporous state, then re-condensing it on the electronic circuit board assemblies to be coated. Parylene coating offers many advantages over wet-process or dip-process conformal coating for certain applications in the medical, military, electronics, aerospace and automotive industries among others..
Parylene coating delivers a much thinner film than other coating processes, allowing assemblies to be thoroughly coated without increasing their size. Parylene coating offers extremely high chemical resistance and superior electrical properties that make it adaptable for nearly any project. The vapor deposition process allows parylene coatings to be uniform in thickness and completely pinhole free. Plasma Ruggedized Solutions’ parylene coating services also ensure complete conformity, coating the entire assembly and leaving no areas open to exposure.
In medical applications, parylene is ideal because it is the only conformal coating material that can be safely implanted in the human body. Parylene is biocompatible, with a long-tested history and no risk of complications. Parylene is one of few materials approved for FDA Class 6 specifications. Plasma Ruggedized Solutions offers coating services using both parylene C and parylene N, the most commonly used parylene coatings for medical applications.
Plasma Ruggedized Solutions utilizes a completely manual process in our parylene coating services. This ensures greater safety for the product being coated, and far less potential impact on product quality than automated systems used by our competitors. Our proprietarily controlled Parylene coating services benefit from operator oversight to guarantee quality and minimize defects.
Parylene History
Parylene is the generic name for polyparaxylylene. It was discovered in 1947 by Michael Moizesz Swarc, a physical chemist at Manchester University in England. His discovery encouraged additional research by the Union Carbide Corporation, where William Franklin Gorham developed a process using a dimer (diparaxylylene) to produce parylene. However, it was not until Donald Cram created a way to efficiently manufacture the dimer at UCLA in 1951 that the commercialization of parylene became possible. There are now several common parylene dimers, including C, N, D, and the recently developed HT (High Temperature). Though all parylene dimers have the same coating properties and are applied in the same manner, each has a unique molecular structure which results in specialized performance capabilities.
Plasma Ruggedized Solutions’ Parylene Process
Following any necessary cleaning and masking, the assemblies to be coated are positioned in the deposition chamber. The product remains at room temperature during the coating process. Coating thickness is controlled by the amount of dimer loaded into the system.
The parylene dimer is then heated until it changes from its solid powder form to a vapor. The high temperatures used cleave the dimer into two monomers. These monomer molecules enter the deposition chamber and form the polyparaxylylene polymer. This process ensures that the coating forms consistently over all available surfaces.
Contact Plasma Ruggedized Solutions today to learn more about our parylene coating services and how they can benefit your company’s products.
