Encapsulation Materials for Automotive Electronics

Momentive Performance Materials provides leading-edge silicone technologies to help meet performance and productivity challenges in a wide range of automotive and electronic applications.

Momentive’s dielectric potting and encapsulation materials offer outstanding protection to electronic components from dust, moisture, fluids and harmful environmental contaminants.

Our materials offer ease of processing capabilities and outstanding protection to circuits from thermal, vibration, and mechanical stress. As silicones effectively operate at a wide temperature range (-50°C to +200°C) with a low modulus, they can provide stress relief for applications where movement occurs in multiple directions due to mechanical and thermal inputs.

Momentive offers a range of silicone encapsulants, including one-part and two-part products and specialized grades that provide thermal conductivity, flame retardancy, and low volatiles, while demonstrating excellent performance in terms of both processing and reliability.

• Notable product: TSE325

Conformal Coatings for Automotive

Conformal coating materials are typically applied in thin layers by dipping, spray coating or simple flow coating, and act as a barrier against dendritic growth while offering mechanical protection.

Unlike some common polymers, silicone conformal coating will not induce the high stresses on printed circuit board components that lead to shear failures of surface-mount devices.

As electronic devices get smaller and more efficient operating temperatures are increasing, making the need for enhanced material solutions more important than ever. One such example is the emerging joining technology of silver (Ag) sintering, which may eventually become the mainstream joining method, displacing solder joints. This, and other new joining technologies, present Momentive’s conformal coating with new opportunities to provide necessary environmental protection against corrosion due to salt and sulfur gas exposure.

Key drivers

• Miniaturization; system integration; higher energy density
• Increased performance and efficiency; higher reliability
• Smaller/lighter weight; form factor.

Conformal coating is a protective nonconductive dielectric layer that is applied onto a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly to protect the electronic assembly from damage due to contamination, salt spray, moisture, fungus, dust and corrosion caused by harsh or extreme environments. In addition, these coating materials are also applied to reduce mechanical and thermal stresses and to prolong the life of the product during its operation.

The increased capability of semiconductor assemblies to perform complex tasks in automotive, consumer, industrial and aerospace applications has increased the demand for conformal coating.

Typical benefits of conformal coating materials for PCB include:

• Elimination of potential performance degradation due to environmental hazards
• Overall assembly protection against chemical and corrosive attack
• Minimized environmental stress on assembly
• Enhanced insulating properties
• Reduced size and weight
• Protection against thermal and mechanical shock
• Prolonged service life

Learn more:

Momentive's Conformal Coatings

Download our Conformal Coatings whitepaper

Selective Coating

Our selective coating material can be applied in a thicker layer to specific PCB components or sections (selective dispensing) to help provide adequate protection against the moisture and other corrosive elements.

These one-component UV Cure silicone materials can cure quickly with exposure to UV light and help protect electronic components and assemblies.

Due to its thixotropic nature, our material will typically exhibit adequate shape retention to enable dispensing in a bead, and is less prone to dripping or run-off.

• Notable products: TUV7130 series

Dielectric Gels

Momentive’s dielectric silicone gel materials are extremely soft, lightly cross linked silicone polymers offering good stress relief and self-healing properties while maintaining dimensional stability and providing a tacky adhesion. These properties make the dielectric gels excellent candidates to consider for protection of fragile electronic components from moisture and contaminants.

These gel materials combine thermal/mechanical cushioning and vibration dampening with excellent dielectric properties and flexible cure schedules. Our gels can be processed with automated dispensing equipment, and maintain physical and electrical stability over a wide temperature range (-45 to 200°C).

Momentive offers a range of Room Temperature cure gels including one and two part products, and specialized grades that can help provide advanced vibration dampening, very fast RT cure and UV activated cure.