Epoxy Overmolding is a scaleable, single material, in-line injection molding process for high-volume applications. This new manufacturing approach offers the performance benefits of epoxy materials, yielding super-rigid, thinly-molded electronics with superior abrasion and chemical resistance, high temperature resistance, high thermal conductivity, and more.
Many automotive and defense electronics applications are exposed to extreme conditions requiring protection like solvent resistance, strength, vibration and heat resistance. For projects like this, Cavist will employ a single overmolding approach with an epoxy material that meets the demand.
Epoxy potting is a process requiring a fabricated housing, the electronic component, and liquid epoxy. The electronic component is placed in the housing, the housing is then filled with liquid epoxy, and placed on a rack until cured/hardened. The self leveling process itself can work well for low volume, or one-off components, but when scaling for production, creates floor space issues, Work In Process (WIP) inefficiencies, and an abundance of unnecessarily wasted material.
Epoxy Molding Compounds (EMCs), known for their excellent electrical properties, have been the industry standard for packaging computer chips, or Integrated Circuits (ICs) for decades. EMC encapsulants also provide favorable Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) with excellent high/low temperature performance, great thermal conductivity, and excellent chemical resistance.
Since our Epoxy overmolding process is gentle enough to safely encapsulate fragile ICs and wire bonds without damage, we are able to take advantage of EMC thermoset materials, which once fully cured, provide a very strong and robust structure for the delicate chips contained within.
We’ve taken transfer molding technology, a manufacturing process where casting material is forced into a mold, and adapted it for packaging electronic assemblies at the board level. Using the same process from IC encapsulation, any printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) can be inserted into the mold and encapsulated with extremely robust Epoxy Molding Compounds (EMCs), eliminating the air bubbles and entrapment that often happens with a sloppy, self-leveling potting application.
The most noticeable difference between this new approach and traditional epoxy potting is the immediate realization of weight and material savings by conformal contouring of the PCBA and its components, eliminating the use of unnecessary bulk material. The result is thin, strong, streamlined encapsulation, reduced material weight, material savings, and you guessed it, cost savings.
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