Compounds for laser direct structuring  -  TECACOMP LDS 

Ensinger has developed specialised thermoplastic materials for three-dimensional electronic components (3D MID) which have been optimised for the LDS process. Molded Interconnect Devices (MID) integrate circuit traces and electrical circuitry directly into three-dimensional plastic components.
LDS technology primarily offers advantages when the installation space is limited, the number of components and process steps need to be reduced, and new design approaches are achievable.
The wealth of applications ranges from medical technology and the automotive industry to network systems and other wireless applications.

Scarcely any application places so many different demands on a compound as MID technology.

Laser Direct Structuring

On the injection-moulded component, the laser activates the copper ions present in the material, and in the process draws the structure for the circuit trace. In the subsequent copper bath, the structure is coated e.g. with copper-nickel-gold.

High temperatures plastics

LDS requires the compound to have high thermal stability, good isotropic component behaviour and above all be suitable for metallisation. HT materials are required above all for reflow soldering processes of passive elements.

Low thermal expansion

In the LDS process, polymers are joined to metals. The difficulty here is that plastics essentially exhibit much higher thermal expansion than metals.
The TECACOMP LDS materials have a similar coefficient of expansion to copper, and good dielectric behaviour. Consequently they are ideal for replacing circuit boards.

Stable metal structures thanks to innovative filler concept

With the TECACOMP LDS materials, a surface roughness and circuit trace edge definition can be achieved that enable a fine pitch design of up to 75µ.

The TECACOMP LDS compounds are based on polyarylether ketone (PEEK), polyphthalamide (PPA) or Liquid crystal polymer (LCP). The compounds have a dark greyish-black colour as standard, but thanks to the special filler concept from Ensinger, it is also possible to produce very light-coloured LDS structures without a copper base:

To date, applications below 40µ have not been possible with LDS technology.In this range, therefore, silicon wafers are used for sensors. Ensinger has now developed a concept that makes it possible to provide sensors with very fine structures with thermoplastic material. The filler concept in TECACOMP PEEK LDS grey permits these structures with a surface roughness of Rz 0.24 µm (Ra 0.03 µm).