Conformal Coating

Coatings Applied In-House

Qualitel uses conformal coatings to protect sensitive PCB assemblies that require high reliability and precision with long-term life cycles like those used in aerospace and medical applications. Our coatings, including parylene, guard against moisture, contaminants, and other environmental stresses that can lead to short circuits and corrosion of conductors and solder joints.

Unlike many PCB manufacturers, we apply all our coatings in-house—including parylene. This gives us control over the process so we can maintain our high-quality standards.

To meet your exact specifications, we offer the following conformal coating options

Acrylic

Cost-effective solvent-based coatings that are tough and transparent, with short curing times.

Urethane

Durable, rigid coating that resists solvents, with many options for method of application. 

Potting

By encapsulating the entire PCB assembly, the resin provides complete insulation for good electrical properties with excellent mechanical protection.

Parylene

Highly specialized coating that provides exceptional protection in the most extreme environmental conditions, with zero cure time and is biologically and chemically inert.

Qualitel is the only electronics manufacturing service on the west coast to offer parylene in line with quick-turn prototype, NPI, PCB assembly and volume production.

Parylene is a highly specialized conformal coating process that provides exceptional protection for PCB products in the most extreme environmental conditions. In certain cases parylene is the only fabrication option.

Parylene has superior thermal endurance for mission-critical products. Parylene C performs in air without significant loss of physical properties for 10 years at 80°C and in the absence of oxygen to temperatures in excess of 200°C.

Parylene delivers thinner film than other coating processes, allowing assemblies to be coated thoroughly without increasing their size. The vapor deposition polymerization process allows parylene coatings to be uniform in thickness and completely pinhole free. Parylene coating completely penetrates spaces as narrow as 0.01mm (10 μ).

Thermal endurance and vapor deposition are just two of the key advantages of parylene. When you also consider these additional benefits, parylene quickly becomes the most attractive coating option for your product:

  • Conformal – Parylene is the coating of choice for component configurations with sharp edges, points, flat surfaces, crevices or exposed internal surfaces that need to be coated uniformly without voids.
  • Unstressed – Parylene is applied directly to the PCB at room temperature, which means the conformal coating and the parts are effectively stress-free.
  • Waterproof – Parylene coating provides an excellent barrier that exhibits a very low permeability to moisture and gases compared to liquid conformal coatings.
  • Stable – Parylene is a chemically and biologically inert and stable barrier material.
  • Adaptable – Parylene offers extremely high chemical resistance properties, making it adaptable for nearly any project.
  • Efficient – Parylene has excellent electrical properties. These include low dielectric constant and loss with good high-frequency properties, good dielectric strength, and high bulk and surface resistance.
  • Hydrophobic – Parylene is unaffected by solvents, has low bulk permeability and is hydrophobic. Coatings easily pass a 100-hour salt-spray test.

Minimize lead times

Qualitel saves you time time with every mission-critical project by applying parylene conformal coating in our facilities. This eliminates the hassle of outsourcing this highly specialized coating as well as the wasted time shipping unfinished PCBAs between vendors. Any project, whether prototype, NPI, or volume assembly, can be coated inline during the Qualitel production process.

Reliability

Qualitel is your parylene coating expert, so you can count on us to maintain our high standards of quality for your complex PCB assembly. By bringing the coating process in house, we have the opportunity to fine-tune the vacuum deposition process and troubleshoot any application problems immediately.

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