OrCA - Organic hybrids for Circuit Assemblies

There are an increasing number of electronics applications in aerospace, automotive, offshore, shale gas & power

management, which are required to operate at or above 200C. Organic reinforced substrates such as polyimide

have maximum operating temperatures of up to 140C, so such applications are forced to use expensive & heavy

ceramic technologies. Such assemblies are based on alumina substrates with printed inks fired at ~ 850C. The

OrCA project with investigate replacing the alumina with high temperature engineering thermoplastics such as

PEEK and utilising silicone based ink systems curing at around 250C. Component interconnect will exploit the

ELCOSINT conductive adhesive system developed by the project partners in a recent Innovate funded project.

Such an assembly system will benefit from reductions in substrate cost, and assembly weight. Energy cost

associated with manufacture will be significantly reduced. In addition the organic substrate will be easier to

machine and form into complex shapes and offers the possibility of integrating through-hole components and

thermal management solutions. The suitability of such a system to operate continuously at 250C will be explored.