Batch production equipment

Scintillator crystals can be coated with ALD technology to produce a conformal, pinhole-free barrier coating.

Scintillator crystals can be coated with ALD technology to produce a conformal, pinhole-free barrier coating and ensure protection from moisture.

The challenge when coating 3D optics is to deposit the coating with high uniformity over an arbitrary topology in a simple manner. The common techniques used for optical coatings, including magnetron sputtering, evaporation, electron beam evaporation (EBE) and ion beam sputtering (IBS), all so called line-of-sight methods.

The durability of electronic devices in harsh environmental conditions is of major interest in industrial and consumer electronics.

A common method of protection is to deposit protective films or coatings onto metal surfaces. A variety of protective coatings, such as nitrides or metal oxides, with high corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and good mechanical strength, have been widely studied and tested.

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) is an unmatchable moisture barrier and encapsulation solution for electronics and semiconductor components. The ultra-thin ALD moisture protection can be applied in different phases of the production process: wafer-level, chip-level, package or module-level, and/or Assembled Printed Circuit Board (PCBA) level.

ALD offers the only way to create conformal ultra-thin protective coatings on surfaces with high aspect ratios and complex 3D shapes. ALD is also a great solution for encapsulating sensitive surfaces. Here are 3 of Beneq’s ALD moisture barrier customer cases from the electronics industry.

For demanding applications where humidity induced failures are simply not accepted, atomic layer deposition (ALD) thin films could save the day.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can solve many of the issues the batteries are faced with.

We did a little research and looked at the list of all customer projects from our Coating Services unit and checked what industrial ALD applications our customers have run on Beneq equipment. These were the 3 most popular industrial ALD applications.

There is a solution for protecting all types of silver components, objects, and products; nSilver Anti-Tarnish coating. Our nSILVER anti-tarnish coating creates a protective barrier against oxidization, which prolongs the shelf-life of silver products and saves in polishing costs.

Optical lenses and prisms are used to redirect the light waves, they’re also used to allow a specific light wave to pass through, or to reflect specific wavelengths.

Today we’re talking to Dr Mikko Söderlund, Head of Industrial Solutions at Beneq, to find out more about flexible electronics and how they benefit from ALD coating.

Ever since we earlier this year announced the licensing of rotary spatial ALD technology and launched Beneq R11, our new rotary tool for plasma enhanced spatial ALD, we have received a steady flow of inquiries and questions about where we see the new equipment being the most useful.

According to recent industry news, smartphone market leaders, such as Apple, Samsung and LG, are planning to adopt ALD-based thin film encapsulation solutions for flexible AMOLED displays. Details of the plans have not been confirmed, but this is nevertheless exiting news for the whole ALD community.

Electronic components and devices do not tolerate hot and humid conditions. Most people know this and avoid exposing electronics to vapors and liquids.

We had a great time in the ALD2016 Conference in Dublin in July and great conversations in the Beneq ALD Boat Bar that became an instant classic.

Our complete thin film service concept, Thin as a Service, which we launched last year, has been received well. The customers seem to appreciate the possibility to get a quick proof of concept of new ALD applications with ALD-123 as well as the shorter time to production enabled by our Coating Services.

Earlier we shared examples of industrial use of ALD in moisture barriers. Now we continue with another typical area of ALD applications: Optical coatings.

One of the main ALD events of the year, the 16th International Conference on Atomic Layer Deposition, ALD2016 Ireland, is approaching. Beneq is a platinum sponsor at the event and we will have lots of activity at the site and around it.

The best-known Finnish object in the Star Wars sequel, however, probably still is the Planetoid Valleys necklace Princess Leia wore in the original movie released in 1977. Most people know that the father of the necklace is Björn Weckström, but we can now reveal that the protective powers of this beautiful piece of jewelry are produced using Beneq equipment as the secret weapon.

A typical WVTR value of our nCLEAR ALD barrier coatings is 4×10-6 g/m2 per day. That is a million times less moisture through the surface than with the best parylene alternative.

Protection against humidity and moisture is a typical industrial application of atomic layer deposition.

The world is getting thinner. The never-ending quest to miniaturize and digitalize everything while saving our limited resources requires innovative technologies that allow creating ultra-thin reflecting layers, strengthening coatings, nanolaminates and protective barriers in spaces where just a few years ago nobody imagined it would be possible to operate.

Beneq is the first in the world to offer outsourced ALD R&D services, from samples to production and beyond.