San Diego, CA / Santa Clara, CA – August 24, 2017 – Aculon Inc. announced today that CEO Edward Hughes was selected to speak at PCB West 2017, Silicon Valley’s largest event for the printed circuit board (PCB) industry, being held September 12-14 in Santa Clara. Hughes will speak to PCB designers, fabricators and assemblers about incorporating water protection into PCB design to ensure product performance and reduce device failures.
Hughes will speak on Wednesday, September 13 from 11:00 AM to noon local time. During his presentation, titled “PCB waterproofing: Why and how. Introducing a new category of technology to solve the problem,” Hughes will discuss why waterproofing electronic devices is moving from a desired feature to an industry standard.
In the smartphone industry alone, liquid damage is a huge issue. According to research from IDC (International Data Corporation), more than 900,00 smartphones are damaged by liquids every day globally. IDC’s research revealed that liquid damage is the second-largest cause of damaged smartphones with the impact estimated to be worth nearly $100 billion each year. IDC claims that by 2020, more than 1.7 billion smartphones will be shipped at a market value of $398 billion, with the problem of liquid damage only becoming more widespread if it is not addressed.
However, the need for waterproofing PCB’s goes way beyond smartphones. There has been tremendous interest by producers of tablets, IoT devices, appliances and even automotive component manufacturers. Hughes will address the different technology approaches to solving the problem including gasketing, vacuum deposition and next generation liquids where new surface modification technologies can be used to create an outer skin of the PCB rather than physical gasketing. He will then segue into Aculon’s latest advancements in waterproofing technologies.
Aculon NanoProof® treatments are designed to treat all the typical materials found on a PCB including metals, semiconductors, and polymers. The Aculon NanoProof® series of hydrophobic treatments can be applied inline using standard equipment produced by manufacturers such as PVA and Nordson Asymtek. This eliminates costly capital investment, masking, and bottlenecking batch processes, all of which are cost prohibitive.
Also, unique to Aculon’s NanoProof® series is its Push Through Connectivity™, which allows connection to the board after it has been treated, thereby providing assembly flexibility currently not found with other technologies.
“Premium electronics OEMs are looking for a reliable solution to water damage that does not use a batch process and have a high capital cost,” said Hughes. “Our approach is to dispense our low-cost, formulations of NanoProof® onto PCBs and deliver the desired IPX rating (from 3-7) in an implementable manner.”
About Aculon
Aculon, Inc. is an award winning and leading surface modification company that specializes in creating ultra-thin film treatments to modify surfaces to make them repellant or to promote adhesion. The company was founded in 2004 on technology licensed from Princeton University using self-assembled monolayers of phosphonates (SAMPs). Since its founding Aculon has developed a broad suite of surface modification technologies including hydrophobic, superhydrophobic, oleophobic, hydrophilic, anti-fouling and adhesion promotion technologies for global electronics, oil and gas and a specialty treatment business for consumer products, automotive, optical, and industrial applications. Aculon’s technologies can be applied via spray, wipe or dipping processes that mitigate the need for capital-intensive vacuum chamber deposition processes. Please contact Aculon at 1-858-350-9499 or Email Contactfor more information.
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