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Overmoulding of electronics for end of life recovery

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conference contribution
posted on 2009-02-09, 13:05 authored by David HuttDavid Hutt, Nee-Joo Teh, Farhad Sarvar, David Whalley, Paul PalmerPaul Palmer, Paul Anderson, Balasubramanian Kandasubramanian, Peter Morris, Stephen Prosser, Phillip O'Brien
With the increasing use of electronic control systems in automotive applications, the environments in which they are required to operate are becoming evermore demanding. For improved functionality and to reduce the number of interconnections it is desirable to place the electronic control units (ECUs) as close as possible to the sensors and actuators they interact with, and they can increasingly be found mounted on engine, transmission and chassis components. The electronics are therefore exposed to high/low temperatures, high humidity, vibration and corrosive fluids. In order to protect the electronics and maintain reliability in safety critical areas, great lengths are taken to mount the devices in ways that will prevent the ingress of moisture, cushion shocks and dissipate heat. Potting of electrical devices with thermosetting polymers has been a commonplace method to install a protective layer over the circuit assemblies, which are often mounted in separate boxes within the vehicle. However, with the drive to reduce vehicle weight and increase recyclability, there has been much interest in the use of overmoulding with thermoplastic polymers, not only to provide protection, but to enable the electronics to be mounted into a structural component of the vehicle thereby saving space and weight and eliminating a level of packaging. While this has been shown to be a practical way forward in terms of reliability, the recyclability of the thermoplastic polymer is compromised by the intermixed electronics that are hard to separate economically.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Citation

HUTT, D.A. ... et al, 2005. Overmoulding of electronics for end of life recovery. IN: Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Conference on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and Photonics. Polytronic 2005, Wroclaw, Poland, 23-26th October 2005, p. 133

Publisher

© IEEE

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publication date

2005

Notes

This is a conference paper [© IEEE]. It is also available from: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentCon.jsp?punumber=10642. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.

ISBN

0780395530

Language

  • en

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