Dow Industrial Specialty Polymers in Electronics Applications

Antistatic film and packaging
Conductive inks
Cupper foil
Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors (MLCCs)
Plasma display screens

Antistatic film and packaging

With their high electrical conductivity, POLYOX™ Water-Soluble Resins are ideal polymers for antistatic film and packaging for circuit boards and other sensitive electronic products.

POLYOX Water-Soluble Resins can be formed into flexible films both by thermoplastic processing and casting techniques. Such films may be made of POLYOX Water-Soluble Resins alone or blended with a wide variety of other polymers, such as polyethylene, polystyrene, polycaprolactone, ethylene vinyl acetate, nylon, and others.

Conductive inks

ETHOCEL™ Ethylcellulose Polymers are utilized in the ink film that provides a coating for circuits and membrane switches when using silver and copper plating.

Over the past 20 years, ethylcellulose polymers have been used in the manufacture of an increasing variety of resistor networks, hybrid integrated circuits, hybrid integrated networks, and components for all segments of the electronics industry: military, industrial, data processing, medical, automotive, telecommunications, and consumer.

Ethylcellulose is the organic binder in a formulated high tech paste ink. This paste ink can be formulated to be conductive, resistive, or dielectric. Circuit patterns are produced with automated screen printing machines. After the pattern is printed, it is dried and then fired in a furnace to "burn off" the binder, leaving only the active ingredient on the substrate in the desired pattern.

If the active ingredient is precious metal particles, then the pattern will be conductive. If the active ingredient is fine glass particles, the pattern will be insulating.

Ethylcellulose keeps the active ingredients in suspension before firing and also supplies fluid properties for the screen printing process. The high purity of ethylcellulose allows it to burn off evenly and completely. Terpanol solvent is the most common solvent used in the application.

Cupper foil

CELLOSIZE™ Hydroxyethyl Cellulose Products serve as rheology control agents in galvanic bath solutions used to produce cupper foil.

Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors (MLCCs)

ETHOCEL Ethylcellulose Polymers are used as rheology modifiers, binders, and stabilizers for metal pigments used in Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitors (MLCCs). The ETHOCEL Polymers burn out cleanly, leaving no residue after the burnout process.

Plasma display screens

ETHOCEL Ethylcellulose polymers serve as solvent-soluble binders and viscosity modifiers for glass particles that form dielectric layers and barrier rib, and for phosphor particles that form a phosphor layer in plasma display screens. The ETHOCEL Polymers burn out cleanly and leave no residue as the active ingredients are sintered to form each layer.