A New Halogen-Free Parylene for High Performance and Reliability of Microelectronics in Harsh Environments

The rapid growth and adoption of microelectronics around the world has resulted in an increased awareness of potential environmental issues related to their use and disposal. Halogens, which have had various uses in microelectronics over the years, are known to emit toxic and corrosive gases during the disposal of electronic waste. Many organizations have applied pressure to the electronics industry to eliminate halogens completely (e.g., fluorine, chlorine, and bromine) from their products. Among the various efforts toward environmentally friendly products, making electronics completely halogen-free has gained significant attention, particularly in Asia and Europe. This initiative even impacts conformal coatings worldwide, on which most electronics rely for their long-term protection, reliability, and high performance against water and other corrosive harsh environments. Among the various coating options, the parylene family of conformal coatings offers beneficial properties to the microelectronics, improved over many properties offered by common epoxies, acrylics, urethanes, and silicones. Although parylene N is the only commercially available parylene that does not contain any halogens, its barrier performance against moisture and other corrosive chemicals is not quite as robust as the other parylenes. To meet the industry’s current and future requirements, a new halogen-free parylene, ParyFree®, has been developed. This study introduces a new parylene type to the microelectronics industry and shares the characterization and qualification results of ParyFree® parylene conformal coating for the protection, reliability, and robust performance of microelectronics. Testing on the new coating includes IPX water resistance, corrosion resistance, and qualification per IPC-CC-830B.