Hi Larry:

We looked into using injection molded thermoplastic material for our high
volume circuit boards about 15 years ago. We used both polysulfone(Udel from
Union Carbide) and polyetherimide(Ultem from GE). Both materials were glass
filled.

The material was injection molded into the shape of the finished circuit. At
that point they were either sputter coated or plated with electroless copper
using a "plating on the plastic" pretreatment. The standard electroless
copper line used for PCB's will not develop sufficient adhesion. From that
point on they were handled as a normal PCB.

Some of the advantages are they can be molded with 3D circuitry features and
configurations with or without holes, have good heat resistance with a heat
deflection temperature of about 400 F and good electrical properties.

Some drawbacks are mold cost and complexity, revision changes require new
hard tooling, board size is limited to about 12"X12" and equipment costs for
injection molding, sputtering or plating on plastics can be high.
Again our experience was with injection molding and coating these materials
to fabricate PCB's.
For our application it was decided to stay with conventional FR-4 laminates.



Michael Barmuta

Staff Engineer

Fluke Corp.

Everett WA

425-356-6076





-----Original Message-----
From: Larry J. Fisher [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 3:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] Polysulfone


I have a customer who is interested in making PWB's with polysulfone
(apparently one of their customers requested this). I have done some
research
and found it is sold under the trade name of Udel and is made by Amoco
(actually BP). It is a thermoplastic material and is available with up to
30%
fiberglass. My questions are:

1. Does anyone know that the polysulfone is, in fact, used to make circuit
boards?

2. What are the properties that are desirable with this material in a
circuit
board application?

3. If used for circuit boards, would you want to use material with the
fiberglass?

4. Can you get copper clad sheets of the polysulfone or do you have to press

the copper yourself?

5. If the answer to #4 is yes, where do you get it?

Any help out there would be appreciated.

Larry Fisher

Allen Woods & Associates

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