Novel formulation for grounding applications provides room-temperature moisture-cure capability to protect heat-sensitive substrates while improving yield and enhancing reliability.

An electrically conductive adhesive (ECA) that cures at room temperature helps to improve yield rates and protect sensitive structures within mobile device compact camera modules (CCMs). Designed to deliver robust electrical grounding performance, Loctite Ablestik ICP 2120 is a moisture-cure ECA that helps to safeguard the thin, miniaturized substrates within mobile device camera components.

“Many ECA materials are solvent cure adhesives that require high temperature to fully cure. Loctite Ablestik ICP 2120 uses a unique chemistry platform, creatively engineered through Henkel’s scientific know-how, to satisfy demanding mass production and performance requirements,” said Toshiki Natori, electronics product development director at Henkel.

In addition to its core electrical advantages, the adhesive’s distinctive chemistry provides a low modulus (900 MPa at 25 °C) to ensure better drop performance, as well as a curing profile for fast room- or low-temperature (50 °C for 30 minutes) cure to enable high-volume processing, substrate protection, and reduced energy consumption. Excessive heating of smaller, thinner, more complex CCM substrates can cause them to warp or shrink, impacting optical performance and decreasing yield, so limiting high-temperature exposure is essential.

The ECA is designed for electrical grounding, and its electrical properties have been optimized for excellent performance. The material has low direct contact resistance (DCR at <5Ω/piece), as demonstrated on customer modules, and low volume resistance to ensure thorough removal of electrostatic discharge from the substrate for robust operation. In addition, with CCM functionality expanding while footprints remain comparatively small, heat generation may also be a concern. The adhesive, which has a high thermal conductivity of 7.0 W/m-K, helps dissipate operational heat to improve performance and reliability.

While initially developed for CCM multi-camera applications, the adhesive’s characteristics may also be beneficial for other ECA applications, such as OLED display grounding or device-level EMI shielding, for example.